High School football

Cliff and I went to the local high school to watch some football; it turned out to be the last game of the season, because the boys were finally defeated.  They had an outstanding season, though:  until this game, they had only lost once.  
I enjoy high school football because you don't have all those pesky commercials that stretch a game out and make it last three-and-a-half hours, like on television.  

Balloons in the school colors, black and gold, were released into the sky.  We're the Tigers, don't you know.  When Cliff and I are traveling to Versailles to visit his relatives, we pass through a town whose school mascot is the bluebird.  Seriously?  You're going to send a football team called the Bluebirds to play against tigers and hornets and panthers?  Somehow it strikes us both as hilarious, and we crack jokes about it.  I'd love to tell you some of the things we say, but somebody might be offended.  That's what's so wonderful about having a spouse:  You can say any little ole thing your heart desires and you don't have to worry about being politically correct, or being judged.    


I always love it when the local players come running onto the field with the marching band making a joyful noise.  I got so excited making this teeny tiny video that I was aiming at the ground during part of it.

The sting of defeat

Our local football team, the Tigers, had a great season this year. Thanks to my daughter, I got to go to the playoff game here at home last week, where our kids soundly trounced the opposition. It was great, and made me wish I could attend every game they ever played.
Our school had only one more team to beat in order to go to state competition in St. Louis: The Hamilton Hornets (Hamilton, birthplace and home of JC Penny). I begged, pleaded, and cajoled until Cliff agreed to go to the game yesterday. Granddaughter Natalie went along with us.
We have a friend there who has worked at several different jobs with Cliff; his son John is on the football team. The guy Cliff rides to work with has been going to watch John play, and he warned us that Hamilton is unbeatable. I so wanted him to be wrong. Obviously, so did all my neighbors, because it looked as though the whole town had traveled the sixty miles to watch the game.
Hamilton had three touchdowns by the end of the first quarter; we hadn't scored at all.
It was like watching the Kansas City Chiefs play. Not that the Tigers were bad, just that the other team was so doggoned good! Our guys valiantly tried to make a comeback in the second quarter, and they did some scoring. Alas, so did the other team. The final score was 62 to 27.
So the Hamilton Hornets will go to St. Louis. Well, at least we know John (who is an amazing football player) personally, and that gives us an interest in the team. The games will be televised locally, and I'll be rooting for Hamilton.
Because of the way the game went down, I didn't take many pictures.



Here are our boys, facing the camera before the game started.



You gotta love high school cheerleaders. By the way, when did pom-poms get so small? They used to be HUGE.



Hamilton's marching band, which has won four competitions this year, is amazing. Seriously.



Heading home, we enjoyed seeing that tiny dot of sun disappear into the cloud bank in the west.
And now, it's time for some basketball!

Rainy-day thoughts

We're supposed to have four days of rain and clouds, with highs in the mid-40's. We were about due; these past few days probably were the longest span of time we've done without rain all year... all of eight days.

I reinforced my theory that you can substitute butternut squash in any recipe that calls for pumpkin by making some butternut squash bread. It goes down real easy accompanied by a cup of hot green tea.

I was looking over the roster at the high school football game yesterday and was amazed that over half the last names were the same ones that were on the roster when my kids were attending over twenty years ago: Schaberg, Hough, Thilking, Strickler, Lohsandt, Ward, Niendick, Willard, Wieligman, Seitz, Beckemeyer, Bowling, Register, Good, Bryant, Reismeyer, Beissenherz. It's a small town, the size town from which people usually escape in order to find jobs; but we're situated close enough to Kansas City so that many young people choose to stay here. Or, like my daughter, they return. Notice there's predominance of German names on the list. A huge percentage of the old-time farmers were German, and the U.C.C. Church in town held services in the German language until, I believe, World War I.

I took a few pictures of a couple of little boys at the game. They entertained themselves so very well, and I had fun watching their antics. I had every intention of posting those pictures in a blog entry, but I hesitate to do so. Now, if it wasn't in my own community, I'd think nothing of it. But I know some people don't want their kids' pictures on the Internet, and when it's somebody so nearby, I think I'll pass. I found out who they were from Tracy, who sees all and knows all that goes on in my town (you may think I'm kidding, but it's TRUE). But I don't know the parents at all. I'd feel pretty funny calling strangers and saying, "Hey, I have a blog and I took pictures of your kids. Can I put the pictures on my blog?"

I also had a lot of fun yesterday listening to snippets of conversation amongst the teenagers behind me on the bleachers. I wish I'd taken notes.

Question for the people in charge of music that plays over the speakers at local football games? Why are you only playing rock songs from the 80's? Don't you have any Green Day? Geesh. If you're going to play old rock, let's go on back to the Beatles while we're at it. (I kid; I like 80's rock, having had it forced upon me by my children back in the day.)

I'm getting along better and better with my Mac, finding lots of sites to help me with questions that arise. There's even a Mac Mini forum.

The Ipod is on shuffle, playing through the speakers of my stereo system all my favorite songs. This is a good place to be on a rainy day.

Victory!

Things I love about high school football:

The tailgating, especially when my great-granddaughter is there.

The pile-ups.

The home team scoring, and the until-now unbeaten competition not scoring.

Very tall young men

And a scoreboard that looks like that one toward the end of the game.

Did I mention my great-granddaughter was there?

There's the school marching band drums...

Oh yeah, and the cannons that go off after each home team touchdown, and at the end of the game.

I love high school football!