Friday Night Football

I don't suppose you can talk about your high school experiences in Texas without at least mentioning football.

Even if you weren't on the team, the weekly games were a central fixture.

At the very least, it was cheap entertainment for a small town that didn't have a whole lot of alternatives. (Wolfforth, Texas, population 1,701, salute!)

All the games have a way of blurring together after this many years, til all you're left with are the broadest strokes on the canvass.

I halfway remember the time the stadium lights went out in the middle of a game. Does that count?

Really, I think I spent most of my time sauntering between the bleachers and the concession stand. (Who can resist a bag of Fritos and chilli?!)

Of course, the real highlight of the evening was beating a path into the "big city" of Lubbock so we could watch the recap of all the area high school games on the big screen tv at Mr. Gatti's.

Years later, when I was in college, I found out one of my fraternity brothers had worked at Gatti's in high school and that the employees there used to dread it when the Frenship folks would show up on Fridays, and insinuated that they may have tampered with our food orders.

I hope he was just trying to get my goat. But, either way, I guess most of us survived. I wonder how many may stop by the old place to swap clearer recollections of those Friday evenings this weekend . . . if it's even open anymore . . . hmmm.