At the end of the 2003 football season, N.J. Tailgater was one mans vision, and a statement which was made at a backyard BBQ set the ball in motion. I've been to some good tailgate parties, but no matter how good they are, I can do better. First spoken by Christopher Serson, these words were the seeds from which N.J. Tailgater was born. So for his birthday, Chris's wife Suzie had purchased a used school bus from the local Board of Education and the dream was becoming a reality. In his backyard, Chris and his father, armed with approximately 100 cans of Krylon, had painted this yellow school bus to Giants blue.
But the painting of the bus was only the first step, now she needed to be dressed up, so Chris contacted his friends at Curry Printing in Clifton N.J.and told them his idea. Being Giants fans themselves the gang at Curry all got on board with this project and referred to it as a labor of love. Many hours were spent brainstorming the perfect graphics package for the bus and once the concept was all agreed upon everything fell into place. As for the interior of the bus, the seating was re-configured for maximum comfort. The curtains were made by the Home Economics teacher in the high school where Chris's father works. Again, this was a labor of love as she herself is a Giants fan.
With all the customizing work done in just a few months, the bus was unveiled at the Giants home opener in September of 2004. Crew that day being Chris, his brother Paul, Brian, and I (Craig). A milestone occurred that day As we were pulling off the turnpike and into the stadium parking toll booth...the battle cry was yelled "Tell them we're a bus!! With that N.J. Tailgater pulled into section 14A and chose what is now her permanent parking spot right between the dumpster and the port-a-john. Other than the obvious, what really makes N.J. Tailgater unique is the amount of time that is spent at the tailgate. Most people show up between two and three hours before the game for a tailgate, Chris mandated that the tailgate should be the event and the game secondary and it is for that reason that he shows up no later than 6 hours prior.
Always the trailblazer, In November of 2004 the Thanksgiving tailgate was introduced. This was a full Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings not only being served at the game, a turkey was cooked in the parking lot. This tailgate has since become the jewel in the N.J. Tailgater crown. In the season of 2005 electricity became a permanent fixture in the tailgate, now allowing everyone to enjoy the games before and after the Giants play. At the time of this writing N.J. Tailgater has entered into it's third season and in honor of this event, celebrated by hosting a fourteen hour tailgate. We look forward to many more like this and having all that read this come by and say hello. So thank you for reading this and see you at the game.