when I was a student at WVU and a member of the University marching band, one of the candidates for Homecoming Queen was a fellow band member. Most queen candidates dress up in fall suits and heels, with a giant mum pinned to their lapels. But our candidate wore her band uniform. When her name was called, she set down her tuba and confidently walked to the lineup. She won, posed for a few pictures, went back to her tuba and finished the halftime show. With her brand new tiara in place!

I had planned on going to this game, but the weather was miserable, so I stayed home. It is kind of a mixed emotion place for me to go. Dad's name is up there on the score board, which makes me so incredibly proud, but also very sad because he's no longer with us.

You never stop missing him, but the memories get sweeter as time goes by.

Maybe the weather will be better next year!

A male cheerleader as homecoming king.

When I went to school there, a cheerleader was ALWAYS voted Homecoming Queen. It just seemed to be an unbreakable tradition. That was until my senior year when we broke the mold and elected someone from the Music/Theater crowd. She was the only non-cheerleader nominated, that year.

In my high school, the homecoming king and queen were ALWAYS the starting quarterback of the football team and the head cheerleader. They'd have the whole election thing and at the end...starting quarterback and head cheerleader, and the homecoming court was the other five girls on the cheerleading squad and five popular football players.

When I was a junior, the student body agreed to stop holding the homecoming election since it was a waste of time anyway.

The whole week is devoted to one activity, or another, at the high school. They started the intramural "class challenges" games, a few years before I started high school. That was another of our 'rule breakers'. As Freshmen we came in 2nd, in the games, and also came in 2nd, in the homecoming float contest. Freshmen were ALWAYS expected to be in 4th place.

The next year we spearheaded a campaign to break the dress code and we succeeded. Our senior year we staged a massive sit down strike when they tried to suspend someone, from our class, just days before graduation, for something he posted in the "Class Will". It was cheeky, slightly slanderous, and absolutely hilarious. They ended up letting him graduate with the class.

My Dad was part of the school administration, and years later he told me they were counting the days until my class graduated, because we were a handful. I take great pride in that.