The old high school, band contests and sentimentality...

I'm probably too sentimental for my own good.

Certain things in my life have a lot of sentimental value as is the case with most people but when you haven't been somewhere for a good long while, doing something you loved to do when you were younger all of the memories of what you did come flooding back.

Such was the case yesterday when I accompanied my girlfriend and my son to my old high school football stadium (pictured above) to compete in an annual band contest held there.  My sister had competed and performed  in the same stadium nearly 30 years ago as had many of my friends who were band members and I had helped out along with my parents in staging this event during my sister's tenure as a member of the high school band.

I also attended football games in this stadium as well, and in the nearly three decades since I darkened the halls of the school the football team has become much better than they were in my day.  Then again, so has the school building and everything else that surrounds it.  Of course, this is the steady march of time and nothing more and, reluctantly, I have grown up.  My mother kids me on how sentimental I am about the school system now, for she is an employee and my son is a student, but nevertheless I am.  In 5 years my son will graduate from the same high school I did 31 years after I did, and I think that is way cool.

Today in the stadium I felt very nostalgic indeed.  Granted, when I was at the contest when my sister was in the band I was there not so much out of free will but in the manner of an indentured servant.  I didn't understand the value of having to sacrifice a Saturday in October just to help out my sister back when I was younger, but in saying to me "Richard you WILL be there to help your sister tomorrow" my dear old dad was forging yet another bond between she and I and our family.

I can see that now, of course, in hindsight but it was an irritating interruption to my really pathetic social life back then...also a rather astute adult revelation that I can owe to the unblinking, focused eye of hindsight.

Along with this I also got to support my girlfriend's daughter.  One of the great things about her is that in addition to her musical talent is the fact that she is about two years younger than my daughter would be had she lived and to a degree and from the perimeter I see vicariously what might have been with her had things turned out differently.  Maybe not, and of course I have my son Sean and he has his own talents I love to watch when he competes in Special Olympics.

So while we sat and baked in the October sun today I sat there and kept my head on a swivel, looking around and imagining what things were like when I used to come to that stadium every Friday during the fall for football and that one Saturday in October for my sister's contest.

It's said that you can't go home again and to a degree it's true, but while the marchers played and formed their intricate patterns on the artificial turf of the stadium, (I remembered when it was grass, not turf...back in "the day"), I could see my 17-year old self at the top of the stadium wearing my usual nondescript clothing of the period, and watching without a clue of what was ahead of him in his future.  

I can tell you that I sure as hell did not see myself at age 45 sitting there playing band parent, that's for sure, but seeing that I was going to graduate from high school, get the hell out of town and be rich and famous why would I, right?