In our family, Super Bowl Sunday was never about the football… unless the Bears or later the Skins were playing… and really, how often does that happen in one’s lifetime?? 

No. Super Bowl Sunday was always about the food. The snacks. All the stuff you got to eat on that day on any other day would have been considered indulgent and gluttonous. On this day, everything was allowable.

I think it must have been about 1987. I can’t remember if we had friends coming or it was just family – either way it would be a party and I had been cooking (junk) food for days. That afternoon I was finishing up the Chex Party Mix (this was before you bought it in a bag and actually made it from scratch).  Joy was “helping” me. We mixed the three different kinds of Chex cereals, the peanuts and then poured the buttery mixture over it and put it in the oven.  The M&M’s would be added later. So messy, so fun!! She was at the “helping” stage most children go through at about three or four and she was relishing the role. I remember Fletcher one Thanksgiving when he was about the same age wanting to help. He pulled a chair over to the kitchen sink where I was preparing the turkey to put in the oven. He watched for a while before he put voice to the question, “What is that?”  “THIS,” I proclaimed proudly of the 20 pound foul sprawled in my sink, “is the turkey!!”  “It looks like some kind of dead animal,” he said with mild alarm in his three year old voice. Well, when you put it that way. . .  but I digress.

Joy was helping me with the Chex Mix for the Super Bowl party and carrying on a running dialogue – mostly with herself.“I just love the Super Bowl. I have always loved the Super Bowl. I think Super Bowl parties are the best parties ever. Don’t you love the Super Bowl? When can we have the snacks? What time will the Super Bowl start?  How much longer is that? Is this YOUR  favorite party? Don’t you just love Chex Mix? Can I have some Chex Mix now? Well, how much longer till the Super Bowl starts? Shall I ask the kids if they are ready for the Super Bowl?  Can I fix my bowl of Chex Mix now and just hold it till it’s time for the Super Bowl to start? What shall I wear to the Super Bowl? What are you going to wear to the Super Bowl? How much longer, now?” And so it went…. for most of the afternoon. She was so excited for it all to begin. The other kids begged me to make her stop, but she was not to be shushed  “She doesn’t even LIKE to watch football!” they complained.  “She hates Sunday afternoons when that’s all we do. Why is this so different?”  Who knew? 

Finally it was time. She spread out her blanket on the floor. She brought pillows from her bed. She put on her “special party pajamas”.  She brought in her favorite doll to enjoy the festivities. She straightened her blanket. She fluffed her pillows. And she oh-so-carefully carried her bowl of Chex Mix into the living room and sat on her blanket. We turned on the television. The announcers were talking, the fans were screaming, aaaand the kick-off.  Joy was shocked – almost beyond words. She jumped to her little feet, whipped around with her hands on her hips and in  the most accusing and disparaging tone I have ever heard in a three year old she  said to me, “THIS LOOKS JUST LIKE FOOTBALL!!” 

Whatever she had thought a Super Bowl party meant, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that it was about football.