Friday Night Lights

 I went to a high school football game last night.  I have only been to 2 or 3 since my boys played in the late 1990s, and those were to watch my granddaughter’s dance team perform. 

Susan started a new teaching job this year at one of the big high schools in the area.  I was surprised that after nearly 30 years of teaching, she had never taught at a school with a football team.  This school is big into sports and she’s all in!  So last night we went to the opening game to watch her Pearl Pirates beat the Neshoba Central Rockets 26-20.  

Things have changed a lot since I was a Friday night regular.  No more grass fields, now they’re all that “field turf” stuff.  No more basic, generic, Coca Cola scoreboards, now there are huge video boards at each endzone.  When I played, back in the early 1970s, everyone was average size.  Now the high school players look like college guys did back then! 

All that said, I enjoyed myself.  My granddaughter’s games, I spent more time watching her than I did the game itself.  Last night I got into the game and it was a good one. Both teams had really good passing quarterbacks and good receivers.  There were several long touchdown passes that were exciting to see.  The defenses played well for both teams.  

The most fun was people watching!  That has become one of my favorite sports!  Lots of little children wandering around, playing with their friends, and teenagers trying to escape Mom and Dad’s watchful eyes! Babies fidgeting in Daddy’s lap. Player parents, band parents, cheer parents. Older people out for some entertainment or to watch the grandchildren on the team, or in the band, or cheering, or dancing (like me!). Everyone was behaving and enjoying themselves. People of all walks of life, different ages, races and ethnicities all coming together to support the kids.  It was what’s good about America.

Next week I’ll go watch my granddaughter dance.  But this week, it was all about the game! Go Pirates!

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