Friday nights in the fall are made for high school football. Watching from the press box, it is interesting to see all the many kinds of people showing up to support the different activities which take place during four quarters of a football game. Brent Tomberlin For a few hours, it seems most people are blessed and happy.
The student section is doing their thing. The parents are watching their athlete or band member perform. Some people simply come to eat the nachos and fries flooded with cheese and chili.
Still, others come to watch and revisit the glory days when it was their turn to be on the field. Everyone seems to have their favorite moments: Kickoff, the halftime band performance, the team prayer at the end of the game, the playing of the alma mater, the mad dash to the restroom at halftime, and perhaps the walk down a memory lane. As we say in the South, “It’s all good.
” And, of course, there is the best moment. The students carrying the American flag walk out onto the field before the game and our country’s National Anthem is played either through the sound system or by the marching band. For a few moments, no one is right or left, extreme or center.
For a few moments, gentlemen tip their hats in honor of something greater. Most people stand and stop what they are doing. Conversations, both silly and deep, end for a moment.
The focus is on the students with the rifles and the flags of the country and the state dipped in honor. The words and the music remind.