Musician's Widow

Its no secret I’m an Aggie. Born. Bred. Its in my blood. I have the diploma on the wall.

I root for my team whether they win, lose or tie.

But I have to admit. There are times, its an effort to continue to root them on with optimism. It’s hard to watch a team you care about, basically, just fall apart.

I have our game on as I write this. I was optimistic at the half — optimistic that we would get just killed this game. We were holding the score down. Then, as we have habit to do, the third quarter came and the game ran away from us. As I sit here and stare at the current 41 – 17 score, I just sigh and shake my head.

Oh I will very proudly still be wearing my Aggie earrings and necklace when I work tonight. I’m still a proud, hardcore Aggie fan. That will never change.

I always support my team… especially when the support gets tough to give.

My alma mater competed in the state football championship tonight. Thanks to Fox Sports Southwest, I was able to watch the game online. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter I was able to watch it with fellow alumni, as we all screamed at our computer screens. Jumped up and down. And scared our children (literal for most of them, my cat just stayed far far away).

My Cameron Yoemen lost by 6 points in the last 30 seconds of a game that Hollywood could not have scripted. This game was what Texas High School football is all about. My friend told me via text that this game would be better than any collegiate or NFL game I’d watched all year…

…she was right.

I have always been proud of my alma mater. A school with family history. A school whose traditions so mirrored my college’s that the transition from one to another was seamless. But over time, I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten the adrenaline of a great high school football game. I’d forgotten the pride my school has. I’d forgotten how I am forever a Cameron Yoemen, with a loyalty that I find is hard to find in schools here in Tennessee. (Oh there’s a school pride, so no Nashvillians hang me for saying that. There’s just an almost rabid quality to it back home. There is a reason all the football movies made are set in Texas.)

I found myself glued to the computer screen, literally yelling and cheering for my team. I could hear the band play and found myself chanting old cheers along with the cheerleaders. I was 18 again for awhile.

To any Cameron Yoemen who might stumble upon this blog: HOLD YOUR HEAD HIGH. What I watched tonight was the most incredible high school football game I’d ever witnessed. You’ll be back next year, fighting for that state title again. You played an incredible game, an incredible season. I wish I could have been in that high school parking lot in front of the athletic building, right along side dozens of other Yoe fans and alumni, welcoming you back home after a long ride back. You probably spent the ride going over the, “Coulda, woulda, shouldas” but they do no good now. No, now you need to bask in the glow of the best season this school has had in thirty years.

Congratulations, Yoemen. You did the whole Yoe Nation proud… you played an amazing game. Amazing. And when I come home at Christmas, I WILL be getting myself Yoemen swag to wear proudly around Music City… Because you have reminded me of a part of my roots I’d “forgotten” about, a part that I am ready to tell anyone who asks about.

GO BIG YOE!

Game Watching Party

When I first moved to Nashville four years ago, I found myself seeking out friendships. I had never been very good at meeting people. Believe it or not, I can count on one hand the people I met and “befriended” in college… and I’d have fingers left over. I had just never learned how to assert myself and meet new people (a trait that I thankfully have developed over time) and as such, I became good at being a loner.

My husband came with a built in group of friends who, thankfully, all accepted me with open arms. However, I craved people who understood my love of Texas. Who were from where I was from. Who could understand a part of me that I could never explain. I wanted my Aggies.

So, I sent an email to the only contact I could find on the local A&M club web-site. I asked about opportunities to get together with other Aggies, and to my delight an email came shorty later. There would be a football game watching party coming up that I was encouraged to attend.

Texas A&M was playing Oklahoma, and my husband was out of town on the road. I wanted to go and somehow relive the days of standing at Kyle Field rooting on my Aggies. So, despite having no clue where I was going, and this being pre-GPS days, I headed out that Saturday evening armed with nothing more than a map from MapQuest. I wasn’t even guaranteed I’d be able to call my husband for directions, and I didn’t have anyone else’s number yet. Nonetheless, nervous as can be, I went.

It was the only party I made it to that year, but it was wonderful. I was surrounded by Aggies again. I was surrounded by people who knew where I was from. Who understood my passion for my school. We, ironically, ended up at the same location as the Oklahoma alumni group, which I, personally, found to make it even more fun. I don’t think anyone else would agree with me of that, but I sure enjoyed it.

This weekend, Texas A&M will face Oklahoma again, and due to that first game watching party, this game always holds a little place in my heart as a favorite.

Unfortunately, I have been very disappointed and frustrated with this year’s game watching parties. I missed one due to not feeling well, but I’ve been to all the rest. We’ve never had more than four people at a party. Oh don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy these people and I think they’d be the people I’d sit with even if we had a huge group attend. But, it gets disheartening to try to put a party together only to not have anyone show up.

Being deep in SEC territory, we have to work to find a location that will show our game without pushing us out mid-game for another game. (Its happened before.) Evening games means finding a venue that doesn’t have live music at night. We like to keep it family-friendly, which usually means venues that close early. We’ve really had to juggle to find locations that will work, and this week I really wanted to throw in the towel. I was just fed up and done with the parties due to the (perceived) lack of interest.

Then I remembered my first game watching party and how much it meant to me. And I thought to myself, “What if there is a new Aggie here who is where I was four years ago? What if our party could be their chance to reach out to people from home?”

So this weekend, we will gather again. Probably three of us will be there. But we will gather and we will enjoy the evening. I’ll be glad we got together. I always am. It doesn’t matter if its two Aggies or twenty, its a touch of back home for an evening. I appreciate it and love it.

My husband ROCKS about supporting my team. He wears Aggie shirts more often than I do! He’s all for all the Aggie license plate I’ve added to our truck. He hates missing my Aggie Game Watching parties.

And my team, frankly, has been sucking lately.

My husband’s team, however, is rocking. He attended he University of Oregon, and as such I do have a few Oregon shirts and I happily rock a bright green scarf in support. I’m even thinking about our adding an Oregon bumper sticker to the truck.

I write tonight from a sports bar in Nashville, rockin’ my scarf. Hubby is decked out in Duck gear. We are waiting for the Oregon game to kick off, and I very happily will shout GO DUCKS!!! at any opportunity.

I’ve forever been a staunch Aggie. Maroon and white was all you’d find me wearing. But today, in support of my husbands team, I happily wear green and yellow. I follow their scores and stats.

They are my second favorite team in the country. And I am more than happy to say that.

(Not happy to realize they’d totally kick my Aggies butts if they played, though… but that’s… not something to discuss.)

GO DUCKS!!

That picture is my attempt to be all “bad ass” and stuff. It didn’t work, but I am wearing my Battle of the Bell t-shirt for tonight’s big game.

Battle of the bell?

Big game?

Yes, tonight is the night my high school plays its #1 rival, a competition that has long been called “The Battle of the Bell.”  The Cameron Yoeman take on the Rockdale Tigers, and while I live over 800 miles away, I still feel that old competition course through my veins.

According to the History of Rockdale, Milam County Website, (and, yes, I am quoting word-for-word here):
The Rockdale-Cameron game is one of the state’s best rivalry games.Since 1954, the winner has proudly rung a big brass victory bell, which is symbolic of Milam County football supremacy. The bell, taken from a steam locomotive, was donated to the two schools by the Rockdale, Sandow & Southern Railroad in 1954. Bragging rights to Milam County football supremacy come with the bell; therefore, the two communities encourage their charges to bring home the brass beauty for another year. Over the years the bell has helped fuel one of Texas high school football’s longest and most-storied rivalries.

That same bell was the one that we fought over when I was in high school. I was proud when the bell came back to Cameron one year, we did repaint it the more traditional half maroon and gray (Cameron) and half blue and gold (Rockdale). It didn’t last though, and each year it went back to being painted the color of whatever school had it for that year.

The bell broke multiple times over the years, and one time was actually stolen and thrown into the Little River (which runs through Milam County). I have to say, I had plenty of time even I wanted to throw the bell in the river. The rivalry could get as ugly and nasty as any college rivalry until I had times I wondered if it was worth the stress. However, at the end of the day, I will always have an interest in the rivalry.

As I said, the bell broke many times over, and in 2001 it was replaced with a new, almost identical, brass bell by Yoe High School graduate Catherine Thomas. Fitting considering the fact that my CAMERON YOEMEN hold the winning record for the series. According to a post on the Cameron Yoeman Facebook page, we won 38 times in the 55 meetings: 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1971-75, 1978, 1979, 1981-87, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996 – 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008

Hopefully tonight we will make it win 39 in 56.

This is one of the very few years Cameron and Rockdale will battle without being in the same district. In fact, currently Cameron is ranked 2A, while Rockdale remained 3A in the recent district realignments. In the past, this game has been left for the last game of the season. Often its even been the game that decided which team would move into playoffs.

This year, it is played early and with nothing but a bell and bragging rights on the line… oh that and to move on with an undefeated season. When it comes to this game, district rankings and the years win-loss stats matter none, though. This is about heart and a deeper rivalry that Hollywood blockbusters are made from. I’ve lived that rivalry… and tonight I sit here in my old Battle of the Bell t-shirt with my school’s song playing in my head…

“On Yoe High” (Written by Portia Kruse and Francis Cox) Praise to our school we sing, each his loyal honor brings; Together we the Yoemen stand, to spread our praise through all the land.  To represent as best we can, in all our competition, and our hopes, our pride, our love compound in you, dear school.

Yay Maroon!  Yay Gray! Yay Yoemen! ALL THE WAY!!

Fight Song: “Our Boys Will Shine Tonight” Our boys will shine tonight; our boys will shine. Our boys will shine tonight; our boys will shine. Our boys will shine tonight; our boys will shine. When the sun goes down and the moon comes up, our boys will shine.

>>  Post game update:  Cameron Yoemen take the win 35 – 13!  GO BIG YOE!! <<

I live a few blocks away from a high school, and in the fall we can listen to football games being played from our backyard. Tonight, I have my windows open and I’m listening to a combination of the football announcer, the band playing and crickets chirping. Guy Fieri and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives flashes across my almost-muted TV.

This is a fairly typical Friday night for me these days, but back in high school Fridays made for long days.

I was in the marching band, first as a flute player then later as a member of the colorguard. Friday nights meant game time. There’s a reason why all the high school football movies are set in Texas. There’s a rabid love for the game at the high school level that I just truly don’t think anywhere else can duplicate. There’s a passion and a love for football across the country, but its definitely amped up a notch or two down there.

In my hometown, I think we lived for football season. It’s when the town came to life. It’s when there was a little extra pride to be found in everyone’s eyes.

As I said, Fridays were long days for me during football season. I lived in the country, which meant when school let out, I almost never went home between school and game-time. There just wasn’t enough time to make it a worthwhile trip. Many times I would leave home around 7:30 am, and I’d not return home until well after midnight (if it was an away game). But that didn’t matter. I ran on an adrenaline that no cup of coffee could ever recreate.

It was all about the lights and the field. It was about the war that was going to be waged goal line to goal line. It was the sound of the band and the smell of the popcorn. It was the little kids watching with glowing eyes; some day they’d play the game or be the cheerleader. It’s the socializing side of the night, when friends would get together and gossip about their week. It was the parents watching with pride (and the mothers watching with a little big of fear). It was the sound of the announcer’s voice booming over the speakers.

“TOUCHDOWN!!”

Eventually, though, we all graduate. We play our last game. March our last half-time show. Cheer our last cheer. Sing our school song with arms around our classmates for the last time. We close that chapter of our lives and we all move on…

…until we hear that announcer across a quiet late-summer/early-fall night. We hear the horns and the drums and the clash of helmets. And if only for three or hour hours we go back to those high school glory-days and let today’s worries and stresses get washed away.

It’s the magic of the Friday night lights, and I, for one, am glad they are back.