The scariest way of all to spend Halloween
Nov. 3rd, 2003 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coffeesnob318If any of you ever hear me say, "Hey - I think I'll go to a football game at my high school," tell me no.
First of all, let me set the stage. My hometown is a small town in West Texas, at the crook of the Panhandle - about 7,000 people in population (and that's after the prison was built). So the high school is also very small. My graduating class had a whopping 73 members. It's one of those everyone-knows-everyone-else places. Very patriotic. Very republican. Very...small. Anyway.
If you want to know how bad (and, at the same time, wildly amusing) a Halloween can be, read on.
First, the pep rally. I haven't been to one in the 10 years since I graduated, because I hated them so very, very much, but, for some reason, my sister and I drove in especially for it, and Mom went with us because she hadn't seen the new gym yet. Lots and lots of paper banners. The football team walked out to "Highway to Hell," which was actually very close to what I was thinking. One of the football players is some kid I used to babysit when he was five. He was a bad little kid. And he always smelled like pickles. I was pondering how much I dislike the smell of pickles when the sea of memories came flooding back as the band broke into the band yell - yes...we have a yell...and it goes something like this -
Give a yell, a yell, a big substantial yell!
And when we yell, we yell like hell and this is what we yell,
A viva, a vava, a viva vava vest
Seven to eleven, a rickety, rackety shackety town
Who can blow *snickers* the bobcats down?
Nobody, nobody, yea bobcats! Fight! Fight! Fight!
And, as if my lips had a mind of their own, the traitors broke right out into yelling it with them. Ah, yes. Just what I needed. To stick out.
I was quite the little spirited one. It was all so surreal that I just got caught up in it. Almost asked the band director if I could play Gato Malo with them, because the french horns definitely needed assistance.
The highlight of the pep rally was the cheerleaders' routine to a very, very badly spliced mix of songs. They had everything from Britney Spears to Tool stuffed in there. I guess they're reaching out to their diverse audience??? That was the perfect picture of a CHS pep rally, and it solidified that yes, they were, in fact, as bad as I remembered.
Now onto the game itself. Homecoming. Lots of flowers and streamers and girls dressed in strapless formals, despite the fact that it was 45 degrees outside. Lots of alumni, although I didn't really see anyone in my class. Did I mention lots of flowers? And bells. They had bells that jingle jangle jingled with every damn movement.
Sitting in the crowd is a whole different experience than sitting in the band. In the band, people (even the flag corp, who aren't playing instruments) don't sing the fight song. Or the school song. Or the national anthem. There are no noise makers like air horns or cow bells. There are no ex-cheerleaders sitting in front of you, yelling and leaping to their feet at every opportunity (although I have to admit, she was pretty damn funny. I'm glad she was there). There is no time for nachos with that nasty, wonderful canned cheese. There is no moment of terror when the cheerleaders start throwing plastic footballs and candy into the crowd, pegging you in the head. And there is no mom who makes you share your thermos of coffee with some random stranger.
Our band bit. There's just no getting around it. They were awful. They were so awful, I almost thought that they were doing it on purpose, in parody. But no. They really were just that bad. The other band was good. They had great uniforms - velvet twirler uniforms, plain black business suits for the flag corp (damn - why didn't we think of that? That makes so much more sense than all that sequined crap). They did a LOTR show. Very nice. Two thumbs up.
Oh, and there were boys in shiny pants slapping each other on the ass and chasing a ball around the field, too. One had a shaved head. :)
Fun experience to talk about; not so fun to experience. But I'm happy that I went and even happier that I'm home now.
Hey - go do this if you're not already there.
First of all, let me set the stage. My hometown is a small town in West Texas, at the crook of the Panhandle - about 7,000 people in population (and that's after the prison was built). So the high school is also very small. My graduating class had a whopping 73 members. It's one of those everyone-knows-everyone-else places. Very patriotic. Very republican. Very...small. Anyway.
If you want to know how bad (and, at the same time, wildly amusing) a Halloween can be, read on.
First, the pep rally. I haven't been to one in the 10 years since I graduated, because I hated them so very, very much, but, for some reason, my sister and I drove in especially for it, and Mom went with us because she hadn't seen the new gym yet. Lots and lots of paper banners. The football team walked out to "Highway to Hell," which was actually very close to what I was thinking. One of the football players is some kid I used to babysit when he was five. He was a bad little kid. And he always smelled like pickles. I was pondering how much I dislike the smell of pickles when the sea of memories came flooding back as the band broke into the band yell - yes...we have a yell...and it goes something like this -
Give a yell, a yell, a big substantial yell!
And when we yell, we yell like hell and this is what we yell,
A viva, a vava, a viva vava vest
Seven to eleven, a rickety, rackety shackety town
Who can blow *snickers* the bobcats down?
Nobody, nobody, yea bobcats! Fight! Fight! Fight!
And, as if my lips had a mind of their own, the traitors broke right out into yelling it with them. Ah, yes. Just what I needed. To stick out.
I was quite the little spirited one. It was all so surreal that I just got caught up in it. Almost asked the band director if I could play Gato Malo with them, because the french horns definitely needed assistance.
The highlight of the pep rally was the cheerleaders' routine to a very, very badly spliced mix of songs. They had everything from Britney Spears to Tool stuffed in there. I guess they're reaching out to their diverse audience??? That was the perfect picture of a CHS pep rally, and it solidified that yes, they were, in fact, as bad as I remembered.
Now onto the game itself. Homecoming. Lots of flowers and streamers and girls dressed in strapless formals, despite the fact that it was 45 degrees outside. Lots of alumni, although I didn't really see anyone in my class. Did I mention lots of flowers? And bells. They had bells that jingle jangle jingled with every damn movement.
Sitting in the crowd is a whole different experience than sitting in the band. In the band, people (even the flag corp, who aren't playing instruments) don't sing the fight song. Or the school song. Or the national anthem. There are no noise makers like air horns or cow bells. There are no ex-cheerleaders sitting in front of you, yelling and leaping to their feet at every opportunity (although I have to admit, she was pretty damn funny. I'm glad she was there). There is no time for nachos with that nasty, wonderful canned cheese. There is no moment of terror when the cheerleaders start throwing plastic footballs and candy into the crowd, pegging you in the head. And there is no mom who makes you share your thermos of coffee with some random stranger.
Our band bit. There's just no getting around it. They were awful. They were so awful, I almost thought that they were doing it on purpose, in parody. But no. They really were just that bad. The other band was good. They had great uniforms - velvet twirler uniforms, plain black business suits for the flag corp (damn - why didn't we think of that? That makes so much more sense than all that sequined crap). They did a LOTR show. Very nice. Two thumbs up.
Oh, and there were boys in shiny pants slapping each other on the ass and chasing a ball around the field, too. One had a shaved head. :)
Fun experience to talk about; not so fun to experience. But I'm happy that I went and even happier that I'm home now.
Hey - go do this if you're not already there.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-03 08:37 am (UTC)You know tho, that Eugene (Eagles) was such a small high school we didn't even have a football team? Still don't...basically you can take your entire story and transplant it into a gym and substitute basketball for football and it's just like you were there tho!
g