Homecoming Spirit

home·coming (hōm′kum′iŋ)
noun
1. a coming or returning to one's home
2. in many schools, colleges, and universities, an annual celebration attended by alumni

This has been a fun week celebrating Homecoming at my old high school - the school my daughter now attends. She has had fun stuff going on at school all week, the businesses in the area have their windows painted and decorated to support the team, and last night we attended the big Homecoming parade, pep rally, and bonfire!

The parade was a fun one - led off by the ROTC, followed by the band, the drillteam, the cheerleaders, the Homecoming Court, the football teams, and various other school teams and organizations, each with their own float, throwing beads and glo-sticks and candy, candy, candy! More candy than the crowd could even collect - we brought home so much it looked like our trick-or-treat stash from years past, and when we left there was still candy all over the street. And good stuff, too - Reese's peanut butter cups, Three Musketeers, 100 Grands! Laffy Taffy, Skittles, Air Heads, and Tootsie Pops! You could smell the sugar in the air - we were giddy!

The crowd followed the end of the parade to the junior varsity football field just as darkness fell. Hundreds of glo-sticks shone in the night, and as we filled the stands on one side of the field, we could see the school's name spelled out in luminaries in the stands on the other side of the field. As the band played, they turned off all the lights, and for the whole pep rally all you could see were glo-sticks and the luminaries. It was awesome!

Then the band led the crowd to a nearby field for the bonfire. Can I just say that there's nothing like walking along to the drum cadence of a marching band! I felt like I was rushed back in time to my drillteam days, marching along with them. As the spirited crowd awaited the lighting of the bonfire, the kids started breaking their glo-sticks and sprinkling the insides all over themselves, making glowing glitter on their clothes, skin, and hair. Then they started throwing them up into the air so the stuff inside rained down on the crowd like glowy stardust, and we all had tiny glistening specks all over us. It looked like we were all covered in fireflies! The bonfire was lit and the band played some more, and not until the final embers were burning out did we leave for home.

Daughter and even Little Son had a great time last night - and if you couldn't tell, so did I! Tomorrow is the big game, against the rival high school, and you can bet we'll be there cheering on our team! And of course, there is a Homecoming Dance.

It's funny how even tho it has been 20-something years, certain things can just bring me right back to my high school days. I can't remember what I did last week, but I can remember high school like it was yesterday. Some of those memories are good, some not-so-good. But it seemed like such a simpler time. I'm sure my parents felt the same way. And some day my kids will, too. I hope that someday they are doing this with their kids. That, like me, they'll celebrate coming back home.