Family History Month - Challenge #3

One of my favorite genealogical webistes, Afrigeneas, is observing Family History Month by challenging us to remember various family activities during the the month of October. Both the blogging and non-blogging family researchers are really enjoying the challenges.

Today marks the end of CHALLENGE #3 and I've not written anything, yet. Yikes!

The instructions for the third challenge were as follows:

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5 through 6 (yes! one extra day.), write and post a photo about either: 1. School days (at any age) or 2: Autumn / fall memories.

I decided to write about autumn / fall memories.

Next to Spring, Fall is my favorite time of the year. Two of my favorite things, football but especially HS football and the county fair took place during the fall months. I initially thought I would discuss both the football and county fair memories but have decided to just talk about the football ones. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did remembering them.

I'm really not sure how or when I ever got into football. Maybe it was the pride that the local black community exhibited over two of their own, Bobby Bell (Kansas City Chiefs 1963 - 1974) and Melvin Phillips (San Franciso 49ers 1966 - 1977) who I've never met because they were way older than me (about 20 years) or maybe it was that I was part tomboy but all I know is that by the time the Miami Dolphins had their perfect season, I had been bitten hard by this sport.

My earliest rememberances of being totally excited about football were Friday night football games with my dad. My dad was a teacher at the HS and sometimes had to work the games but often went even when he didn't have to. I would always tag along and my cousin Daryl, a year younger, would come, too. Back in those days Daryl and I were almost joined at the hip as you often didn't see one of us without the other.

The routine was the same each week there was a home game. Darryl and I would discuss who we were playing, what we were going to use as confetti, etc. until the excitement of Friday night arrived.  Even daddy's Friday night routine was the same. Daddy always got into the games free because he was a teacher but he was supposed to pay for me and Daryl. For lack of a better word, daddy was and is cheap. So every Friday night he was always saying to one of his fellow teachers who was working the gate "what about my little girl and nephew?" and he always received the usual nod of go ahead. To my knowledge, daddy never once paid for us to attend a game and this carried on through junior high. When I got to HS, I could get in free on my own because I was in band.

Once inside, Darryl and I always took our usual spot down on the front row while daddy went off to do whatever it is he was supposed to be doing. We jumped up and down and cheered furiously whenever our Golden Lions scored. There was always somebody throwing real confetti, which Daryl and I were always jealous of because we never had any but were always plotting how to get some. We knew better than to ask that someone buy this for us. So, every week we would create our own confetti by asking everyone around us if we could have their empty popcorn boxes. While we would tear the pieces of empty popcorn boxes as small as we could get them, it was never quite the same as having the real stuff but we still had fun tossing them into the air just the same. At the end of the game, there always seem to be a bit of a let down that all the excitement and fun had come to an end. But then we would get geared up and get going for another week.

Daryl and I rarely ever see each other now even though he's still in the hometown and I'm not to far away, and as I progressed through junior high and then HS, I was in the band and later became a majorette during marching season which created an entirely different set of Friday Night Football memeories. Yet, when that fall crispness hits the air, my mind always seems to drift back to those wonderful Friday nights spent in George Blanton Memorial stadium with my cousin Daryl, my dad, and our Shelby High Golden Lions.

George Blanton Memorial Stadium

Until Next Time!