High school football has gotten a bit more confusing for Hammerhaid.
Back in the day, when Hammerhaid went to a Friday night football game he could usually count on dressing for cold weather with insulated underwear and a topcoat. But you also had to wear black and gold, the team colors of the Murfreesboro Central High Tigers.
That was as much a part of the ritual as drinking black coffee or hot chocolate to stay warm at MTSU’s Horace Jones Field.
But things have changed since the last Ice Age...
Still Hammerhaid manages to attend a high school football game or two every now and then.
“It’s hard to get worked up about a high school team, when the school you attended was closed decades ago,” he explained.
Well, anyway...
Hammerhaid didn’t have to dust off his Murfreesboro Central High School sports blanket for Friday’s game. It was hot under the Friday night lights. And the weather wasn’t the only change.
Siegel High was winning and Riverdale was losing. Oakland was looking strong and H-haid was afraid to mention Blackman because one of those red-shirted residents is probably broilin’ to file a petition against him.
And stop the presses, MTSU beat Maryland, and that, for a change, made the Blue Raiders the talk of the town.
So Hammerhaid, in his collegiate alma mater’s honor, dressed up in his Blue Raider finery. He buried his Vol stuff in the backyard after the UCLA game. And don’t get him started on Vince Young.
“That sweatshirt of a thing was a little too hot, but before the words ‘sweating like a dog’ could pop out of my mouth, I saw a strange thing. There was this teenage girl, all dolled up and carrying a little dog.
“Just when I was about to write that off as a freak occurrence, I spotted another teen girl carrying a dog in a purse-like case,” he said.
While,it wasn’t the “durn’dest” thing Hammerhaid has seen, it was a tad unusual.
Before the half was over, the H-man witnessed several girls carrying pooches.
“OK, I don’t get it. I’m not much for yippie-type dogs anyway, but for the life of me, I can’t understand taking a nervous little yipper to a football game,” he said.
The answer is a simple one: fashion.
Reassuring isn’t it?
“And I thought being in fashioned was important when I was in high school,” Hammerhaid said.
Back in those days, fashion was pretty much dictated by what was available at local stores like Goldsteins, the Men’s Shop and Pigg and Parsons at mighty Jackson Heights.
As for female fashions in those days, there was the Cotton Patch and dresses by The Villager.
It was penny loafers and oxford shoes for everyone.
“You were at the top of the fashion charts if you managed to hitch up the horse and buggy and head to downtown Nashville to Cain-Sloans or Harveys,” Hammerhaid said.
Yep, it was the pre-Izod era, distinguished by one fabulous invention: the mini-skirt.
Now, at high school, it doesn’t matter what you wear as long as it has the words “American Eagle” or “Hollister” emblazoned across it ... unless you are a member of the Hot Topics crowd. And don’t forget those $160 blue jeans that look like something a rag picker found on the side of the road.
T-t-t-t-t-that’s r-r-r-r-r-r-right. |
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