Memories of Homecoming

We drove past the football stadium tonight so that my girls could see why there were fireworks going off in September... and why there were police cars followed by a pickup truck load of screaming cheerleaders coming down the street earlier today. It's homecoming tonight...

It looked REALLY packed. We parked across the street from the stadium just long enough for the girls to see the halftime show, which included a dance routine by the cheerleaders and a performance by the marching band. The announcer told the names of the band's drum majors, and one of them had the same last name as us. Delaney asked, "Is that my cousin?" I said yes. (Sad that my kids don't know their own first cousins on their dad's side, isn't it? That's just the way they play... but that isn't what this post is about.) I believe they had four drum majors... and they said that the band has 155 members! That's way more than we had, I'm sure. And I only remember having one drum major. (Judiemae's dh was one of them! :) )

From my house, I can hear the announcer loud and clear if the windows are open. The fireworks really pop, and you can even hear the crowd cheer. I think it's cool to live right down the street from the high school I attended myself as a teenager, but that will soon change... We're getting a new high school way across town. (I don't think it will ever be the same, but I am not one of those people who handles change very well!)

I haven't been to one homecoming since I graduated from high school. Neither has my husband. We talk about it every year, but we never do go... Would it even be the same if you aren't seventeen? You wouldn't get to buy a new outfit complete with shoes to match (well, you might--but you'd have to buy it yourself instead of mom & dad!), and you wouldn't get to go to the dance with some cute boy in his souped-up pickup truck. The boys would buy their girlfriends a giant mum corsage with maroon pipe cleaners shaped into "SS" on the top for our school name... And somebody always got in trouble at the dance for dancing too close together. The pep rallies and parades and spirit days were always fun, too.

Ahh, the memories. *sigh* lol!

By the way... I can hear the band playing right now! :)