(“Witches, plastic spiders, and ghosts were everywhere.”)

Twenty-some years ago when Susan and I were both actively traveling to judge and clinic, on a particular fall weekend I found myself home alone as a bachelor. What does a “single ” guy do on a late October semi-rainy Friday night?  On a whim take in a high school football game, something I had not done since, well, high school.

According to the local paper (we didn’t discover the Internet for a few more years) all the “big” schools had away games.  That left me with the exurban North Marion Colts whose “stadium” I knew was nestled among hay and corn fields.  So, well fortified and protected both internally and externally from the chill and the damp I ventured off to relive a portion of my youth.

The field was less rustic that I had feared. It was surrounded by a chain-link fence, but more to thwart an occasional browsing deer than to keep free loaders out. It sported a scratchy PA system, a fervidly partisan announcer, and several rows of steel and plank bleachers on each side of the field. The weather made attendance sparse. Nonetheless there. appeared to be some sort of Halloween festivities taking place. The end zones were decorated with corn shocks and pumpkins. Witches, plastic spiders, and ghosts were everywhere.

During halftime they even had a bunch of Elvira (Mistress of the Dark) lookalikes with ghoulish faces, wild hairdos, and long creepy dresses being paraded around the field on the back of open convertibles. For the longest time I was totally mystified by this unfolding tableau, when a helpful parent explained it had nothing to do with Halloween at all. It was just the homecoming queen and her court completely drenched and bedraggled, their mascara running down their cheeks, making the best of their “honor.”

How was one to know?