Rock Bridge High Homecoming

With the month of October, many things probably come to mind. Fall, leaves changing, warmer clothes, baseball playoffs, and Halloween. But for the past four years, homecoming has also been on that list for me, a high school student. Now, being a college freshman, the word "homecoming" has a bit of a different meaning. But on Friday night, with my roommate Rachel Kiser, I was able to remember what homecoming meant as a high schooler when I visited her

homecoming game, at Rock Bridge Senior High.

Although this wasn't my high school, just sitting on the cold, hard bleachers under the "Friday Night Lights" brought back memories of my high school homecomings, as we sat there bundled up with our hot chocolate screaming for boys that we didn't know to make a good play. We excitedly watched the marching band perform their contest show, "Winter", and remembered what it had been like to work that hard to perform for less than ten minutes each week.

Rachel and I compared notes on our respective highschool's homecoming cultures. They had some differences, for instance, in Texas we make our dates "mums and garters" which is a tradition completely unique to highschools in Texas and a select few in Arkansas. At Rock Bridge, the homecoming queen candidates participate in some embarassing antic during the lunch periods each day the week of homecoming such as tricycle races and dance-offs. There are some traditions that appear to be nation wide, however, such as themed dress-up days, and a parade on Friday which features the homecoming queen candidates and different school organizations such as Student Council and Key Club.

Overall, we came to the conclusion that homecoming week is something pretty much everyone looks forward to in the fall, and the sense of community achieved during that particular football game every year is unprecedented by almost any other, making it a tradition that is here to stay.

Eventually, the nine homecoming queen candidates were forced to shed their heavy coats that were over their gorgeous gowns as principal Kathy Ritter read their names and organizations they were involved in as they walked to their respective yard-lines on the field with their dates on their arms, and Monique White was crowned.

And finally, the peak of the night came when the Bruins won, 36-32.