SHEDDING SUMMER SKIN

Can be almost snake-like. Upsetting, too. All those sunbaked hours. All those pool time exposures. For what? It fades like sound when Fall rolls around.

"The man with the perpetual tan," he said when I saw him last week. It had been about three months or so since I spotted him driving around MTV on my last visit there. He, too was tanned as a lot of our generation was.

But it was waning as the north wind from the city streets just south of the Ed Dome in STL chilled us as we tailgated. Breakfast style. In the lot just north of Charlie Gittos. Lots of memories. Super Bowl years. Cold, cold times when even a tent was required. Soup cooked out. Wedges of Super Bowl Ram cake.

With one more bite of bacon candy, we left for a short walk to watch the Cowboys. If you've never had bacon candy, well, it's almost worth missing a cooked out brat. We thought the 'Boys would dominate. We didn't know Tony Romo wouldn't play.

We didn't know the suddenly very alive Rams would swarm and fly around on defense. But they did. Silencing the 'Boy fans. And bringing back a little more magic.

It was almost worth shedding than Summer skin for.