Homecoming football game
Becki and I arrived in Jackson and then drove to Miyoko's school where we would eat dinner at the school Homecoming dinner celebration and attend the Homecoming football game. Several of Miyoko's students were on the football team.
The whole affair was fascinating. The crowd of parents, students, and friends in the stands clearly was a close-knit, familiar community. Everyone seemed to know one another and the student participants and this seemed a regular community recreational event that everyone was determined to enjoy. There was a substantial police presence...as there is throughout all of Jackson. I was often suprised, when driving, to realize I was being followed by a police car. Our rental car had a FL license plate. Maybe it was my hair.
At the start of the game I thought our school was going to get buried. They could not move the ball and the opponent seemed stronger. But as the game progressed they unleashed their secret weapon...which was a deep receiver with a tree-frog-like jump and hands. Without any instant replay, we could only relish the 50 yard bombs in our mind. We won going away.
Their opponents, however, won the war of the bands. On the opposite side of the field they assembled a considerable band with a spectacular "drum roll" percussion section and a large, costumed, synchronized dance team. They warmed up with incredible drum riffs and then launched into long, choreographed, rocking, hip-hop dance and drum pieces in the stand that were spectacular. They had everyone stomping and clapping. I could only hope they would bring the whole thing onto the field during half-time. Unfortunately, the official half-time performance was considerably more subdued and it wasn't until they had retreated into the stands again that they got the real show juiced up and going again. Wow!
The other memorable event was the appearance and announced recognition of his presence in the stands of NFL Hall of Fame receiver, all time leading touchdown scorer, Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice was raised in the southern Delta and attended and played for such a small, obscure high school that he was virtually unknown and unrecognized. He played and graduated from small and obscure Mississippi Valley State, the only one to offer him a scholarship. It was said he had a young relative playing in the game. He was mobbed by people, including Miyoko, with cameras and cell-phones.