A week ago Friday night, my wife and I went to a high school football game with a few other couples and some other friends. My little buddy Shawn from church is a senior and starts on the Northwood football team as a cornerback on defense.
Northwood is in Nappanee, which is way south of here. They played Northridge, which happens to be in my hometown of Middlebury. I don’t know what the Nappanee-ers were thinking when they named their high school, but possibly they should have considered “Southwood.”
The football game was fun. I have my anti-sports image to keep up, but I like football in a casual way. I spent a lot of time down at the hot dog stand though.
The high school choir opened things up with an a cappella version of the star spangled banner. Nice little choir. What really impressed me was that two of the football players were in it!
They had a big ol’ marching band too, that was cool. Except I couldn’t understand any of the words to the songs.
But the thing that amazed me the most was the trumpets!
Never in my life have I seen such huge trumpets! Look at this, here, I got a closer-up:
Good gravy, I didn’t know they made such gargantuan trumpets. They’re so enormous they have to wrap all around you and behind your head and all over. I wonder what they must weigh.
In my ignorance I always thought that trumpets only came in the small traffic-cone-shaped variety, but I guess you learn new things all the time.
Like I said, Northridge is from my town. However, I strongly favored Southwood, and not only because of my little buddy Shawn. Northridge has drawn my ire and totally repulsed me. About a mile from my house, right on the main road, they have this sign next to their soccer field:
That’s the most repugnant, unpatriotic, anti-American sentiment I’ve ever personally seen expressed in public. Turns my stomach.
6 Responses
September 30th, 2006 at 9:27 am
Then JSN.
As in “Just Say No” as Nancy Reagan told you to do.
September 30th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Yessir, trumpets come in all shapes and sizes, just like “iggles” come in all COLORS and sizes, remember?
September 30th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
You jest as usual. Everyone but me probably knew this, but I had to ask Eric, my trumpet-playing band-student son, what that really is. In case anyone else is as ignorant as I, he informed me it’s a sousaphone, a tuba used for marching band. Thanks for the educational opportunity!
October 1st, 2006 at 11:18 am
If you really want some light-hearted “sports”, come watch 4rth grade volleyball!
October 1st, 2006 at 11:35 am
I see some good has already started to come out of losing nate. It appears that you’ll have more free time to enjoy Football. I usually find that when a marching band is playing its a good time to visit the local concession stand.
October 2nd, 2006 at 7:21 am
And they say immigrants should learn English…