Forgotten past Alumni are returning in droves today and tomorrow, all for the glory of joining students in cheering on the team, remembering the good ol' times of Wahoowa and drinking o'er and o'er. But when something like Homecoming pops up, ABC sales go through the roof and hazy smiles and droopy eyes are present on the face of about every other student. Of course, alcohol does create a friendly atmosphere, typically taking the edge off the ordeal of standing around and talking for hours on end.
People are much more relaxed and typically friendlier.
To a point. Ask the parents of the two students who recently died at LSU and MIT about alcohol, however, and it is not a drink of comradery but one of terrible pain. Since classes began, those two high profile cases of alcohol-related deaths have made colleges with a history of party fever a little more nervous at the thought of bourbon and beer bacchanalias. No longer are major events like Homecoming just about the game. Students have widdled away at tradition, a beast neither its detractors nor supporters seem to understand.