Class of 84 Flashback: Homecoming Week

This past week was Homecoming so I thought I'd supplement my very few current pictures with pictures from back in my day.  A little compare-contrast of Homecoming traditions past and present, Texas vs. Not Texas.

 Exhibit #1: Homecoming Mums.  Very Texas. These are relatively understated.  Round these parts?  Never heard of them!

Exhibit #2: Pep Rallies.  Every Friday, for 10 weeks during football season, we had a shortened class schedule so we could all go to a pep rally at the end of the day.  Because when it comes down to learning vs. football, everyone knows the primary purpose of the Texas high school is football.   I think where we live now, there might be a pep rally.  One.  Maybe.  I'm really not sure.

Exhibit #3: Theme Weeks and Class Competitions.  We had elaborate Homecoming themes, and every class sponsored an event to raise money for their prom.  (My class was always awesome).  My junior year the theme was music and our class got punk rock.  We held a dance. Each class also decorated their halls.  This is my junior year hall.  Our senior year hall was really fantastic, but I don't have a picture of that.

This is what passed for "punk" in suburban Dallas in 1982.

Exhibit 4: Parades.  Here my kid's school has my old school beat.  On Wednesday on Homecoming Week, they stop 5 p.m. rush hour traffic on a major U.S. highway which is already enough of a mess to hold a parade.  Made sense when this was a little farm town.  Not so much anymore with 30,000 people and roads that can't take the traffic as it is.  After 7 years of deliberately missing it, I decided to go for this last year.  It was . . .  cute.

They changed them around and I was on the wrong side of the street to get a good shot of the youngest.

I had to take a picture of the Mu Alpha Theta float since I rode on that one in the one parade my school had.

My school started a parade my senior year.  Here is my view from the Mu Alpha Theta / National Honor Society float.  Hey, those people were the cool kids.

I had to add this picture because BOTH my boys have been the AP Stats Correlation King.  My oldest was supposed to ride in this parade as Correlation King, but the band director at the time would not let him out of marching with the band.  The youngest was Correlation King in the spring, so no parade but he wore the crown in school all day.

It turned out to be too cold for good pictures at the football game, and my children are refuseniks when it comes to the dance.  As usual, the Band Boosters did the coat check at the dance, which is always entertaining, but I sat that one out this year.  Hope you enjoyed my Class of 84 flashback!