It was Monday, June 11th at about five o’clock. The division II state championship baseball game was starting at seven, but we had all come to tailgate before.

Driving around Manchester in circles… looking for the least expensive parking. “The game doesn’t start for another two hours so why is it so packed?” I thought to myself.

“Finally! Except it is a pay to park, and I’m only paying for two hours even though it’s three more hours… Whatever.”

I arrived to the tailgate to see Evan Cuddy grilling on the back of Brandon Cote’s truck. I laughed because of course it would be the kid who eats an entire cow everyday, to be taking orders on hot dogs, hamburgers, and sausage.

I walked around the cars to find crowds of GHS students surrounding groups of lawn chairs, bags of chips, and two different corn hole sets.

Certain groups of students like Nick Tzannos and Jose Paez monopolized the corn hole, taking on competitor after competitor.

All of a sudden, I hear a faint “aquí, EK, aquí!”

Over the sea of rowdy grizzly fans, dressed in white for the pre-planned white out, I notice Bobby Doherty, Sebastian Beal, and Will Soucy looking out from the stadium.

“Aquí” being Soucy’s way of telling me to walk over to him, I find myself re-enacting the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, attempting to talk to the boys.

Of course the only reason they wanted me to come over was because they wanted me to get the burgers from the truck.

Nevertheless, being the greatest friend I am, I returned to the food truck, climbed up there, and demanded that Evan get me three burgers for the only important people at the tailgate. Or for the boys, within one hundred feet of the tailgate.

Evan promptly said that they had to wait for him to make burgers for everyone else in line in front of them. I however disagreed, and attempted to relay to Evan the importance of how the boys would lose the game if he didn’t make them burgers. After all, that is what we were there for.

Cuddy finally gave in and allowed me to grill the boys burgers, and wrapped them up in tin foil.

I later recruited Vincent Brigagliano to huck the burgers up the side of the stadium to the baseball players, because I clearly would’ve messed that up.

With music blaring from the huge speaker in the back of someone’s car, and people bonding over the end goal, to sink the sailing ships of the Portsmouth Clippers, one could only recognize how we came together as a community.

Looking around, seeing freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors socializing and enjoying themselves. Even one or two eighth graders, being the siblings of upperclassmen, had been in attendance.

Different friend groups, the field hockey players, the football players, student council kids, and even the hicks had come together to support the team.

People had arrived right after school, and had kept coming in.

It was absolutely astounding to see these people come together. We all make jokes about hating each other but it was really special to see that they were, in fact, just jokes.

Soon enough, as all good things do, the tailgate came to an end. It was time for the game. The grizzlies flooded into the Northeast Delta Dental Stadium to support the baseball team and boy were we ready.

Later that evening, I saw posts on social media about the tailgate with captions like “Tailgating is the new tradition.”

So let it be known that if you missed this past one, keep your eyes peeled because there are many more to come.