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.