A to Z Theme 2016

For my 2016 A to Z theme I used a meme that I ran across on the blog of Bridget Straub who first saw it on the blog of Paula Acton. This meme is a natural for me to use on my memoir blog. It's an A to Z concept and it's about me. No research and nothing complicated. I'm given twenty six questions or topics to discuss that are about me.

In April I kept my posts short and uncomplicated. In the midst of it all you might learn a few things about me that you didn't previously know.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Of Footballs and Falling Leaves

Front of a yellow school bus.
Front of a yellow school bus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        After summer is abruptly interrupted by the start of another school year, an almost imperceptible change occurs as students go to classes and daylight hours grow too short for lingering outside.   Besides, there is homework to be done and the new television season to sample.  Tree leaves turn from green to a myriad splash of yellows, reds, oranges, and eventually, brown.  Another summer gone as fall signals the end of another year.

         But first comes football season.   As in small towns all across America, Everett High School in Maryville, Tennessee is all about football.   The cheerleaders lead the student body in pep rallies during home room period.  It's all about the game on Friday night for most of the students.  Well, except for the non-sports-minded students like me.  I never got into football or any sports for that matter.  It just wasn't my thing.

          My sister thought that I should go to the games and become more involved.  Maybe find a girlfriend.  I would have liked that too, but going to the football game didn't seem like the way that I would have wanted to do it.

          When we hear that there is an away game scheduled in Cleveland, Tennessee some 80 miles away, I figure maybe this would be a time to go to a game.  I've got a friend living in Cleveland whom I can meet up with.  I call to make arrangements to meet up with him.  He's glad to hear this and so am I.  Secretly I'm hoping to see a girl who I had met over the summer when I stayed in Cleveland for a couple of weeks with my friend.

           On the Friday of the game, my sister and I are dropped off at the school by my mother in order to join the others who will be taking the bus ride to Cleveland.   It's one of the yellow school buses that take students to and from school every day.  Now a caravan of yellow buses will be taking a small army of Everett High students to the rival team's field.

          There's not much I can remember about the night other than I met up with my friend.  There was a crispness in the air with a faint smell of burning leaves wafting about.  An enticing aroma of popcorn and hot dogs emanated from  the refreshment stand.  We get snacks and hang out around the bleachers.  I hardly watch the game and neither does my friend since like me he doesn't seem to be much into football.  Maybe that's why we feel a kinship.  After the game we said our good-byes and parted ways.

        It's a lonely bus ride home.  I don't really have any friends who have gone to the game.  I sit by the window gazing out at the darkened landscape passing by.  I didn't see the girl I had hoped I would see at the game.  And truth be told I hadn't really expected to see her.  She probably had no idea that she'd even met me back in the summer.

        My mind starts wandering as I wish I had a girl to sit with on the bus ride home.  As I often do when I'm lost in my own thoughts, I begin composing a song in my head and my imaginary voice begins to sing,  "It's so lonely in the back of the bus."  That's the only line in the song for now but I sing it over and over in my head.  Not a bad song I think to myself.

          I don't remember much more about that night except that song which I can still sing those repeated lines, "It's so lonely in the back of the bus...It's so lonely in the back of the bus."  In fact that's the only football game I remember going to.  Never a home game.  No more football games after that.

         Did you go to the sporting events at your school?   Did you ever ride the bus to the away games?    What is your favorite fall high school memory?




8 comments:

  1. Our high school didn't have a football team till long after I graduated but our soccer team was top notch. I went to a few away games but not many. It was fun. The guys on the team were cute but of course none of them knew I was alive. They all had cheerleader girlfriends.

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    1. JoJo, a soccer team in HS seems surprising, but I guess it was a matter of locale. When I was in high school we barely knew anything about soccer. I don't know if there were any high schools in our are that didn't have a football team.

      Lee

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  2. I went to one football game in high school (they lost) and one in college (they also lost; Northwestern did a lot of losing when I was there). I did go to several Loyola basketball games, mostly because my dorm was a short walk from the gym and several players lived on my floor.

    I was lucky in high school, though: the Pom-Pom Squad would practice in the hallway outside the boys' locker room the period before I had gym. They were always fun to watch...

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    1. John, I saw cheerleaders at our school shaking pom-poms, but I was never aware of any schools with a specific pop-pom squad. You must have been in a really big school with a lot of extra stuff.

      Lee

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  3. I stopped going to games in high school once I'd dropped out of marching band. Didn't go to another until last year when my daughter (who plays the French horn) was in the band four our annual Thanksgiving game with the neighboring town.

    Father Nature's Corner

    I Are Writer!

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    1. GB, sometimes I wish I'd been in marching band since they did travel to a lot of events and seemed to have a mighty good time. A lot of practice involved in band though.

      Lee

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  4. I went to a high school with no football team. Talk about being deprived! So for me, fall was about college football because I lived in a college town. I remember the giant yellow and bronze mums for sale as we walked from my grandmother's apartment to the stadium, the beautiful colors of the trees, falling leaves, a chill in the air even on a sunny day, and the blankets we took with us to drape across our knees if it got cold.

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    1. Patricia, chilly days of fall sound good to me now.

      Lee

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