My Dad was born a Georgia Tech on Feb. 21, 1928. His daddy was Prof. H.B. Duling, who taught engineering from 1917 until he retired in 1955 from Georgia Tech. My Dad was actually at the 1929 Rose Bowl in California when Tech won it’s first Bowl Game by beating California 8-7. My Dad may not have attended every game as a kid, but as a student and an Alumni, he never missed a game in 63 years. He actually attended games for 85 years. When he did not attend the opening game of the 2013 season because of his health, it was the first time in 63 years that is documented that he had missed a season opener. As a kid, he attended games with his father and sat in the faculty section and was fortunate to meet legends like Alexander and Dodd. He was present when Tech won a National Championship in 1928, 1952, and 1990. Daddy watched all 41 of the Bowl games that tech played in. He attended most of them, I have the programs, but his last 10 years, we had to watch a few on TV. He has reel to reel tapes of all the games in the 40’s and 50’s when he listened on the radio, then he has VHS taped since the 70’s of every game played on TV. His last 5 years that he attended every home game, he did so in a wheel chair, I had to help him up the 13 steps to his Alumni seats that he sat in for 63 years. He refused to sit in the handicapped section or even a club level booth, that some fans would offer from time to time. I sat on Row 14 Seat 28 Section 204 my entire life. This year I let those 3 seats go, I had a chance to buy them and keep the Lagacy going, but it is an expensive Legacy. Three season passes @ $240 each and $200 each for Alumni fees, and $600 parking. Each trip that I made with my Dad would cost about $1000 for gas and food and tickets, but he was a dedicated fan. I remember him telling me a story of a time when he was asked to work on a Saturday that Tech was playing by his boss at South Central Bell in Decatur, Al., but Daddy told him he would not be working because Tech had a home game. His boss said that everyone had to work, no exceptions. Daddy pulled out a letter that he had asked for in 1955, when he transferred to Decatur, that stated that Bob Duling would never have to work on a Saturday that Tech was playing a home game. He did not have to work, Now, who is that dedicated that they think of every possible situation that might keep them from attending a game? In 1963, we were all involved in a bad car accident late in August and Daddy had a broken leg, broken arm, 3 broken ribs, and 2 broken toes. He was in the hospital and was told he may have to miss the game Saturday, but he did go. My mother and his brother helped him tape a crutch to his leg and helped him climb those 13 steps and he sat in pain in his seat on game day. Ten years ago, after Dad had a stroke and could not even stand up, the Doctor told him he could not go the game Saturday. He thought Dad was kidding all week when he kept telling him that he was going to the game, since he was bed ridden in a rehab facility and could not even stand. But Friday, Dad had his best friend and next door neighbor, Hansel Peek, drive his Motor Home down the back alley to the hospital and Hansel put him in a wheel chair and toted Daddy on and off that Motor Home, but he went to the game. Sunday, when Hansel brought him back to rehab, the Doctor was livid and could not believe that he had left the hospital. Daddy said, “I told you I was going to the game.” So, when last year when Daddy was on his death bed at home and was screaming at me and my sister to get him up and take him to the game, he has not happy that we would not. I arranged for Tech to pay tribute to Daddy for his 85 years as a loyal Tech fan, and had every intention to take Daddy to that game to see that they honored him, but he was in very bad shape. The tumor in his brain was pushing against the cranium and making him crazy. I begged the nurses to let me take him, but they said the trip would kill him. Well, he would rather die at the game as to die in that bed. My grandson, Robert Lewis Duling, IV, went with me to sit in the President’s box with the President of Georgia Tech, Dr. G. P. “Bud” Peterson, who shook Robbie’s hand and said that he hoped he would come to Tech someday. Maybe Robbie will carry on the 100 year old Duling Legacy at Georgia Tech. I am sad to say that my Dad never even got to see the video that I made for him and never knew they honored him. He died at 9 am the very next morning, on Sunday Sept. 22nd, 2014. Robbie and I continued to attend every game that season and sat with his friends of 30 years in the Alumni section. And, I hope to be able to continue to go represent my father at future games until I die, and maybe Robbie will carry the tradition on for another 60 years. God Bless my Dad, the Number One Georgia Tech fan, I hope he is watching with Bobby Dodd every game this coming season and brings tech some of that old Dodd luck.

I have eluded to the fact that my Dad will go to great lengths to attend a Georgia Tech home football game. You can count the number of games he has missed in the last 60 years on one hand. He has left the hospital to attend and return on Sunday to a very angry Doctor, his has attended games with casts on both his right leg and right arm, he went when I was in High School after having double hernia operation, and for the last 5 years since his stroke he has attended in a wheel chair. But, this weekend I really thought he would stay home since my mother had fell and hurt her hip, but he said she will be fine and off we went. It reminded me of that joke where the man stands up at a ballgame and holds his hat to his chest as a hearse passes by the playing field, and a fan next to him comments how nice and respectful it was of him to pay his respects to the dead, to which he replies, “Well it is the least I could do, I was married to her for 45 years.” Seriously, we do not miss a game. The first game this season, my 2 sisters met us at Stone Mountain and we camped for 4 days and all attended the game. Daddy was unable to climb the 14 steps to his seat for the first time in 60 years and sat one row below his seat, and none of the fellow Alumni that he has sat by for 30 years said anything to him and just shifted around to make room. He was very embarrassed and sat quietly throughout the game. I have been worrying for the past 2 years that each game we attend might be our last, and this Saturday was the first time in my 50 years of attending games with my father, that I ever heard my father admit that he may be too old to attend any more games. It was very sad to see him struggle up those 14 steps and scoot down them on his butt after the game to the concern of many fans looking on and offering their assistance. This game was just too much for him. It was 97 degrees and 98% humidity and everyone around us was drinking 3 or 4 $5 cokes. It was the most empty cups I ever seen in the stadium at the end of the game. He was sun-burned, near sun-stroked, dehydrated, and completely deflated since Tech lost it’s third game straight. He said to me that he does think that he can continue to sit in his Alumni seat of 60 years. It is the first time he has offered to even consider seating somewhere else, but I drafted a letter to the Alumni Association and explained his situation and asked if there might be any available box seats in out of the rain and the heat, and wheel chair accessible.

Now, for those of you who watch the game on TV for 3 hours, I want you to appreciated the ordeal we go through each time we go to a game. My mother has to make sure he has his medicine including his insulin in a bag for me to load on the motor home, and he has to have his clothes that he always wears, his lucky yellow shirt and his lucky Tech tie (not so lucky this year.) We have to stock the motor home with food and drinks for 3 days, and make sure it is filled with water and gasoline and has LP gas for the refrigerator, and I have to remember to get his wallet, the tickets, Georgia Tech seat cushions, binoculars, Gameday radio, Tech rain suits, his panama hat, and his sunglasses. Oh yeah, I have to load his motorized scooter onto the motor home and make sure it is fully charged before game time. We leave on Friday afternoon in order to get our “special parking place” that he has parked in for the past 30 years and on several occasions have been threatened to be towed away. But, if we come in under the cover of darkness on a Friday night and get parked, we rarely get harassed by the police on game day after they put up the barricades to keep anyone from parking there. He likes to park in front of the building that his father thought in for 40 years and talks about his 4 years of attending classes there every time we pass the building on the way to the stadium. It is also as close as you can possibly park to the gate he enters. Another sad event happened this game when the attendant that has taken Daddy’s ticket for the past 42 years was not there because he was forced to retire and Daddy was held up at his gate by the new contracted workers to “clear” his scooter. He was not happy. Add to this, the fact that we could not find a game program anywhere, and Daddy has 60 years worth of these things. He still has the 1929 Rose Bowl program from when he attended with his parents at the age of 11 months when Georgia Tech Golden Tornados were National Champions and won the Rose Bowl 8-7. So, I had to walk all over the stadium in search of a program. There were none to be had at any gates, any concession stands, or on any level. I believe they were late delivering to the stadium, because everyone in the Alumni section was hunting one. I finally left the stadium and found one poor woman selling them as fast as she could at the back entrance to the stadium. Now, later in the game there were vendors trying to sell them, but by then no one wanted one. I think that a lot of Alumni in our section must have complained of the lack of vendors, because we were covered up this week with water, cokes, cotton candy, food, programs ( after halftime ), and even game day radios that do not work. My Dad was very proud that he made it to his seat this week, but he was completely wasted and slept through most of the game. He really suffered from the hot noon sun and drank 3 large cokes which is bad on his bladder and he can not or will not go back down the steps until well after the game is over. So, when the game is over we sit there until everyone in the stadium has left so we will not be in anyone’s way, and then it is a race to get to the restroom. I have to go get his scooter that is charging near some available outlet and ride it up the ramp to save him a few steps and then it is down 2 ramps, through the gate and maybe 500 yards back to the RV. He was so hot and tired this week that he had to change clothes and crank up both of air conditioners. I then went for my walk and in search of something for dinner. We usually eat at The Varsity for breakfast, 2 chili dogs and a PC ( plain chocolate milk,) and after the game I go to WingNuts and get lemon-peppered wings, but this time they were gone. I looked up the address on my Laptop and found the number and was informed they had moved to Marietta Street. Luckily, they did deliver, so we ordered 2 lbs of wings and an order of celery. It took about an hour, but I was just happy to know someone would deliver to our RV. Later, I walked to the Fox Theater on Peachtree St about a mile and a half from the stadium and got him a piece of Cherry Cheese Cake from The Broadway Metro next to The Fox. It was very neat and had hundreds of autographed playbills from the past 60 years of performances in The Fox Theater, and there was even an autographed 8×10 B&W glossy of Frank Sinatra behind the register that said, “Thanks, Jack  Frank Sinatra 1966.” I assumed Jack owned the place. I walked back  to the RV and we watched Tarzan’s New York Adventure with Johnny Weismuller, my Dad’s favorite movie, for the 1000th time.  We slept hard that night and overslept. I usually try to leave the campus by 8 am to avoid traffic in Marietta on our way home, but we woke up at 9:30 and headed home. We always stop stop and eat breakfast at he Waffle House in Centre, Alabama and always eat the special, 2 eggs, bacon, grits, and a waffle with 2 chocolate milks. It was raining so hard that I did not want to get my Dad out in it, so I ordered 2 to go and we ate on the Motor Home. It usually takes about an hour for my Dad to eat, so I washed dishes and made up the made the bed and packed my stuff while he finished eating. This stop is almost half way home, but I still had to stop and fill the motor home back up with gas and Albertville’s gasoline Alley has the lowest prices in both States, so I stopped and put in $200 more worth of gas. This took another hour, so our trip home took maybe 5 hours and I still had turn the RV around and park it, plug it in, add water, empty the septic tank, and unload all the dirty clothes and strip the bed, before I had to drive one more hour back to Arab. When I finished shutting down the RV and unloading Daddy and his scooter, I went inside to give mother his meds and his wallet, and his dirty clothes, and she says, “I want you to go get me something to eat.” So, I went to Taco Bell and got her and Daddy supper and on the way back I was eating one of the 2 tacos that come with the #4 combo and my phone rang. It was Tim, who worked for me for 3 years at Hanson until the plant closed and now works for my mother helping around the house and taking care of my father, and he says to me, “Are you supposed to be eating Tacos on Atkins?” Now, everyone needs a support system like that to watch you when you are on a diet. It reminded me of a short story I read by Stephen King called Quitter’s Anonymous, where a man hired this agency to help him quit smoking and they would follow him around and kill his cat, torture his wife, and even chop off his fingers if they caught him smoking. Try to imagine riding down the road and sneaking some forbidden fast food that you have denied yourself for 8 months, only to get busted by the Food Police. I finally got on the road home and only wanted to get in my chair and watch the taped episode of the season opener of the 35th year of SNL from Saturday night. But, on the way home I had to stop at Wal-Mart and get groceries for dinner, and when I got home I brought in the mail, took out the trash, and unloaded the car. Then, I made Bonnye and I one of my famous pizzas with everything and we watched recordings of the season opener of Medium from Friday night and SNL. Now, I have to catch up on 3 days worth of Scrabble games. So, what did you do this weekend?