The Legacy Continues 12/10/2023

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

They were calling it The Great War.  I am not sure how it got this moniker. I am not quite close enough to the action to have heard the backstory though acquiring such information is still a goal. On the day I began writing this, every mind in my small town was in one accord. We all knew the battle to be fought that day. Everyone was awash in the same colors. Many were preparing to travel for hours to witness just a few hours of small-town history. This day was the stuff of which memories are made. There were the Mamas draped in colors and beaming with pride yet their eyes glistening more than they cared to admit. There were young men going to put their bodies and their pride on the line that had the excitement of trophies mixed with the nerves of performance in the pit of their stomachs.  There were more emotions squeezed into this tiny hamlet than probably most any other time.  These are once in a lifetime moments.

My tiny little town is basically populated by the school. I’ve written about it before that the town very literally has almost nothing other than the school itself. Other than a volunteer fire department, a service station, a tire store there isn’t anything else to the place other than the very recent addition of a Dollar General.  So, since the school is the center of society, when the school football team makes it to the state championship, it is a very big deal.  It may even be a bigger deal than it would be for any average small town considering how much of a legacy that this town has.

Let me explain what I mean by legacy. There is something about this town that tends to get in people’s blood. The faculty at the school are mostly alumni or are married to alumni.  The population is made up of those who have vested interest in this school because it is their school. They played on the teams. They shook the pompoms.  They marched in the band.  That gives one a certain sense of loyalty when it’s your alma mater.  But there is a whole new level of commitment when now your children are playing the roles you played. For a father to see a son wearing the same jersey he wore is something else entirely. I have watched a mama see her son wearing the jersey for the team she used to cheer in uniform on the sidelines. When you’re talking about a love of a school that spreads out over generations it makes something special happen. It takes a whole group of adults living average adult lives to a place where they are able to slip right into their youth and remember the passion of rivalries and last-minute field goals. It changes from the local school just doing well. It becomes MY school, and MY team going to the championship and those middle-aged men and busy mamas are in jerseys and wearing ribboned pony tails again. Now, I am not saying they are living vicariously through their children but they’re remembering. And they’re remembering those moments and can relate more to their babies now more than possibly ever before. They recall the feelings and get to see them on new faces.

So, a state title game is a huge deal here.  A town with possibly more cows than people gets to represent it’s tiny dot on the map at the biggest game possible. We get to be a place people have actually heard of for a while. Now true, we may still have to explain where we are located by just saying what we’re near and hope that suffices but still, for that day we are a big deal. Not that we aren’t always.  To these people, obviously since so few leave, this town is exactly what they’re looking for.  I don’t know that I have ever seen a place that has this many people who are more than happy to be children then grow up and build their adult lives in the exact same spot.   This really is a town with a legacy in every sense of the word.  That is something to be proud of. I mean, I’ve embraced it. I graduated from this little school and now my daughter goes here. I guess I feel strongly enough to think this is a good place to let my family thrive.  Here I am contributing to the legacy.  I guess we’ll see what it is that my little girl adds. And I suppose, I’ll be the mama in the stands, eyes full of tears whether she’s swinging at a softball, twirling a flag or who knows. I can imagine it though and it will be more than just proud.  It will be my girl for my school.

Our beloved team fell short in the Championship. We earned our one loss of the season in the title game. There were tears from the teams, the mamas and the daddies. It is heartbreaking to see a mama holding her little boy as he weeps on the sidelines. Yes, it was difficult to be so close but not finish how we wanted. See, I’m saying we.  I didn’t put on a pad and take a hit. But I did feel it though. The whole town is now going to take the role of comforter. We will gather our team in our arms and love on them and tell them how proud we are of them. We will be sure they know they have no reason to hang their heads. This is all because the joy of a small town with a legacy is we are very often both figuratively and literally, a family.  And that is what families do, through good and bad, we’re there for each other. I guess I really do love this place.