This weekend, Lisa and I attended the homecoming festivities for my son’s high school.
At such times, I’m always left with this rhetorical question: “Who’s Coming Home?”
In this case, I am an alumnus Farragut High School as is my daughter (and one day my son), so, technically, I was ‘coming home.’ And, I think also, that sometimes our school’s alumni has a get-together at some of the football games (though I didn’t hear anything about them doing it for this particular game).
I guess my point is: I don’t really understand the notion of a high school CALLING the event Homecoming. Name it something else - Fall Festival, Fall Formal. Unlike a college where you find many alumni classes returning to campus for reunions, it just doesn’t happen in the high school realm.
On the other hand, apart from the misnomer, I think homecoming is a perfectly wonderful event for secondary schools. Throughout the week, FHS enjoyed a variety of 'spirit week’ events. Each had a theme.
For example, one day was movie character day (Paul dressed as the Phantom of the Opera). Another day he wore peejays for pajama day. You get the idea.
On Friday, he donned the FHS mascot costume - Admiral Dave - for the school’s pep rally.
That evening, he and his pals donned attire of a different sort as they went to the traditional homecoming dance. Lisa and I - proud parents - showed up for one of the NEW traditions, the pre-dance photo shoot.
Then, they were all off: four couples heading to a nice dinner before the dance.
The football game, itself, was really an afterthought.
I think the fact that my own class decided to have its reunion a week before was a lost opportunity. We could’ve had a glorious tailgate event on the grounds and gathered to tell stories of our own glory days. For whatever reason, that didn’t happen.
On a personal note, it would have been really cool is if I could have gathered my closest high school buddies for a night of reflection and reminiscing on the site where we made so many memories. But, alas, that was not to be.
On this homecoming night, it was time for the youth of today to celebrate and have their moment. Really, I think that’s what it’s all about.
JG
Originally posted 10/2/2011
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