Last issue I took you to the hills of West Virginia to experience the Wild World of my West Ham Thanksgiving experience. Now I invite you to come along with me in this issue on an American Boxing Day adventure and the post-match experience of your fellow Hammers across the pond.
First I must let you know, that we do not have ‘Boxing Day’ over in America – if you asked the average Yank what ‘Boxing Day’ is they would likely tell you: ‘It’s that night I waited too long for a horrible stream of the farcical fight between aged Mike Tyson and the kid Jake whatever his surname is’.
They would have no idea that on the second day of Christmas, besides two turtle doves, Brits continue gift giving, and receive in turn a day full of football matches, to ease the anticlimactic experience of day after Christmas – an escape from the ‘petite mort’ for holidays as the French might say.
But for the global football faithful, we are aware of what Boxing Day is and that there is likely to be an Irish pub that celebrates English footie. Where Americans and English expats alike will congregate to enjoy their football and continue Christmas revelry with the feeling of being connected to a greater community with their British counterparts.
As for me, I actually watched West Ham beat Southampton in the comfort of my home as the match was at 9am, and I didnt feel like going to the pub so early the day after Christmas. But following the win, I did show up to meet some friends at noon to watch more matches and continue the feel good mentality.
At one point I did chalk my friends off and scoured the crowd for Claret to find fellow West Ham fans for some post-match debriefing. I found a mate who celebrated the win with me – we were quickly at odds because he thought Moyes should still be manning the ship.
But I let this pass as I was so glad just to talk to someone who knew the names of the players and didn’t have me explaining what offsides rule was. He confided in me that he loves to attend a match at the pub when West Ham are playing Man United, Liverpool or Spurs.
Why? Because if we perchance get a victory or even a goal, the joy of watching the overconfident fans of these clubs at our pub as they sink into degradation and despondency is a joy all in of itself. Oh how the mighty fall, when West Ham hurls a rock at them.
The desperation for any footie fans for the football community in New Orleans, Louisiana is so great that even Sheffield Wednesday fans showed up in colours on Boxing Day to find a football family though they were sure not to see their team play or find other Sheffield fans.
This may seem as much of a farce to you as the Tyson fight mentioned above, but in such a desert, the spirit and beauty of the game is alive in this experience. Our numbers are few at the pub Finn McCools which is the only place in the whole of New Orleans guaranteed to play a West Ham match.
We are only 12-strong in our greatest numbers, and on average about five hammers a match. If the game isn’t too early and you make it because you’ve prepared yourself to drink a few pints between the hours of 6am to 12 noon, you will have a few fans to commiserate or celebrate with.
I run a Facebook page that’s a bit spotty, but sometimes I will catch Hammers from out of town searching for company for the game and I’ll meet up with them to experience it.
Otherwise, instead of a post game experience that you have, where you’re either trying to make your way home on the trains, or reveling in the post game experience getting Nando’s or another quick bite before you share more lager with your mates, in order to get any kind of communion about the match, you have to take to social media.
I have two WhatsApp groups – one in England, and one in America – that I’m able to chat with for pregame, in-game, and post game commentary with, but otherwise took to Twitter before it degraded a few years ago. I would scour the sites for all the banter, arguments, and slow motion replays to relive the match experience, contest the calls the ref made or rile up the other fan base by starting arguments.
In this modern world of social media, you might also desperately await the drop the next day of your favorite West Ham Podcast – mine is the West Ham Way podcast – so that you can hear others discuss and digest or rail about the match from the previous day.
It became a routine where I’d wait desperately for the download to commence the next day to put on my truck’s speakers and listen to the banter as I drove to manage different sites.
Believe it or not, there’s nothing as sweet as hearing an angry cockney accent cut through the speakers of your motor as you drive about the urban sprawl of a city, and revel in the various expressions that are specifically British, specifically Cockney and specifically related to football that you can hear nowhere else to make you feel connected to the culture.
If the game is played midweek then I have no regress because its during work hours, and the best I can do is explain to my boss that ‘No I’m not mad because of my coworkers or what he’s done but because our manager has made a horrible substitution in the 80th minute that makes no sense’. He of course doesn’t understand what I’m going on about so I grumble on as I walk away.
I will say of this post match experience and Boxing Day in general, that if you can lure a friend who is not interested in football, if you happen to buy them a pint and they root for your team as a neutral, when they actually begin to cheer or suggest coming out again to watch the match – making a convert in the Christmas season to the holy covenant that is the West Ham experience is one of the greatest things.
In a football desert that is the post-match West Ham experience, making converts to share the experience is the biggest gift to seek and unwrap on Boxing Day. I have converted and conjoined at least five West Ham followers since I have entered the West Ham faithful, and now they too can give the gift of commiseration and celebration on days such as these.
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