A home town game...

Last night's football game (we won, by the way - still undefeated) was a treat to be at. I have seen many high school football movies, Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans, Longest Yard, etc and enjoyed them very much. But it is different when you live in a small town and there is only one high school and everyone who is anyone attends the game. You see your pastor, grocery clerk, septic sucker guy, Harry Baker (the richest guy who owns the phone company), CHPs, Sheriffs, girl at the drive up window at McDonald's, the woman my son crashed into her car, her attorney who sued us and was my son's best friend's father, and many other people who just come because it is what is happening in town. We built a new stadium two years ago and it has boosted the attendance.

I bought and ate the obligatory linquisa sandwich, a cinnamon roll from the Country Fair Cinnamon Roll Concession, and a diet Pepsi. What a gourmet meal. It goes with the game. I wore my lamb's wool boots, a pair of Levi's, a turtleneck, a fleece sweatshirt, a leather jacket, a scarf that Hillary, my daughter knitted for me, and a cap, which kept me toastie warm and a bit fashionable.

I was amazed at the cheerleaders, I always am. Don't get me wrong I think they have a place at the game but I wonder about the "spirit gestures." After a cheer they do the special gestures with their hands, arms, maybe a quick kick or something. They were doing a kind of a typewriter spirit gesture after one that seemed new. Who comes up with these things? Is there a channel on Cable, "the Cheer Channel" or conferences where they learn the latest spirit gestures. Are there names for the gestures and strategies about when they plan on using them? In my day... there were no gestures, only encouraging words like "push 'em back, push 'em back, way back" or the simple "De-fense". Some times we would get confrontational with the opponent's crowd, "We got spirit, yes we do, we got spirit, how about you?" until the new rules came out prohibiting such unsportsmanlike conduct. It was fun... but no gestures.

I thought there should be some cheering outside of the "game". Maybe some spirit gestures at Von's. You know when you get through the checkout line, stop, then lift an arm, point and give a hoodie-hoot, Clap and do the the Typewriter spirit gesture. The bag girl just stared and didn't ask if I needed help taking the bread and milk out to the car like she always does. She didn't have the spirit, no she didn't. There was a crowd of shoppers in the canned goods aisle who only stared when I asked them to form a spirit tunnel for me to run through. They were at the game, I saw them. They still had some cinnamon roll remnant on their cheek.

I do have a problem when someone who is not paying any taxes yet, tells me to stand up for the kick off. Sometimes I can't get all the spelling down during the cheers, I have dyslexia, so again the academics rub it in my face. The whole seating arrangements are bad. We went with my daughter, Taylor and her soon to be husband, and I couldn't carry on a conversation with them because it was very linear sitting. And for someone like me who is more spacial I couldn't get a word in edgewise. The guy who sat behind me had an opinion about every call by the referee and the coach. He even criticized the cheerleaders and the band. Something about he was use to a more progressive cheer program like what was shown on the documentary film, "Bring It On."

The band seemed excited. Lots of drums and trumpet charges. I asked them if they knew any Fleetwood Mac and the conductor told me to sit down or he would call one of the Junior ROTC cadets over to escort me out. I told him I didn't like Fleetwood Mac at first either but Stevie Nick was a fox, even at 57. So sure enough the cadet came over to escort me out but luckily, the Badgers scored a touchdown and he had to run over and do pushups according to the score. I lost myself in the crowd and snuck back to my seat and behaved myself for the rest of the game...