-Isms: Original views on life in rural America

With all the homecoming hullabaloo last week, I’ve been thinking about the intersection of school and traditions and the importance of maintaining pieces of the past mixed with the present.

Homecoming’s roots are embedded in football, when colleges would invite alumni to return home for the big game.

In the early 1900s, Arizona State, Baylor, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri all initiated grand spectacles, with the football game as the centerpiece. There were parades and speeches, dances and bonfires.

Arizona State started the Lantern Walk. Texas is known for homecoming mums. One of my favorite Nebraska traditions was to walk up and down frat and sorority row on campus to check out each Greek house’s yard art.

My high school was known for two things: it’s hallway decorating contest and a grand parade and pep rally.

Each class was given a portion of the school to decorate and every inch, every corner was covered in a concoction of orange and black crepe paper. One year, we weaved individual sheets of paper, creating a background on which we hung signs and cutout footballs and volleyballs for the athletes in our class. Creativity everywhere you looked. The best part, though, was spending time with classmates, learning to work together and school pride. Priceless!

The parade and pep rally route went seven or eight blocks. Each elementary student created his or her own entry. Most wore costumes and carried homemade signs about Wildcat Power or Orange Crush. Junior and senior high class members participated as a class. Once every entry, which included the marching band and plenty of pickups decked out to promote businesses, made their way around the courthouse square, cheerleaders and the dance team would pump up the crowd. Coaches offered words of wisdom. Cheers echoed off the brick streets and everyone was buzzing about the big game. It resembled a classic homecoming scene you’d see on the big screen.

Businesses shut down and it seemed as though every resident migrated to Main Street to offer support. Sometimes, it seemed like we had an overabundance of school spirit. In reality, enthusiasm was never an issue. Our spirited fans supported us during good and bad times.

Someone asked me about Summerland spirit, what traditions were kept and what new activities introduced. Here, in Bobcat Blue country, we, as communities need to find ways to be more involved in boosting school spirit, becoming a collective voice cheering for our home team.

The #Summerlandspirit hashtag is a good beginning and this newspaper will continue to use it to boost school spirit. We have a lot to cheer about.

Go Bobcats!

We’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, how about you?