aUKward Fan Photos: Chapter 7

  Wildcats and Wildcatettes, The excitement of basketball season is upon us. Tomorrow we find out if we have secured another top ten 2013 recruit and Friday is BIG BLUE MADNESS.  Before we get to the aUKward Fan Photo for the week, I want to tell our Nashville area Kentucky fans who, like me, aren't lucky enough to be able to attend Big Blue Madness about an opportunity to join other Kentucky fans in celebrating the official unveiling of our 2012-2013 basketball team. Friday night at 5:00 p.m.(CST), the Tin Roof Green Room (located directly beside Tin Roof on Demonbreun) will be hosting a Big Blue Madness party. Admission is free, all TV's will be tuned in with sound, and there will be specials. What kind of specials? Glad you asked. There will be $5 quesadillas, $15 buckets of Bud Light, $5 Wildcat bombs, and Happy Hour until 7.  Mrs. Tyler Thompson and I will be there documenting the madness with photos that might even find their way onto the website. Come out and hang with local Cat fans if you live in the area. My favorite thing about the Big Blue Nation is the we are literally EVERYWHERE.  Can't wait to prove that once again Friday night. *To make sure Tin Roof is properly staffed for the event, tweet at me @AFlenerKSR, @MrsTylerKSR, @TinRoofNash, or @TheMardiBrow if you are coming so we don't end up with 200 people and 2 servers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, tonight we have another old school photo. This photo comes from a guy who grew up in St. Mary, Kentucky. Before we get to the picture after the jump, let me ask you a question: Have you  ever gathered all of your UK belongings and taken a picture with them? I'm talking everything. Foam fingers, trash cans, hats, signs?   I haven't. But you know who has? Jerry Fowler. Jerry Fowler, who now resides in Lebanon, KY, wrote me this email: "It was November 1983. I was in St. Mary, Kentucky. I was 11. This was my set up for the UK vs UofL. regular season game which UK won 65-44. I know the signs are tough to read in the picture. The sign on the left says: "We are #1 Nobody Beats Cats especially U of L." The sign on the right says "We are #1 UK all the way UofL go to _ _ _ _!  Hi Mom! Bowie Turpin Walker Master Beal" and has a drawing of a wildcat and a cardinal. The cardinal is "X'd" out and is saying something but I can't tell/don't recall what.  Elsewhere in the picture is a rotary corded phone, rusty trashcan, grass stained pj's with the feet cut out because I outgrew them, three quarter sleeved UK t-shirt beneath the blue jacket with Kentucky written in cursive on the back (everybody wore it at the time), a spider plant and rubber tree in the background, and a little league Yankee baseball cap on the end table with UK markered in. I'm not sure what the dish rag is doing on the floor, but this pic is full of treasures."     Yes it is, Jerry. Yes it is.   Jerry made most of the observations of this picture himself, so I will list my favorite things in the picture in order: 1.) I love that when Jerry became too big for his footed pajamas the thought process wasn't "I should get some new footed pajamas," but rather "You know what, we have scissors, I'll just cut the feet out of these and keep wearing them. I mean, I don't want to have to break in another butt flap." 2.) Staying with the pajamas for #2. I love the fact that they are grass stained. Jerry, did you have any other clothes? Did you live in these pajamas? Did your Mom not ever say, "Hey Jerry, you know what, maybe change out of your pajamas before you head outside to play with your friends"? 3.) If you thought the pajamas weren't taking the first three places on this list, you're more delusional than Billy Gillispie or Cowboys fans that still believe in Tony Romo. Not only had Jerry cut off the feet, he had done it years before this picture was taken. LOOK HOW SHORT THE PANT LEGS ARE!!  I wish I could've given Jerry some new footed pajamas, but I was only 11 months old at this time and was not yet earning an income. 4.) He markered in "UK" on his Yankees little league hat. This couldn't have made Jerry's Mom happy. She had just spent all that money on his little league jersey that she could have spent on new footed pajamas and Jerry goes and vandalizes the hat. (Reminds me of the time my Mom gave me money for a haircut the summer after 5th grade, dropped me off at the barber shop, and returned twenty minutes later to pick up a child who had gotten the letter "A" shaved into the back of his head. With the quotation marks.) 5.) The hand detail on the foam finger is exquisite. The fingernails are perfectly manicured and the wrinkles at the joints of the fingers are very real looking. I must say, the foam finger game has really fallen off since 1983.   If you have more reactions to this picture please leave them in the comments section. As always, if you have an aUKward Fan Photo you would like to submit, send it to me on twitter @AFlenerKSR or by email [email protected].