It was only one of the biggest events of the school year, the Homecoming game. The band had spent weeks practicing on the perfect song, the ball team had been preparing extra hard, and the queen candidates had picked the perfect dress ensemble. The gym was decorated with lots of balloons and tulle. It was packed. The ball players looked stellar with their warm ups on. They escorted the cheerleaders in the gym. Then followed the girls in their ball gowns, they were beautiful, big hair and all.
This past Friday I attended the Homecoming game at my old high school. My little brother was nominated for King , so of course, his big sister was there to cheer him on. The night was great, and even though he wasn't crowned king, I was still proud. After I left, I was thinking about how much had changed in the 12 years since I roamed the halls of the school at Borden.
For those of you who don't know, I went to school in the same building for all 12 years. The elementary school was located upstairs, the Jr and Sr high school was located downstairs. Even today, grades k-12 are still in the same building, but there has been much growth and improvement. Change is good, but sometimes it is funny to remember about how things "used to be".
When I was in school we didn't have air conditioning. I can remember sitting in class in late August feeling on the verge of a heat stroke at times. The cooks would roll a cart down the hall with trays of ice and white styrofoam cups. That was how we were supposed to cool off, a cup of ice when the heat index was 105! Speaking of the weather, we didn't have snow days for a dusting or a few inches of snow. Our school bus drivers had freaking chains on their tires! We were bundled from head to toe, but we had school.
When we played softball and little league baseball back in the day we played at the "town park". It was an all dirt field across the street from the Borden Tavern and Brewer's General Store. There wasn't a concession stand, we walked across the street to the store for a bologna and cheese sandwich with white bread and miracle whip. Brewers had the BEST sandwiches. If you could hit a home run in the trees, you were definitely going to make the All stars. While we were waiting for our team to play we would hit the playground in front of the Borden Mansion, or better yet, ride our bikes down the school hill. There was nothing like the sound of the chains squeaking just to see how high we could swing. When we were older, sometimes we would even sneak behind the old shelter house and maybe have our first kiss! After the game the town drunks would come out of the tavern and cheer us on and we would go to Judy's Dairy Barn for a dip cone. Speaking of the town park, what about the Saturday morning flea markets? I can remember getting those belts that were actually chains with charms all over them or a cheap birthstone ring.
When we were in school spirit week was the best week of the year. The week would have theme days such as hat day, or pajama day. At the end of the week it was red and black day. The entire school would be decked out in their red and black attire. A school wide pep session closed the school day with the big game that night. The entire school k-12 attended the pep session, it was so cool as an elementary student getting to go to the high school gym and hear the pep band play and see the ball team!
The fall festival was another highlight of the the school year. There was everything from a cake walk to paying a dollar to get a baseball bat and smash an old car out in the parking lot for fun. We actually had a REAL turkey dinner made by the cooks and it was always soooo good!
If you were in elementary school when Mr Hobbs was the principle we all knew what 1-2-3 meant...THANK YOU!! What the heck is this that they don't call the class parties "Halloween Parties" or "Christmas Parties". Now they are called holiday parties, and it doesn't seem the same.
Silk shirts, stone washed pleated jeans tight rolled, all while wearing eastlands(with the shoe strings rolled) or white canvas keds tennis shoes. Umbro shorts and color changing t shirts. Those were the days. They were good days. They are days that I miss.
Change is inevitable, change is necessary, and most of the time, change is good. Even though things have changed since I was in school, our school continues to grow, and continues to be the special place that it always has been. I know that most of you who aren't from Borden probably won't appreciate this blog like those of us that call this school home, but it was a great place to go to school and an even better place to grow up. Even though this small town girl lives in the city now, it is always good to go home. I hope that one day my kids can experience a school like Borden. Maybe they will get the chance to be Braves after all...
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