Day 132

9/23/22

It was "raining cats and dogs" when I did my evening walk tonight...well, dogs anyway! Double bonus: Anoka's Homecoming game at Goodrich Field!

As I stood there, watching the team take the field, I thought back (almost 50 years ago) to when I thought Homecoming meant the team returned from away games! After graduation, I came home to the annual Homecoming Game and sat at the game with my dad. The second year we shared the bleachers, he leaned over and said, "It's not the same, is it?" I sadly agreed as I watched the Marching Tornadoes take the field for half time and realized I only knew a few members of the group that defined my high school career.

My dad, and his best friend Bob Johnson, was on the team that first played at Goodrich Field in the early 1930's. He told me that the coach had the team lie down in the end zone and roll to the other end of the field...picking up the sandburs as they went! When they rolled to a stop, they were directed to pick them all off and dispose of the nasty burrs! He also said that there were only enough jerseys for the team members on the field. When the offensive players came off, they would remove their jerseys and hand it to the defensive players. Times have certainly changed!

Standing in the rain watching the Tornadoes play brought back so many wonderful memories of my time in high school, but it also made me smile to see and hear the excitement from the bleachers tonight. It's not the same, but still wonderful.

Home to dry my wet dogs (I still love that smell) and let Gus and Sam have their evening wrestling match. Life was good in the 1930's, in the 1970's and even in 2022. It's just a different kind of "good!"