Hopefully, we will end on a high note this week. I have talked a little bit about the potential drawbacks of living in a small town. However, one of the great things about living in a small town is the cohesiveness around something (sometimes). One of those seem to be football on Friday nights. Sure, not everyone is there but those that are are into it.

It was 2012 when we had some discussions with my wife’s sister about my nephew coming to live with us. I won’t get into all the dynamics of the decision, but in essence he moved in around the time school started. At that point, he was in eighth grade and played football. At that time playing in middle school games were on Wednesday. As he progressed in High School, Freshman games were on Thursday and then JV games were on opposite fields of the Varsity game but on Fridays. We became accustomed to scheduling our Friday Nights around the football schedule.

Since my nephew graduated over four years ago, we haven’t attended games so rigidly as previously. But it doesn’t mean that we haven’t gone to a game or two a year. Last year, was atypical because the games were in the spring and attendance was limited to parents of the players and a handful of students. This year, things are back to a degree of normalcy and my kids are playing in the Pep Band. So, I watched the game last Friday once again.

To try and express what I am feeling better I will try to describe the environment. In the middle picture it is halftime. Local children are playing catch on the field. The last picture is post the game and parents, players, fans and others are socializing on the field. To me that says that we belong here.

One year, we were watching the homecoming game and to our surprise, there were fireworks after the game. Apparently, fireworks were ordered for another event in town and it got rained out so they decided to launch the fireworks at the football game instead. I haven’t seen this in a couple of years, but for a short time there was a pre-game tailgater.

End Your Programming Routine: I am not saying that a stadium that holds maybe 1000 people represents the entire community. There are a number of people that choose to run their business or don’t have any current connections to the school, maybe their children attended. But for those that chose to attend, it does represent what is good about living in a small town.