A More Merry a Day there could never be!

Fanfare <--- Press

 

Morning! Morning! So happy, so happy! Hehehe ... this is the part where you get to sit back and hear a proud mama bragging about the most wonderful fall day with a couple of her kids :) Yesterday, we traveled to my sons school to watch him cheerlead with his squad.  Hehe, we had to be sent the score to the game, cuz we forgot to pay attention to that. We knew we won though! The final score was 42-10 US! Ok, Ok ... maybe the 28 points in the third quarter were a little extravagent :) We’re following a theory though that it was all because of the great cheering that our son, Jacob, and the other cheerleaders were doing. Hehehe. This was the best kind of day a mother could have because she was sitting next to one beloved son cheering on the other beloved son. There’s just a little aching hole, because one beloved son is still holding back, but yesterday we were very, very appreciative of the ones before us!

The first few moments were odd ... This is the part where all your company shows up exactly at the same correct time. Ya-hoo! There were four of us going.  My friend Margarita and I had just one beer, but #1 son decided that he should drive the women. It was like ... ok! Thanks! There was great conversations to start with and this continued all through the day. Nice hour long car ride each way too, It took a while to drive past the cities, but after a while we were slicing through tall cornfields. Seemed like Macadam, Margarita, and Ms Nancy (Margarita’s young daughter - Age 10) hit it off tremendously. There wasn’t a lot of direct talk between them, but they both maintained an interest as the other talked. Very happy for that, cuz you never know how its going to go.

We got to the football game and seated ... within 15 minutes start of the game which was perfect! Jacob had gotten us seats in the disabled section so it was pretty cool. The seats are on the platform area directly between the bleachers and the rail over looking the game. We sat on two-seater benches about 5 feet away from each other and there was about 6 feet between us and the stands. To the right of us, we had our own private police escort.Well, maybe she was more like looking up and watching the crowds, but we got to talking a few times and she was a pretty smiley kind of person and in a good mood all considering. We had brought three warm blankets and that turned out to be a blessing. Cuzit was a wind chill reading below 32 degrees. Brrr 30-40 mile breeze ... Eh we’re sturdy Chicago people!  After half time, we also found the sandwiches and hot coffee they sell.  There was one other nice thing about here. They were real nice.  The ticket people arranged to get us a scooter on the way to the bleachers. On the trip back to the car after the game, we needed though to walk with a couple of short breaks.  But that or the wind, could not damper the spirit or excitement of what was happening.

Fightsong <-- Press

  To start the game ... we got to listen and watch all the fascinating things happening. There is all that green umm Astra-turf (looked pretty), colorful people, flags, bands, school mascots and the players and cheerleaders! Everything is brilliant with clarity, the air is fresh, the sounds and moods vibrating, the smells of food being heated a short distance away, and loud cheering students in back of us (parents were on the other side) hehe. We learned a new term, the fans screamed, "You suck, you suck!" My Macadam heard this also, looked at me and said plainly, "If you try to do something about this, I will leave!" We smiled as if a caught trout and thought, "My they’re exuberant!" Needless to say the ten year old was fascinated! We’re all under our blankets, and coats, and layers, and hats and gloves, and she turns round backward and stares curiously at the six shirtless males with letters painted across the chest and thinks, hmm, I don't know ... what might a young mind ponder?? We joined the other fans in that as we had entered the stadium, we’d been given long red umm bonkers? They looked like long expensive sausage balloons that you filled with air to clap against each other making loud resonant noises. They also made interesting airplanes as a diversionary plot as the crowd grew more restless.

Watching our Jacob was tremendously satisfying ... they started at the end of the field doing all their official stances as the crowd stood to sing the school song and the National Anthem. There were military people standing at attention and then soon later a few short speeches made welcoming the members of homecoming students and families. There were four people inducted to their Hall of Fame, oh yeah and the marching band, cheerleaders, flag girls and dance squads had all outlined the field to form a path for the home team to enter. That was before the other stuff. There was sooo much to watch and see. And, they had one of those big screen things and an announcer who spoke clearly all the important plays. I had thought at first there was 32,000 people, but maybe that number was lower ... I’m not so good on numbers, but knew the stands were filled to the sky and they had said it was the second most attended homecoming game of the school’s history. Should say here that this college is one of those big State Universities playing against a Michigan team. But, you already heard ... "They sucked!"  Hmm, maybe next time we should sit on the parent's side...

The Game itself was very interesting ... Do you know that if the ground is cold and hard enough a football player will actually bounce on the ground! Yeeks and kadoodle! There’s reasons why some of us mothers are just as happy to see our sons and daughters in gymnastics! Hehe that’s how our son and his best friend got their posts in cheerleading. Need to keep those pretty girls in the air! In all my imagination I couldn’t think to have been a football players mom through elementary, high school, then college play. Just bodies and bodies strewn all over the field! But, ya know ... when one of our guys grabbed one of their guys around the knees and pulled him flat down and then dropped a dozen heavy men on his back, we cheered too! I discovered that in college there is more running than throwing ... was a little disappointed there, but some of the runs were pretty outstanding ... and that little 39 guy, we think they way abused him!  They kept throwing him the ball and then as a crowd would jump him!  Macadam explained some of the game as happened but we’re still getting confused on positions ... and fact is ... I had never realized the kicker had his own special little team ... go figure!

Hail <-- Press

  In my opinion, they don’t dress those kids warm enough though ... I could see lots of arms and calves exposed to the cold weather. My son Macadam and I had a conversation on his thoughts of the girls not wearning their handy-dandy little dresses and bare midriffs. Shoot, we thought isn’t it bad enough their in those skimpy wind-breakers and have no hats! But, he kept shouting, "More middles, more middles!" Hehe that lead to of course a conversation on his having a wife! He said something like, he likes her middle too!  And, then after the game ... when we’d gone out for dinner, my two sons and their adopted brother carried on a perfectly far-fetched conversation outlining the details of each of these pretty girls, umm middles ... oh and their minds too! Double Hmmm. But, we’re jumping ahead of ourselves...

Jacob and the other cheerleaders ... did a marvelous job! They performed lots of backward flips and routines to get girls up to four levels high. My son didn’t point out the one who held out her elbows coming down that gave him those fancy stitches under his eye.  He's never been one to tell tales out of school. I think my favorite memory more than even the fancy tricks were the ones of Jacob doing the cheering while looking up into the stadium stands holding his megaphone. Jacob stands at the end of the line and was the first one to do each of their tasks such as running out to the field with flags or huskies, or starting the push-ups that the squad does for every point gained by the football players. The thing is ... I had him perfectly silhouetted in my view. What I was seeing was a strong handsome male who looks "All-American" standing in front of thousands of people motivating them to cheer louder and louder.  And, this person was my wonderful son!  He looked alive and happy and in control of his ambitions. Just could bring a mom to tears. It was kind of funny ... at one point the cheerleading squad stretches itself down the length of the field and they throw into the stands wrapped t-shirts which people lunge at. Jacob placed himself in front of us and threw one of his t-shirts to his brother. Couldn’t have made his older brother more happy, or more proud.  I listened in this sense of heightened pride as Macadam explained it to our friend the woman policeman.  She had moaned loudly for not having grabbed herself the shirt.  Macadam didn't stop beaming as he told her that he was special because he was Jacob’s brother. Nothing she could do except say, "Awe..."

After the game was over ... we all met up and packed ourselves into my Grand Am that was a person or two small ... Hehehe no one complained and I think some felt fortunate to be warming themselves up against another. Jacob remembered he had ate at a restaurant that he had liked. And just like my Jacob, he couldn’t remember which street he had left this wonderful meal.  The three boys worked to piece it together. Shoot this #3 son is so much like his "confused" mama with street directions! That’s why people like us let people like #1 son drive! I should have figured Jacob would take us to a reasonably priced restaurant ... that is in his collegiate style. The other boys have already gone on to enjoying fancier meals. God Bless them all! The food was sufficient, the hot chocolate warm and the chatter never ended! I got in my fair share of catching up with college-son type questions ... you know ... How’s your money holding up?  How’s your grades?  Do you have a girl friend!??  Then we quizzed his best buddy of the same ... He's long since been part of our family! Then we let Macadam take over the lead. They are a marvelous conversationalists. Macadam and #2 missing son Tanner are down at the Chicago Board of Trade and Jacob the psychology major and his friend the accounting major will be joining the first two brothers at the board as soon as they graduate in about two years.  It’s something to hear them in their young adulthood making strategies to take on their full adulthood. They talk of skills and aptitudes and thousands of dollars as if no more extracting than a game of Monopoly.

Drum <-- Press

  And us? We remember for a moment the days of having served them and their buddies cookies and lemonade and the board game had pieces, disks and dice. We figure ... they are still our wonderful boys and there is absolutely nothing in this world that could make us more happy. It was a very good day. Foreseeable to be the best in a hundred years! They sure make me proud ...Yay for all the special days that make up a life time of love and awe!!!  Yep, yep ... pretty gosh darned happy :)

Thrasher < Press

  Jacob is six people from the left and his adopted brother is five people from the right.

This entry was written this weekend the day after the game against my son's college Northern Illinois University against Central Michigan State.  Thanks to Judith for stopping by.  Upon following her sneakily back to her place, we discovered this wonderful fall writing contest, called "Judith Heartsong's Painting for an Essay Contest."  Yay Judith!!  Link to the entry HERE!!