Friday Night Fever!

Small towns still turn out for high school football games every Friday night in the fall. I don't recall it being so hot at our football games when I was in high school over 55 years ago. I graduated in 1952. What I do remember is how cold it was sometimes and the fog that hung over the football field when the stadium was downtown by the levee. People often refer to the old stadium as "Foggy Bottom". It is still being used by the Elba Recreation Department. Tonight was the 4th game of the year for Elba and they have won all 4.


The year I graduated our football team was great and won every game that year.


I was in the band my junior and senior year and played a clarinet. Travelling to the ball games in the big yellow school bus was so much fun. I remember that we travelled in a Greyhound bus to the National Peanut Festival in Dothan and Mrs. Dorsey rented a suite of rooms at a hotel downtown Dothan so we could rest and get ready to march in the parade.


Another time our band marched in icy cold weather (January I think) at the governor's inauguration in Montgomery (don't remember which Gov.!!) It was so cold I remember my fingers sticking to the metal clarinet.


The band got new uniforms the year before I started playing in the band. I have a photo of our band in 1951 that I will post here when I locate the picture.


What is different at ball games now is the bands don't just play Sousa marches anymore. They do Broadway music and dance on the field. They have color guards and dancers (?) on the field at half time. They have a big truck to haul their instruments, etc. to ball games. We had to load ours on the school bus and walk around them or hold them in your lap.


Oh well, time marches on and there's a vast improvement in the bands of today as compared to those 50 years ago. But I bet we had just as much fun and I know we sounded just as good or better.


The new Elba High School stadium is so nice. The seating is on the side of a hill and the playing field in the center of the "bowl".


You know what I like about the current stadium? There's no smoking allowed so you can breathe nice fresh air. And it's so much fun to greet your friends at the ball game. Many of our friends have grandchildren playing for the Elba team, or cheer leaders or in the band.