I had an interesting weekend.

I spent Saturday night with my wife in that Mecca of Southeastern Conference football — Bryant-Denny Stadium on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to watch LSU play the Tide. The tickets, along with a parking pass, were the generous gift from the president of Boone Newspapers, and I want to express my appreciation for the tickets.

Because the hotels in Tuscaloosa were a bit pricey for our pocketbooks, my wife and I stayed at a hotel in Meridian, along with a large contingent of LSU fans and a scattering of Alabama fans. Our trip to Tuscaloosa on game day was uneventful, except for the trail to get to our designated parking spot.

The initial trek led us through some of the city, where we got to watch people walking to the game as my wife battled traffic (she won’t let me drive her car, with justification). As a journalist, part of my training involved learning how to watch people.

Like any football crowd, this one had its share of bad wardrobes, hokey hats and, because it was warm, females wearing various styles of skimpy clothing — the kind Archie Bunker would describe as “one wrong move and the mystery’s over” — worn by young women trying to excite and address the male libido, and by older women who should know better.

The experience inside Bryant Denny was interesting, to say the least. First of all, it was loud; not the crowd, but the public address system, which pounded out hip-hop and rock music at high decibels. The crowd itself wasn’t too bad.

Marino Casem, who coached at Alcorn State and Southern University in Baton Rouge, once said, “In the south, football is a religion, and church is held every Saturday,” and in no place is the worship deeper than Alabama. The pregame hype took on a religious experience with the large screens positioned at the stadium’s four corners showing photos and film of past games with the voice of God (to Alabama fans, anyway) — Bear Bryant — coming over the public address system.

I’m convinced that somewhere in the origin of the Alabama fan there must have been crossbreeding with meerkats. These folks stood up constantly during the game, even when nothing was going on down on the field. We had tickets on the 40 yard line; pretty good seats, but it was hard to see without standing up, because everyone else was up and straining their necks to see who knew what.

After the game, the university and the city’s traffic control system forced us to take a circuitous route to get back to I-20 west and Meridian, where we arrived about 2:30 a.m. for an early breakfast at IHop, and went to bed about 3:15.

Our day was an adventure and educational, and I was happy to be able to go. But if I watch LSU-Alabama in person again, it will be sitting in the friendly confines of Tiger Stadium.

John Surratt is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.