The Making of the Grove in Oxford, MS

              On the campus of Ole Miss, in Oxford, Mississippi, the grove is well known to be the number one tailgating spot in the nation. With its great southern tradition of many tents and the best food, one can see how the grove is so popular. The grove is also surrounded by the beautiful campus of Ole Miss. Have you ever wondered how the grove is made? What goes on before that makes the groves how it looks on game day?

               A student at Ole Miss, named John Jordan Proctor, is the head of his tent service for the grove. Proctor took over the business this year after working in the business for two years. He is one of many people who own tent services for the grove. Most tent services do not only provide tents, but also provide tables, chairs, coolers, and more. Some tailgaters pay to have their tent set up for every home game, and some people may just rent a tent for one game. Some people will pay a good amount to the service to have a certain spot in the grove for every game, which is not easy to provide by the service.
              
               For Proctor, the tent service starts well before the season even begins. The whole process starts by sending out cards, making phone calls, and meeting people to try and get his business known to as many people as possible so that he can have a lot of costumers when the season begins. Then Proctor rents out a storage shed for the season, where he keeps all of the tents, tables, and chairs.He is always calls each costumer before they go out to double check with everything so nothing will get messed up. "Getting organized each game is the key to getting in and out as quickly as possible, because there are so many other people and businesses trying to get a spot in the grove as well," says Proctor. 

               Each Friday before they get ready to set up the tents, Proctor calls and makes sure that his crew will be ready to go that night. He assigns different people to different spots in the grove so they will get the spot before anyone else does. No one is allowed with a tent until 9:00 p.m. Friday night. Proctor and his crew get prepared to go in the Gertrude parking lot and head to campus tent minutes before nine, so they can get a little head start with the tents on the trailer. Some of the people are assigned to run tents and some ride with the trailer. Proctor's gets guys on his crew that are in some kind of shape and they need to be pretty strong. Some guys have to carry two tents on big games, when there is more costumers. "It feels pretty cool to be a part of something so popular," says Phillip Olivy, one of Proctor's crew members.

               This is how the grove is created over night to make it the number one tailgating spot in the nation. If you ever get the chance to go the grove, you will enjoy it and appreciate the people who make it all happen like Proctor and his crew. It is a great place to have fun and hang out with all your friends and family. The atmosphere is unbelievable and no matter if we win or lose it is a place to look forward to after the game. "It feels good to be able to provide people with fun and entertainment each Saturday in the grove. There is just nothing else like it," Proctors says.

      
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