Friday Night Lights. Of course when we lived in the Big City we had high school football games. My girl was in flags and my Brandon was in percussion so football games and half times shows were part of our lives. Our weekends were planned according to what time they had to be there and what time they had to be picked up and where they were going afterwards and what time they would be back.
Here in the country is pretty much the same. Oh, except for...well...a few differences.
In the country, the stadiums are THE place to be on a Friday night. Pretty much shop closes down so the towns folk can catch the game. The game is super important and the kids are under ALOT of pressure. The whole town's counting on them. And when you go to the game, you see everyone you know in the town.
The color guard is a little smaller than we're used to. But when you come from a school with close to 4000 students and a band with 300 students, and move to a school of less than 300 students and a band of about 30 students there's going to be some staggering differences! Just to put this in perspective: the town we are living in currently has roughly 200 people and the band we were in when we lived in the Big City had 300 members! Capiche? Some schools around here don't even have a band so we feel lucky we have one!! The school we played last night didn't have a band and I was thankful we have one. Can you imagine a high school football game with NO BAND????
Here's my Ryan. He's in 8th grade and because of the number of students, 8th graders are part of the high school band. I think if it gets low enough, they will pull the stronger players from 7th!!! Can you imagine 2nd year players with Seniors??? 
Here they are on the field playing the Star Spangled Banner. Cymbals Rule!!!!
He's having a good time. A fun thing the town does after football games is they offer a "5th Quarter". This is where a restaurant sponsors the kids and opens up after the games and allows the players, cheerleaders, and band to eat free!!! The local banks help sponsor that too! 
Brandon plays percussion too but is not able to be in band this semester. He moved in the middle of the school year last year and didn't take the state history class and has to retake a semester of Algebra so he didn't have room for his band elective. But he goes and hangs out with them for a bit and will be back next semester! 
The concessions are a bit different too. They offer burgers that someone is grilling behind the stand! Seriously!!! The grill is going and making every one's mouths water and you can't help but step up and buy a $3.50 burger!!! They also let the band members mingle and go buy food from the concession stand too which was a BIG NO NO in the Big City! 
My boys aren't playing football yet but people scratch their heads and ask with bewilderment, "Not playing football? Why would they not play football?" Hahahaa. Not to worry though! They are in Wrestling, Track, Band, and Agriculture so we're not THAT scorned! Besides, I've heard my boys talking about maybe playing next year so they might catch the football bug yet! Guess we'll see.
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