Used with permission. Courtesy Sandra Gonzalez.
Please visit the link below to view the segment on WGNO-TV
Sandra Gonzalez
WGNO News
Faubourg St. John—
As the countdown to the BCS Championship goes down, the tension rises in one Faubourg St. John household a little, in good fun. That’s because Edward and Catherine Mendel are rooting for opposite teams.
Edwards is from New Orleans and is LSU all the way. Catherine is an Alabama girl and is “Crimson Tide” to the core.
The Mendels’ have been married for 46 years, two days after Hurricane Betsy. They say this healthy competiveness has kept this marriage interesting. And as far as football goes, the only thing the two agree on is the Saints.
Edward has fun with a LSU musical bag clip that plays the fight song.
“You can play that all you want, but they ain’t gonna do it no good this time,” Catherine playfully responds.
Wanna bet. I’ll bet there are more LSU fans in that stadium than there is Alabama,” Edwards chimes in.
This back in forth banter leads to a cute kiss, that breaks the sports tension.
The two have a lot of team memorabilia from both universities, even thought they didn’t attend either one of them. This is more of a state pride thing.
The couple is also competitive in fishing and who has the better green thumb. With Catherine’s farming background, she is growing cabbages nicely, but Edward’s ivy is quite healthy too.
So the Mendels’ are getting pretty excited for the upcoming game and they have a bet that the loser has to take the winner out to eat. Thing is, they both like the same restaurant: China Ruby in Chalmette, so it’ll really be a win-win no matter which team wins.
But until the game, there will be some difference of opinion in this household.
“Roll tide roll, Alabama gonna whip ‘em,” Catherine says to Edward.
He smiles back, “No not this time!”
Copyright © 2011, WGNO-TV
Used with permission. Courtesy Sandra Gonzalez.