On growing up and Friday nights in Lexington.

I heard this song today again and each time I hear it, I go back to Friday nights…………….:

Friday nights.

Friday night lights; bright lights.

Red and white, lots and lots of red and white, everywhere red and white.

Cars covered in red and white shoe polish on the windows.

Ballgames when it’s so cold that lips stick to the mouthpiece but you play on anyway.

Ballgames when it’s so hot that the fuzzy blankets and vests and buckets on your head make you nearly pass out of heat stroke but you played on anyway.

Ballgames where it was tight and when the ball crossed the Big Red line, Leeburn would yell FIGHT SONG!

Ta da da daaa da da daaaaaa, ta da da da da da da daaaaaaa.. You know how it went.

I think pretty girls with big pom poms kicking high and cheering.  I think about the roar of the claps, yells and music all together. I think about those minutes during a game when people from your school that you might not always run around with, everyone came together for those few minutes and cheered on their school. They all smiled! Jumped and waved and high fived and cheered on together despite not being in the same social circles or groups.

For that one winning moment in a game, groups and grades and that sort of things didn’t count.

We were all LHS Tigers and we were winning.

I think about being proud of our football team and how lucky then that I was to be part of a school that had both a great football team and the great band that we were.

I think about riding around the lake, the Sonic, the other end of town..and back again.

Waving and honking at friends that you just saw at the ballgame like you haven’t seen them in 10 years? Deanos pizza returns back for a few minutes.

I think about how cool my Chevelle sounded at the red lights. I think back to secret crushes that I had but was never brave enough to ask them out.

I think about when teenagers weren’t embarrassed or ashamed to shake their booty on the dance floor.

And about collecting the latest animal that came on the edge of the Sonic cups and sticking them on your visor; swapping them if needed.

Life at LHS wasn’t always perfect and there were disagreements and cliques, fights at Beech Lake and black bottom. But somehow, everyone persevered and made it back to the halls and slamming lockers on Monday morning. Everyone then back in their same social circles and groups.

I think how many actual decades that was ago. How many people have been born into our lives. I think about family and friends as close as family, that were there then smiling and laughing. But they are not there now.

I think about how we wondered what life would be like when we grew up. What would we do for a job? Who would we marry? Where would we live? Would we see or friends again from high school?

And then here we are now, 39 or so years later, we find ourselves wondering….

what life was like then.