Purdue Archives - Biggs' Zone

TBT: The Day I Met Dierks

On February 8, 2018

In General Cogitation, Reminiscence, TBT

Me and friends with Dierks Bentley (circa 2003)

It’s not very often that you get to meet a celebrity. I have had very few celebrity encounters but the time I got to meet Dierks Bentley was pretty cool. The picture you see above is from several years ago, circa 2003 (as is evident by my skinny stature). There is a country bar in Lafayette called Riehle Brothers. I frequented it a couple of times while I was attending Purdue. I don’t even remember what we paid to see Dierks Bentley and Brian McComas, who were performing in front of a meager bar crowd. It was a fantastic concert. I even danced (which is rare and I’m sure I was coaxed into doing it by one of my friends, also in the picture above).

Before He Was Famous

Dierks’ only hit at the time was “What Was I Thinking“, now he has an amazing career. Sadly Brian McComas wasn’t quite as fortunate, although many songs on his album were still pretty good. It was one of the best nights I spent with my friends in that picture, Beth and Alan. I became a quite a big Dierks Bentley fan after that concert, and I still enjoy all his music. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him in concert again since Riehle Brothers but that’s not saying I wouldn’t.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

TBT: A Boilermaker Homecoming Anniversary

By Biggs

On October 27, 2016

In Reminiscence, TBT

It has been a really long time since I have written a “Throwback Thursday” post. I’m upset that I didn’t think about writing this post sooner as Homecoming was nearly two weeks ago. Therefore, this TBT post serves a dual purpose; not only was it a Boilermaker Homecoming, it was also our anniversary celebration. We were going back to see our friends, to visit our Alma Mater and to celebrate where we were married.

It All Began With An English Muffin

One of my favorite parts about going back for a Purdue football game is seeing our friends. To paraphrase what a friend once said to me, “the sign of a good friendship is being able to pick up right where you left off even if you haven’t seen each other in years“. It has been over 10 years since all of us have graduated. Every time we all get back together, it feels like we do pick right up where we left off. It’s tailgating at the home games that brings us all back together each year.

Alan and I started tailgating the fall after we all graduated. The first year we parked right in the middle of a 10 year tradition of tailgaters. We would reserve our spot on the hill by 6 am (sometimes as early as 1 am). We would walk a full size grill six blocks, at 7 in the morning to begin cooking breakfast. It was breakfast that endeared us to all those folks up and down the hill that unexpectedly had us barging in on their tradition. We cooked up several sausage and egg breakfast sandwiches on English muffins and distributed them to our neighbors.

A couple of years later Alan and I had to step away from tailgating. It was all going to end before it even began. Then along came Tammy and Mike, who picked up the mantle and have been carrying it ever since. They are doing an amazing job and I’m really glad that they have been able to continue the tradition and give us all something to come home to.

And Then “She” Joins Our Tailgate

Married at St. Tom’s

Clearly what all of our tailgates lacked were delicious desserts. As a single guy I couldn’t bake, besides my place was behind the grill. Beth was always a member of our “clan”, she hosted just as many parties as she attended inside the group. She is an amazing baker and thus provided bakery quality desserts. When ESPN GameDay came to West Lafayette, Purdue (undefeated) was playing Wisconsin (also undefeated). At this tailgate we exchanged contact information, and around Halloween when we went on our first date in West Lafayette.

In 2006, when Purdue was visiting Notre Dame, we got engaged. We got married, a year later, at the church we attended as students at Purdue, and held our reception on campus at the Student Union. We are around the 4th or 5th couple to marry within the group. Purdue holds a lot of fantastic memories. So this year we wanted to spend the weekend at the school that brought us all together. We wanted to show our daughter where we met some great friends.

Parties and tailgates, football games and breakfast club. Putt-putt, late nights at Steak-n-Shake, and midnight bowling in the Union. Squirrels in the dorm, Rez, Mario Kart and the All American Marching Band. To quote some song lyrics, they are “Nights I can’t remember, Friends I’ll Never Forget”

/Boiler Up!

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

TBT: 2003 Halloween Party

By Biggs

On October 30, 2014

In Reminiscence, TBT

halloween-party-2003 Since Halloween is this week I felt that it would only be fitting to find a Halloween themed TBT photo (Sam, I hope you don’t mind that I swiped this from your Facebook page). I’ll admit that I’m not really into Halloween but when you have friends like the ones in the picture above, you have no other option but to indulge in the festivities. If memory serves right I was supposed to be a pimp and I was accompanied by my friends Kristin and Beth (not my wife) as my “bitches”.

I think this was also the party where Hoody (the “body builder” in the picture) had some kind of hot apple cider punch … that packed an extra “punch”. I think there was a rather large card/drinking game going on as well. It might have been Asshole. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if my memory of the party is fuzzy because it was 11 years ago or because I may have had too much of that hot apple cider punch (I think it had Goldschläger in it).

In fact I may be slightly inebriated in that picture. You can clearly tell all of us were having a good time, which was always the case when you went to a party thrown by Hoody & Co.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

TBT: My Favorite Date

By Biggs

On October 16, 2014

In TBT

wedding-day October 13, 2007 will forever be the favorite day of my life, followed very closely by April 14, 2014 (after all the latter couldn’t have happened without the former). Since Octoboer 13th was just this past Monday, this seemed the appropriate TBT post. I’ll admit it was a day I never thought would happen to me; not many of us with that “computer geek” label are credited with having much luck in the romance department; but for what its worth, we do have amazing “grep” patience 🙂

So, most of my friends and family I’m sure remember this day. We were married in the city we both loved for 4-6 years (i.e. West Lafayette on Purdue’s campus) and in a church we both loved (St. Thomas Aquinas). There are so many memories I could go into from that day. One memory, for example, was the morning of the wedding when I did not receive the groom’s complimentary bagel from Einstein’s Bagel’s because I was not present when a few of my groomsmen went to get some breakfast. Since the Best Man was dressed slightly differently than the others, the clerk thought he was the groom and he decided he wasn’t going to make the correction. I took no offense, but its a great story!

An example of “best made plans going awry”, which is a frequent theme for all weddings, was the night before the wedding. The church had made a mistake when booking the rehearsal. We were supposed to begin rehearsal at 7pm but we received a phone call about 5pm asking why nobody had arrived at the church. We had to call all the bridesmaids and groomsmen (that had managed to make it into town) to get to the church as quickly as possible. We ended up doing the rehearsal with about half the bridesmaids and a third of the groomsmen and the rehearsal dinner was still 2 hours away. Everything still worked out because all of our bridesmaids and groomsmen are awesome!

We were both so happy that so many of our friends could attend. Friends from high school, college, and friends we made while Beth was getting her MBA at Notre Dame.

So here’s to 7 years, to another 70 years and to the Best. Wife. Ever!

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

TBT: Pool Nights

By Biggs

On October 9, 2014

In Reminiscence, TBT

shooting_pool This is a very fond memory. Pool Nights at Nick’s Pool Hall. It was so much fun just hanging out and shooting pool and having a couple of beers. This was a pastime Doug, Alan and I would partake in quite often during our latter years at Purdue. Everyone wanted to go to the Neon Cactus or Where Else, but I would have never chosen those places over Nick’s. I know one of the things that people will notice in this picture is my iconic Australian Fold-Up hat. I came back from a family vacation with that hat and it became something I was known for … although apparently I was the “creepy-guy-in-the-hat” according to my wife, whom I had barely known at the time (see previous TBT post).

We spent many nights shooting everything from standard 8-Ball, to 9-Ball, and cutthroat. Some nights may have even involved attempting some trick-shots during those “Mike Massey” wanna-be nights.

I know several of our other friends would come and hang out at Nick’s, but as far as the three of us were concerned, this place was our “Central Perk“, “Cafe Nervosa“, “MacLaren’s”. I was disappointed to find out that when I returned to Purdue recently, Nick’s was gone. I think Alan said that it is under new ownership with a new location and a new name. It’s a real shame. Another shadow of the past, visible now only through the phantasmagorical images of our minds.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

TBT: Destiny Unbeknownst

By Biggs

On September 4, 2014

In TBT

early-me-beth It’s funny where you find your spouse. Some folks will marry their high school sweetheart, others may find their spouse using an online dating service or just by simply living their lives. I found mine while I was tailgating, but the interesting thing is, she had always been right in front of me.

This week’s TBT picture shows me and my wife, before we even started dating. We had been attending the same parties for years because we ran in the same circle of friends. We are sitting here at one of Hoody’s parties, playing some XBox. Clearly I am oblivious to her wonderful smile, damn video games. How could I miss the fact that there was this attractive girl that shares similar interests in gaming.

I have to admit that even to this day I can’t believe it took until both of us had finished school to find each other. However, had it not been for all the great friends I … err, we had at Purdue we probably wouldn’t have met. I have so many very fond memories of Purdue but I often wonder how different it would have been had we gotten together while we were both still students. Those are some of the fondest memories that I never had. I think the most interesting thing is that my friend Alan actually indirectly predicted that we would get together. He even suggested at the game that I should consider asking her out. I will never forget that prognostication.

I think it was only fitting that we married on campus, at St. Thomas Aquinas and held the reception at the Student Union. Both of us agree that there never could have been a better place for our wedding.

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