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Friday, October 22, 2010

Flashback Friday: Flashes of Homecoming


This picture triggers so many memories for me.  Little flashes, each like a light bulb, sparking to mind a piece of high school tradition.  Now, I wasn't the most popular girl. Not a whole lot of school spirit particularly.  But in my senior year, when I had some real leadership roles on campus, my interest in homecoming rose significantly.
* I remember making "fluffies" in French class; then spending hours at the fairgrounds overseeing the construction and painting of the float I'd designed (it was a pirate hanging by a noose from under the Arc du Triumph with a Tiger-turned-Peter Pan standing in front).  The theme was Disney and our rivals that year were the pirates.  It worked out pretty well.
* I remember buying my dress while on a debate trip to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.  That's one way to assure no one else has the same dress as you...
(GRAINY! This is what happens when you take a picture with your iPhone while pic is still in the old-timey photo album with plastic covering it. You get the idea.)

* I remember riding down the parade route in my step-dad's red convertible representing S.A.A.V.E. (Students Against the Aids Virus Everywhere).  I was the President that year and chosen to represent the club in the parade.
* I remember decorating the S.A.A.V.E. car (we weren't big enough to make a float) with a Sleeping Beauty theme that included drawings of a hypodermic needle and the phrase "block that prick."
Here's what I don't remember:
* the game
* being announced at the game and walking across the field (I only even know I did this because I just saw a picture.  Hump.)
* the dance
Which suggests to me as an author, that for teens, it's details and real slices of life that matter.  Things that seem so huge at the time are often lost in the blur, but activities to which you contributed and played a meaningful role stay prominent in our memories.
What say you??  Do the bigger events stand out, or particular little details?

5 comments:

S.A. Larsenッ said...

I love that picture!! So sweet! I'm a details, kind of gal. So, yeah, the more intimate details are what get me.

LM Preston said...

Well my homecomings weren't quite as nice. Although in college I was in the Home Coming court - sweet! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. We also took my kids to my old college for the homecoming parade and they loved it.

Melissa said...

Details. I am definitely in the details the smallest change can change so much!

cleemckenzie said...

What great memories, Jessie. I guess I keep memories of the people more than I do of the event--detail or otherwise.

Brenda Drake said...

Hi, came by to judge the Cliffhanger blogfest. http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com I'll come back and see if you post an entry later. :D

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