Smells Like School Spirit

I must brag that during one of the pep rallies when I played football in high school I won "Mr. Sexy Legs." What seemed to be a fun time, turned about to be a curse though. I have fought all my life against being just a sex symbol. Yet, I loved the school spirit we had back then when it was a simpler time. There was not the muss and fuss like now when cheerleaders have the extra hassle of getting their cell phones through the metal detectors or with the football team carrying the extra weight of flap jackets. But can we expect school spirit to really be the same?

Well, some things are. There will always be the band geeks with their braces and glasses and other assorted correction devices attached to their heads. But that's ok, because it's just good training for them when they wear space masks aboard the shuttle or when they're on the headset phone getting advice from Ted Turner on how to run a Fortune 500 company. It's also still the same with metal folding chairs lining the stage; occupied by the principal, coach and always the librarian. Just why is she always up there anyway? And why does the principal always tap and beat on the mike? Violence against children? How about the brutality against p.a. equipment?

In the old days when I was being "pepped." It was much the same as today, lots of thrilling camaraderie and esprit de corps among the football players. Ok, maybe the slaps on the backside came with a little less baggage or suspicion, but still, the game was about the guys, about the team and still is. And what can be more substantial than a 60-member squad of whooping, crazed two-hundred-pounders with enough raging hormones to arm a nuclear warhead.

Over the years, school spirit has changed though too. In the old days students were satisfied to gleefully grin and cheer and scream for their school or their class during the typical pep rally. Kids today are much more disaffected and detached. Today it wouldn't be cool to jump up and down yelling, "Go Chiefs," not to mention the legal liability of hitting someone in the eye if the bolt flew out of your pierced tongue.

Cheers were much simpler in the old day's too with simple chants like "Rah rah ree kick'em in the knee." Today you might hear, "Raw raw meat, shoot'em in the street." Two bits? Kids today don't even know what two bits are. Today they would cheer, "Two packs, 4 packs 6 packs a carton, let's get outta here a drug bust is startin'" Luckily cheerleaders through the ages have always remained the same. Always the perkiest, most persecuted subculture in the school, marrying the best looking guys and divorced in 5 years.

It is harder today too, because schools have more than the original 3 sports; football, baseball and basketball. But how does one have school spirit for golf? Or bowling? Can you imagine having a pep rally just for the bowling team? What would the band play? And would they have to wear those awful shoes? Does the Flag Core show up at the Golf matches? And how would the golfer know where to hit the ball with all those flags moving all over the course?

Nevertheless school spirit and pep rallies are still a rite of passage for every student growing up. And still the greatest way in the world to get out of 6th period.

Billy Murphy 9/24/99
email: Billy@gretsch.com
http://billymurphy.homepage.com