A Green Tradition Gone Double Blue

Tradition is defined as the transmission of long established customs or beliefs from generation to generation. For the past 7 years I have been attempting to impart the ways of the Roughrider onto my children. However over that past 3 years, 140 years of Argonaut tradition have crept their way into my household. This culminated this past May with my eldest son (the #JuniorAdmiral) putting his own twist on an annual tradition.

Every year my family and make what I affectionately term, “The Pilgrimage” back to Saskatchewan. While in the land of the living skies we visit my family and partake in a few traditions including: making pedehah (pierogies), pointing out all the sights while my wife and kids sleep on the way to Yorkton (theres a wheat field) and most importantly Visiting Taylor Field at Mosaic Stadium.

When visiting Mosaic, we peruse the offerings of The Store (the riders official store) and outfit us in green for the next 12 months. After the store we walk through the gate to the field, because you can do that in Regina. With my kids in their best Rider gear we run stairs, score touchdowns, disrupt QB mini camp (okay that only happened once) and pose for pictures in the endzones. This has been a green tradition until this year. Infact on this trip the #JuniorAdmiral didn’t pack anything roughrider. This year clad in his Argo jersey and hat, he proudly ran stairs, scored touchdowns and posed for pictures, turning the green tradition, double blue.

We continued this new double blue tradition on our next stop in Calgary. While McMahon stadium is not accessible as Mosaic, several riders fans working in the stamps store will discretely escort non-stampeder fans through a back door to the field. In the cold and rain the #JuniorAdmiral made sure we got our photographic evidence.

The definition of tradition has expanded in many text books and encyclopaedias noting the traditions may also be adapted to suit the needs of the day, and change from one generation to the other. No matter what the colour our family tradition of sneaking into CFL stadiums in our colours will live on, even if it’s in Double Blue.

Clay Chisholm
@AllKindsOfClay
The #GreenAdmiral