Oct312008
Homecoming in a small town
Filed under Fall sports, Family, Football, General, Good Ole Days, High School Sports, Parents by bob hammerstrom at 1:00 am
There are many positives to growing up in a small town. The opportunities are more plentiful for athletes where the populations are larger, but the sense of community and closeness of friendships is stronger where I grew up, in Whitehall, Wisconsin.
Homecoming events in small towns are for both the alumni and high school students. Alumni often come home for the weekends to watch the sporting events, attend dances and reunions.
That's me riding on Mark's car with Lisa McRae in the Homecoming Parade. We were in the court.
When I went to school at Whitehall Memorial High School, the weekend started off with a bonfire on Thursday night. The senior football players scoured the countryside for old outhouses and stuff to burn. We built a huge bonfire, with the outhouse on top. Don’t ask me how we got it up there. Those memories were sketchy even the day after.
Football players ride through the Homecoming Parade.
On Friday came the parade and football game. There were other sports during the week. Each class spent many hours constructing a float. Well, a few students worked on it, while most of us goofed off.
This is the 1981 senior class float.
During halftime at the game, cakes made by parents of the players were auctioned off. Parents paid good money to get their child’s cake back.
I didn't do the prettiest job frosting the cake, but my parents were still pressured into buying it back during the Booster Club cake auction.
The Homecoming dance was on Saturday night. Dressed in suits, the court of football players elected by teammates, and senior girls elected by our class, posed for photos on stage. Most of us guys took our dates out to dinner before the dance, and house or barn parties afterwards.
Many of those friends from high school and the football team, are still friends today. They say, you know everybody in a small town. Well, I didn’t know everyone, but between my paper route customers, my friends, and friends of my parents, I think we knew most of them.
-Bob Hammerstrom
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