{"id":7207,"date":"2013-09-10T17:50:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T21:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/creative.clemson.edu\/clemsonworld\/?post_type=portfolio&p=7207"},"modified":"2013-09-10T17:50:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T21:50:39","slug":"lot-7-loonies","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/portfolio-item\/lot-7-loonies\/","title":{"rendered":"Lot 7 Loonies"},"content":{"rendered":"

We started tailgating on a regular basis in 1996, and since the late 1990’s our group has been called the\u00a0LOT 7 LOONIES. We tailgate on Cemetery Hill (formerly Lot 7) and our tailgating experience is all about the wonderful friends\u00a0we have made throughout the years and enjoying our love of Clemson with so many\u00a0great Clemson fans.
\nWe began tailgating in Lot 7 (now Cemetery Hill Lot)\u00a016 years ago with Christine and Richie Faenza and were soon joined by our Charleston friends,\u00a0Beth and Wayne Williams and\u00a0Larry and Kathy Bendt.\u00a0We met Betty and Henry Gunter from Lexington in the lot and they soon became a part of the Loonies.\u00a0The Loonies have\u00a0joined forces with the “Cemetery Hill Tailgaters” (Matt and Andrea Jones, and\u00a0Reggie, Tammy, Bradley, and Tesha Newton)\u00a0and\u00a0occupy spaces side-by-side.
\nThe Lot 7 Loonies bring just about everything from home\u00a0except the kitchen sink \u2014 a generator to run the\u00a0TV, crock pots, iPod sound dock,\u00a0lights, and\u00a0fans to keep\u00a0us cool\u00a0on\u00a0those hot September days. The Cemetery Hill Tailgaters (CHT)\u00a0have a torpedo heater\u00a0to keep us warm on cold days. Everyone is welcomed…..young and old. We’ve had parents, children, grandchildren,\u00a0sisters, brothers,\u00a0nieces,\u00a0nephews, and cousins\u00a0attend games with us. Our newest regular\u00a0tailgater is Finley Jones (son of Matt and Andrea)\u00a0who enjoyed his first\u00a0tailgate experience\u00a0in 2012 at the age of 7 months. He’s actually a Cemetery Hill Tailgater, but we consider him an honorary Lot 7 Loonie.
\nMEMORABLE EXPERIENCES<\/strong>
\nWe have had the excitement of being visited by Coach Danny Ford, Homer Jordan and Michael Dean Perry, thanks to our friend Reggie Newton\u00a0who we believe knows everyone in Clemson. We are also fortunate to have the Rally Cats Coach, Katie Horton (soon to be Mrs. Katie Horton Noel),\u00a0as one of our regulars and we’ve even shared a few tailgates with young Frank Howard III.
\nA\u00a0special memory is the day the History Channel came to interview the Loonies for a segment on Southern traditions called \u201dYou Think You Know Dixie.\u201d They included a small clip of the Loonies doing one of our Lot Shot cheers.
\nBiggest memory\u00a0for Beth, Christine, and Deborah is being in a full-page Hyundai advertisement in Sports Illustrated<\/em> and on an ESPN commercial\u00a0wearing their Tiger Paw scrubs, which they always wear to\u00a0Homecoming, the USC game and Bowl games.
\nTRADITIONS<\/strong>
\nThe Lot Shot<\/strong>: Deborah, Christine and Beth have poured shots for\u00a0as many people who want to join in. They either go around the lot serving the shots\u00a0or set them out in the middle of the lot on the little round “lot shot table”.\u00a0 Everyone waits patiently until as many as 50\u00a0Tiger fans\u00a0are\u00a0served and then everyone joins our cheerleader, Reggie Newton, who motivates the group with his cheer that always ends with the Cadence Count.
\nThe Gas-Powered Blender:<\/strong> People in our lot have become accustomed to the sound of Richie’s gas-powered blender.\u00a0\u00a0Richie and Christine enjoy making daiquiris for Tiger fans in our lot and everyone certainly enjoys drinking them, especially\u00a0at hot September games.
\nShot Seven:<\/strong> At one tailgate many years ago,\u00a0we decided to come up with a special shot and call it \u201dShot 7.\u201d\u00a0 Nan Aull (our lot neighbor)\u00a0came up with the winner making a shot with seven ingredients.\u00a0 Nan makes them up for every game and is now called\u00a0“Shot 7 Nan.”
\nBoiled Peanuts:<\/strong> You haven’t had a boiled peanut until you’ve had one of Henry Gunter’s boiled peanuts.\u00a0 When Henry or any of the Gunters come to a game they bring two huge pots of their boiled peanuts. The pot of peanuts is always on the front side of the tent where anyone in the lot can come and enjoy them.
\nThe Big Grill:<\/strong> Our friends in the lot look forward to the two\u00a0or three times\u00a0each year that\u00a0Tom\u00a0pulls\u00a0his BIG grill to the game. He’s grilled plenty of chicken, ribs, and has been known to grill over 90 pork chops to share with any and everyone.\u00a0 People just gravitate over to the grill to see what Tom’s cooking.
\nCheck out the Loonies’ blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We started tailgating on a regular basis in 1996, and since the late 1990’s our group has been called the\u00a0LOT 7 LOONIES. We tailgate on Cemetery Hill (formerly Lot 7) and our tailgating experience is all about the wonderful friends\u00a0we have made throughout the years and enjoying our love of Clemson with so many\u00a0great Clemson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[3452],"class_list":["post-7207","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-tailgating-stories"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7207"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=7207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}