Friday Nights

In a small town, Friday nights in September mean one thing: football. If you are lucky, or someone who checks the local paper each week, you may even catch homecoming, with all its glorious festivities.

The first thing we got in on was the homecoming parade. Now, the important thing to consider when you watch any parade is location. This was our first spot, but we relocated as soon as we realized that the candy-to-child ratio was going to be grim.

The fire engine's siren started wailing ("Nee-nah, nee-nah!!" screeched Jonathan excitedly), and we knew the parade had begun!  I was entirely satisfied to see that children still decorated their bikes with crepe streamers. It's not a homecoming parade without this element, folks.

The homecoming float theme this year was 'cleaning supplies' (themes are always random and intended to spur creative and funny results), which meant I laughed often, and the kids didn't get the gist at all...with the exception of the candy and mood. That they understood perfectly.

The two schools' marching bands were in prime form, practicing their songs and strides for the upcoming Gypsy Day competition in Aberdeen. You can have a marching band without a parade, but you simply can't have a parade without a marching band!

After gathering copious, nearly obscene amounts of sugar thrown our way (we chose our street corner wisely), we quickly headed to the school gymnasium for the annual pep rally. Grace and Jonathan, who have never been to a pep rally, thought it was amazing.

 Once the sun started sinking in the west, though, homecoming began in earnest. Tailgating is part of the standard operation, of course. (Jonathan ate three hot dogs. Three.)

I spent time chatting with old friends and a few classmates while our kids ran wild on the playground. Go to any high school football game, and you will see at least one group of boys scrimmaging in sweaty, rough glory on the sidelines.
 

Jonathan watched them intently and wistfully, but he never did interfere. He seemed to know that he was out of his league at that moment. After a while, he ran over to the playground to explore with the other littles.

 The big game began, and the stands were packed. Everyone was ready to enjoy the crisp (okay, downright frigid!) night with hot chocolate in hand.

Side note: want to see the most lovely track and field in SD? Come to this place.

Jonathan recognized the cheerleaders from the pep rally. He called to them and spent the night strutting and doing incredibly goofy things to entertain the crowd. We make an impression wherever we go, man.

The game didn't go so well, but where there's hometown pride and spirit, there's fun. The kids came home sandy, hot-chocolatey, frozen, and tuckered out...and so did their parents.