High School Football

Last night was Friday night. What do people do in the south on Friday nights when the summer comes to an end and school starts back up in the fall? They go to high school football games of course. Decked out in school colors, toting stadium chairs, spirit gear, and toddlers in cheerleading outfits...there is no place else a true blooded southerner would rather be.

I have always considered myself a football fan, but let's just be honest...my old high school team was going nowhere fast. If I hadn't been required to show up to every game with my cheerleading skirt and pompoms, I'm not sure I would have chosen to spend my Friday nights at the stadium. But in the south, football is a big big deal. My husband's old high school in Tallahassee sends most of its top players to division I college teams and has seen at least 4 kids play for the NFL in recent years. Their football program is now running a capital campaign to build a brand new stadium, complete with a jumbo tron. Wow.

So we've lived in Mississippi for two years now, and we hadn't yet experienced the joy of a local high school game. Lucky for us, our neighbor and good friend teaches up the road and invited us all out to see our hometown team play last night. The only problem was that one of the girls she invited, another one of our best friends, happens to teach at a rival high school. She scoffed at the invite, and none of us thought we could get her to come. Even after shoving her in the back seat and threatening to take her against her will, we thought it was a lost cause. But after receiving a good dose of peer pressure and uttering one small profanity, she reluctantly conceded. None of us were surprised when she came back out to the car wearing her own school colors instead of the team we were going watch. All six of us crammed in one car, made our way through the atrocious traffic jam en route to the event, and settled into the stands to enjoy one of the south's simple pleasures. Aaaaaah, high school football :)