Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality

[DoctorAtomic]

I'm talking on tv, they're always wearing the full cheer outfit. And jackets is fine; I had varsity AND band jackets, but I took my jacket off when I got there. Because I don't need to wear a jacket inside. 

[Bort]

My high school had cheerleaders AND a halftime show dance group. On football game days, they’d wear their full uniforms to school. Football players would wear their jerseys. People would wear their varsity jackets when it was cold but not otherwise. It was Texas, nobody was wearing a jacket when it was 90°.

[Bastet]

The cheerleaders wore their uniforms on game days at my high school - but "game days" only meant the Fridays the football team played, I think.  I don't think the game days of other boys' sports received the same attention, and certainly the game days of girls' sports didn't.  I was on the volleyball team, and I don't remember the cheerleaders ever even being at our home games, let alone anything else.

(Not that I craved the presence of cheerleaders, mind you, but it's the principle; at least pretend it's about something other than providing eye candy at the football games.)

The football players didn't go to class in uniform on game days, but I think they wore their jerseys, or maybe t-shirts that mimicked the jerseys.  I don't remember; I only remember the cheerleading thing because a friend of mine was on the squad one year.

[Browncoat]

The cheerleaders at my high school also wore their full uniforms on game days, which included both football and boys' basketball.  I don't remember if the football players wore their jerseys or not, but they definitely wore their letter jackets.  Or their girlfriends did.  Which meant sometimes we had cheerleaders in full uniform wearing football letter jackets.

[DoctorAtomic]

That just doesn't seem comfortable to me.

[Blergh]

Oddly enough, in my high school,  the guys' the basketball team and swim teams would appear in suits on game days instead of in basketball uniforms and swim suits! 

[Mabinogia]

17 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Oddly enough, in my high school,  the guys' the basketball team and swim teams would appear in suits on game days instead of in basketball uniforms and swim suits! 

like business suits? Pants, jacket and ties? That's very posh of them. I guess it's better than the swim team walking the halls or sitting at their desks in speedos. lol

[Blergh]

7 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

like business suits? Pants, jacket and ties? That's very posh of them. I guess it's better than the swim team walking the halls or sitting at their desks in speedos. lol

I imagine the administration might have believed that not only would the pants, collared shirts, jackets and ties    make the team players look more distinguished than the rest of the student body but it's possible that the students and other teachers might have gotten too distracted seeing the swim team walking the halls, sitting at their desks, eating at the cafeteria,participating in P E class, and using the bathrooms,etc, in their swim attire! 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Blergh

[DoctorAtomic]

Wearing a jacket and tie for away games in basketball is actually a long tradition just about all over the country. 

[AgathaC]

17 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

At my high school,  the football players and cheerleaders wore their jerseys and cheerleading uniform tops on game day.  The skirts they wore for the games did not pass the dress code for students.  During basketball season, the players dressed up on game day like shirt and tie dressed up.  And, the cheerleaders again wore their uniform tops.   

Cheerleaders at my school wore their full uniform (they were an exception to the dress code — when it got cold they wore sweatpants under the skirts) but only on game days. And football players wore their jerseys.

Unlike a lot of tv shows and movies, the cheerleaders and football players were mostly sweet, friendly people and many were in honors classes.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, AgathaC said:

Unlike a lot of tv shows and movies, the cheerleaders and football players were mostly sweet, friendly people and many were in honors classes.

Yeah, there were definitely elements of the stereotypical TV cheerleader and football player in their real-life counterparts at my school, but almost all of them were a lot more well rounded than that.  The same was true of the brainiacs.  On TV, people who really into/good at one thing, that's their entire identity - it's not just that they're known to others for that one thing, it's all too often in everyone but the protagonist actually all they know and are interested in, at least from what we see.  This is particularly true of teen characters.

On TV, teenagers don't do anything as a hobby (or even something at least mildly interesting that will look good as an extracurricular on a college application) -- if someone is on a sports team, it's because they eat, sleep, and breathe that sport and want to become a professional athlete.  If someone is on student council or debate team, it's intended as the launching pad for their political career.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Bastet

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, AgathaC said:

 

Unlike a lot of tv shows and movies, the cheerleaders and football players were mostly sweet, friendly people and many were in honors classes.

I went to a fairly chill high school where there was no discernable "popular" students.  The jocks and cheerleaders were friendly with the band geeks and the country boys at least in class and in the hallways.  Outside of school, the different groups had their own social events, but no one was having any wild parties where not being invited was a major slight.

[Raja]

Our Class President was a cheerleader, like many others here it was Friday football game day wear. On Homecoming week the junior varsity and B team cheerleaders also got into their uniforms.

Even though we were City champions in basketball the year before I got there and only football champs a decade after I left only a slice of the cheerleading squad worked the basketball games.

As a defacto segregated school there was normally one Asian member voted in by the student body among the Black young women who represented the school as cheerleaders

Edited May 15, 2022 by Raja

[smittykins]

9 hours ago, Browncoat said:

The cheerleaders at my high school also wore their full uniforms on game days, which included both football and boys' basketball.  I don't remember if the football players wore their jerseys or not, but they definitely wore their letter jackets.  Or their girlfriends did.  Which meant sometimes we had cheerleaders in full uniform wearing football letter jackets.

At my high school, the cheerleaders wore their uniforms on game days, the football players wore their jerseys, and the boys’ basketball players wore three-piece suits.

[Trini]

::Me reading all these high school tropes and anecdotes that have NO resemblance to my experience attending a tiny inner-city parochial high school::

[Raja]

I always say that The White Shadow was very, very acurate to my high school expierence. Only that the city was more segregated than shown. You would have been hard pressed to find a Goldstein or Salami in the high school due to White flight a decade before, much less both on a basketball team of 12 young men in South Central L.A. Now if the bulk of the team was bussed out in L.A.'s one direction school bussing

Edited May 16, 2022 by Raja

[Zella]

16 minutes ago, Trini said:

::Me reading all these high school tropes and anecdotes that have NO resemblance to my experience attending a tiny inner-city parochial high school::

I was homeschooled through high school, so I find all stories about high school, both of the pop culture variety and the everyday anecdote variety, fascinating while also finding them deeply weird. 😂

[Hiyo]

Quote

I went to a fairly chill high school where there was no discernable "popular" students.  The jocks and cheerleaders were friendly with the band geeks and the country boys at least in class and in the hallways.  Outside of school, the different groups had their own social events, but no one was having any wild parties where not being invited was a major slight.

Mine was like that too. And lots of people were involved in different group activities too. Granted, we didn't have American Football, but even so, some of the athletes played multiple sports and some even did non sporty things too.

[Irlandesa]

8 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I went to a fairly chill high school where there was no discernable "popular" students.  The jocks and cheerleaders were friendly with the band geeks and the country boys at least in class and in the hallways.  Outside of school, the different groups had their own social events, but no one was having any wild parties where not being invited was a major slight.

I don't know if my high school was chill but it was definitely large.  As a result, each group had its own interpersonal issues but they didn't often overlap. 

And because we were big, the most popular people actually had to earn it by being nice.

That's why conflicts between people on a sports team or cheerleaders on a TV show feel more real to me than the football team teasing the people on the newspaper.  And when the most popular characters are actually decent people to everyone instead of queen bees or snobs.

 

[Ohiopirate02]

8 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Mine was like that too. And lots of people were involved in different group activities too. Granted, we didn't have American Football, but even so, some of the athletes played multiple sports and some even did non sporty things too.

We were also chill because the school board expected us to be the opposite.  My high school had a wide geographic area for the county designed by the school board to keep the less desirable students from going to the other high school in town.  It was very racially motivated and designed to make the other high school be the "safe" option for the rich white people who lived there.  So, all the poor black kids were bussed across the county to my high school, and we were all aware of why this was happening.  We collectively decided to get along as much as possible as a "fuck you" to central office.  And in a surprising turn of events, our high school was the actual safer school.  Who knew having a student body comprised of rich white kids was a recipe for disaster? 

[DearEvette]

So are anybody's high schools like they show on tv or movies?  Is there a all blonde, all slim Queen Bee mean girls clique?  Do the Jocks always pick on the nerdy outcasts? One big mean bully always targeting someone?

My HS wasn't very much like what I see on tv.  I mean, everybody had their friend groups and some of the groups were built round shared interests -- cheerleaders, athletes, honor students etc.  And there were visibly some student who were a lot more popular than others by a mile.  But a lot of the groups intermingled as well.  I was an Honors student (we all had the same classes throughout HS and so we kinda always gravitated toward each other) but I was also a varsity cheerleader.  I hung out with them sometimes but not always, and they had friends outside the cheer group.  Our valedictorian was a stone cold brainy, introvert.  But nobody ever bothered her or teased her.  We were too much in awe of her brain power.  Our salutatorian was a hippie dippy chick who was sometimes a stoner, but she was also on the softball team.  Everybody liked her, but I wouldn't characterize her as a 'popular' girl.

The closest we got to a popular clique was a group of really cool black girls.  They were a basically if say a group of Denise Huxtables, Moeshas, and Zoeys from Grownish all hung out together.  They always dressed well in the latest fashion and always seemed to have the best time.  But they were fairly nice,  not mean in any organized mean girl way and didn't single anyone out to pick on.

Probably the closest that came to what is portrayed on tv was how poorer kids were sometimes treated or perceived.  My school was pretty diverse both racially and economically.  It was a city school near a big university neighborhood so the professors' kids went to my school, but there was some overlap where the district was large enough so some less prosperous areas also sent their kids there.  And yeah, I'd hear some of the kids get picked on because they wore hand me downs or no-name brand sneakers.   Also there was a fair amount of snarking on heavyweight students (esp. girls) or suspected gay students (... it was the 80s after all).  But it was never organized or nor did it come from a specific in-group.  Mostly it was a kind of an individualized meanness.

[Zella]

4 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Probably the closest that came to what is portrayed on tv was how poorer kids were sometimes treated or perceived. My school was pretty diverse both racially and economically.  It was a city school near a big university neighborhood so the professors' kids went to my school, but there was some overlap where the district was large enough so some less prosperous areas also sent their kids there.  And yeah, I'd hear some of the kids get picked on because they wore hand me downs or no-name brand sneakers. 

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't go to high school, but when I was in grad school, I had some classmates who were from very well-to-do families. One of them had a dad who was apparently a nationally renowned wildlife photographer and another one was the child of one of the state's leading pediatric doctors. They were all personally very nice but really needed to touch grass. They were never mean to me about the fact that I was trailer trash who had done well, but they could still make you feel terrible about yourself, all the while being completely oblivious to it.

I've never really quite recovered from the conversation I had with one of them in which she asked me what I did for the summer, and I told her I'd worked. And she told me, and I quote, "We summered in New York! You should have joined us." And I was like, "I had to work!" And then she said, " Maybe next time you can join us!" and I was basically at that point shouting at her, "I'LL HAVE TO WORK!" and I could tell she didn't have the slightest idea why. 

[janie jones]

Yeah, my school didn't have discernible cliques. I didn't observe any bullying. I also don't think we had a prom king/queen, but  we did vote for a court for the spirit week dances. Cheerleaders did wear their full uniforms on game days. I think that was just football, but I don't remember. The players of all sports had to dress up on game days, boys and girls.

You know how fruit flavored candy doesn't (typically) taste like the actual fruit? You just recognize that this particular flavor is "strawberry" or "banana" or whatever? I feel like that about high school on TV. Like, it's almost nothing like actual high school (e.g., in real life there are more than ten kids in the hallway during passing time, which isn't a half hour long, and no one has time to shower after PE, even if they wanted to), it's just "high school."

[DoctorAtomic]

I think high school on tv is still something out of the 50s because clearly, no one had the tv experience. 

The closest we came to cliques was at lunch, but that's only because we sat with people we were in the class at that time period with because either doing homework before, or it was in the middle of class itself. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

So are anybody's high schools like they show on tv or movies? 

Nope. And I went to a school that was BIG on Football.

Yes, the jocks wore their letter Jackets; yes, the cheerleaders wore their uniforms on game days. Yes, they were the popular crowd, but none were mean girls or assholey, arrogant, smug...jocks.

I was...in between. Not part of any of the popular cliques, but knew them and were friends with them, but not part of their group. Does that make sense? And I remember one time, in Spanish class, which was held in one of the outdoor portables, because, not enough classrooms, which was freezing, quarterback gave me his jacket to wear during class.

He was sweet and shy, but aggressive as all get out on the field. But. He forgot to take his jacket when class ended, and when I returned it to him during lunch, yeah, he got ragged, but he also blushed a bright red. And just for context--I was a year ahead. But he didn't have to lend me his jacket. But that's the kind of guy he was; he even wrote on a piece of paper "Happy Birthday", scrunched it up and tossed it to me (I sat behind him). And when the teacher (who insisted we speak in Spanish during class) asked what was going on, he made up some story about rotating his arm because it was sore. We became friends because we had been assigned to come up with a scenario and role playing in class.

And, not gonna lie. No one messed with me knowing we were friends. And I was perfectly A-Okay with that. I had self-esteem issues in high school.

But I've never seen this kind of friendship, or have ever seen athletes as they were in my school, ever portrayed on television. Or movies. In the latter, they are almost always rapey, fratboy assholes and mean girl queen bee bitches.

[proserpina65]

On 5/14/2022 at 8:50 PM, Mabinogia said:

I always wondered about that. I went to a school too small to have teams or cheerleaders or any of that but I always found it odd how they would walk around in their uniforms in tv school hallways. Did the jocks go around in their varsity jackets tossing their balls down the hallway?

In my high school, they did some of the time, although probably not as often as on tv.  And the cheerleaders wore their uniforms to class on pep rally/game days.  But then, we didn't have much of a dress code.

On 5/15/2022 at 11:04 AM, Browncoat said:

The cheerleaders at my high school also wore their full uniforms on game days, which included both football and boys' basketball.  I don't remember if the football players wore their jerseys or not, but they definitely wore their letter jackets.  Or their girlfriends did.  Which meant sometimes we had cheerleaders in full uniform wearing football letter jackets.

Yep, in my school, boys' basketball and wrestling had cheerleaders and they wore full uniforms on those game days too.

[proserpina65]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

So are anybody's high schools like they show on tv or movies?  Is there a all blonde, all slim Queen Bee mean girls clique?  Do the Jocks always pick on the nerdy outcasts? One big mean bully always targeting someone?

There were definitely cliques in my high school, and us nerdy students did occasionally get picked on.  Mostly by the mean girl types.  The jocks tended to be friendly.

To be specific, I was short, fat and had an overbite, so I was prime picked-on material to the mean girls from fairly young.  But at least I didn't wear glasses.

Edited May 16, 2022 by proserpina65

[DoctorAtomic]

A lot of times too you're friends with someone in high school just because you live nearby and take the same bus or sit close in home room. You're not really going to be jerks. 

That's not really on TV either. 

[proserpina65]

54 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I think high school on tv is still something out of the 50s because clearly, no one had the tv experience. 

I wouldn't say no one had something approximating that experience in parts.  Just that most people didn't have every aspect of it all the time.

[Llywela]

17 hours ago, Trini said:

::Me reading all these high school tropes and anecdotes that have NO resemblance to my experience attending a tiny inner-city parochial high school::

I tend to be like this about the American high school experience in general. I went to a rough inner city comprehensive school in the UK. We had a uniform, that everyone more or less adhered to. There was no such thing as cheerleaders or car shop or band or theatre or whatever other categories American students get pigeon-holed into. There were sports teams, I guess, and kids could get involved in school plays or choir or whatever, but those activities didn't define them, the way they seem to in the US - and I get that what I see on TV isn't an accurate portrayal of real life, but online I see Americans all the time talking about 'band kids' or 'theatre kids' in a way that just...wasn't a thing in my school, or any other school in my vicinity. American schools, as portrayed on TV, always look completely alien to me.

[Browncoat]

We didn't really have cliques in my high school -- there were only about 50 of us in my graduating class.  Not enough for cliques.  We were divided into "those likely to go to college" and "those less likely to go to college" for determining which classes we took, so we generally hung out with the people in our group.  There was a lot of crossover, though, at lunch and for sports teams.

[proserpina65]

6 minutes ago, Llywela said:

There were sports teams, I guess, and kids could get involved in school plays or choir or whatever, but those activities didn't define them, the way they seem to in the US - and I get that what I see on TV isn't an accurate portrayal of real life, but online I see Americans all the time talking about 'band kids' or 'theatre kids' in a way that just...wasn't a thing in my school,

In my school, band and chorus were actual classes you had to take.  If you didn't, you weren't a member of either.  Theater tended to draw from the English lit classes, with a smattering of band/chorus students, but our school didn't do big musical productions or things like that, it was more low-key.  Sports were definitely a bigger thing, and you had to try out for the teams and for the cheerleading squads.  Homecoming week was a HUGE deal and a lot like it's portrayed on tv.

TV depictions tend to be an exaggeration of what a lot of American high schools are like.  There is some (often a lot) of truth there, but it's built up for dramatic effect.

Edited to note that you actually had to go to the county vo-tech (vocational-technical) high school to take auto shop.  Which was kind of a shame because I might've like auto shop.  We did have woodshop and metal shop as elective classes, though.

Edited May 16, 2022 by proserpina65

[Llywela]

9 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

In my school, band and chorus were actual classes you had to take.  If you didn't, you weren't a member of either.  Theater tended to draw from the English lit classes, with a smattering of band/chorus students, but our school didn't do big musical productions or things like that, it was more low-key.  Sports were definitely a bigger thing, and you had to try out for the teams and for the cheerleading squads.  Homecoming week was a HUGE deal and a lot like it's portrayed on tv.

See, that's interesting, to me, because although we had music lessons, it wasn't a Thing like 'band' or 'chorus'. It was just...music, once a week (and usually dropped early on). Sports teams were just for those few who had any interest, everyone else just did regular PE once a week and that was that. There was no such thing as cheerleaders. And there was no such thing as homecoming, either - I don't really even know what that is, even now, after all the US TV I've watched. I know there's a party, and people vote for Kings and Queens, or whatever. We didn't do anything like that. We went to school (or not, there was a lot of truancy; like I said, it was a rough school) and then after school finished we rushed home to avoid the inevitable fights at the school gate, and that was that. I think I joined the choir for, like, one event, hated it and never went back. 

American schools on TV always look completely alien to me.

[SusanM]

In some ways my high school was similar to the way high schools tend to get portrayed on TV.  We definitely had a "kids that rule the school" clique.  Pretty much the same core group of kids were on student council, ran the school newspaper, organized the dances including the grad dance etc.  Even after all these years I can tell you their names and pick them out of a line up.  It was mostly girls BTW which isn't something you see much on most TV show casts, high school or not it's still mainly guys with a few girls thrown in as a nod to reality.

[proserpina65]

2 minutes ago, SusanM said:

In some ways my high school was similar to the way high schools tend to get portrayed on TV.  We definitely had a "kids that rule the school" clique.  Pretty much the same core group of kids were on student council, ran the school newspaper, organized the dances including the grad dance etc.  Even after all these years I can tell you their names and pick them out of a line up.  It was mostly girls BTW which isn't something you see much on most TV show casts, high school or not it's still mainly guys with a few girls thrown in as a nod to reality.

That was a lot like my experience.  The mean girls clique was a real thing for us.  The guys, mostly not.

[proserpina65]

7 minutes ago, Llywela said:

And there was no such thing as homecoming, either - I don't really even know what that is, even now, after all the US TV I've watched. I know there's a party, and people vote for Kings and Queens, or whatever.

Homecoming was based around what was presumably the most important home football game of the season.  For us, it was usually against our cross-county rivals, but not always.  There were all kinds of school spirit activities during the week leading up to the game including pep rallies.  Each class had a float in the parade that immediately proceeded the football game, and if you were on the float committee, you spent nights during that week working on the float.  The Homecoming King and Queen were usually seniors chosen by votes cast by students during the week, and the titles were awarded at halftime during the game.  Then, after the game, there was the Homecoming dance, which was the second biggest dance of the year after the prom; it wasn't a formal attire dance like the prom, but it was dressier than regular school dances.

It was a lot of fun, especially if you were on the float committee, which I was every year except my junior year.

How big a deal any of this was depended a lot on how big a deal football was in any given school district.

[Llywela]

2 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Homecoming was based around what was presumably the most important home football game of the season.  For us, it was usually against our cross-county rivals, but not always.  There were all kinds of school spirit activities during the week leading up to the game including pep rallies.  Each class had a float in the parade that immediately proceeded the football game, and if you were on the float committee, you spent nights during that week working on the float.  The Homecoming King and Queen were usually seniors chosen by votes cast by students during the week, and the titles were awarded at halftime during the game.  Then, after the game, there was the Homecoming dance, which was the second biggest dance of the year after the prom; it wasn't a formal attire dance like the prom, but it was dressier than regular school dances.

It was a lot of fun, especially if you were on the float committee, which I was every year except my junior year.

How big a deal any of this was depended a lot on how big a deal football was in any given school district.

Yeah, no. In my school, we barely even knew the sports teams were playing! It was just so unimportant to anyone not involved. There was zero fuss about any team sports. People who liked sport got involved, and everyone else carried on like they didn't exist.

We didn't have a prom, either, although I gather they are becoming a bit of a thing in our schools now, imported from across the Pond. But for my generation, there was nothing like that. I would have hated it if there were! 

[Hiyo]

Quote

I've never seen this kind of friendship, or have ever seen athletes as they were in my school, ever portrayed on television. Or movies. In the latter, they are almost always rapey, fratboy assholes

Unless they are jerks with a real heart of gold underneath and just that need that one quirky girl to save them from themselves and make them a better person.

Naturally, this only truly and fianlly happens once she takes off her glasses and undoes the ponytail/bun her hair is in.

So we can all see that she isn't just beautiful on the inside, but outside as well.

Quote

American schools on TV always look completely alien to me.

I went to an American school overseas from 6th grade onwards (before that I was in a UK curriculum school, and our houses were named after birds of prey), and American schools in the US look completely alien to me as well.

 

 

[SusanM]

1 minute ago, Llywela said:

Yeah, no. In my school, we barely even knew the sports teams were playing! It was just so unimportant to anyone not involved. There was zero fuss about any team sports. People who liked sport got involved, and everyone else carried on like they didn't exist.

I'm in Canada and this pretty much describes the attitude towards high school sports, at least where I went.  The interest in sports teams happened more at the university level.  Well you still didn't have to care of course! but there was a lot more root, root, root for the home team among the student body. 

Homecoming (which as far as I know didn't exist in high school) was interesting in university because it was like a big class reunion and grads from years gone by would gather to party. Lots of events would be organized, usually over the course of a long week-end.  Can't recall now if it coincided with any kind of sporting event though.  I don't think so but I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong.

[meep.meep]

Sports are a big deal in the US because of the potential for a college scholarship.  Free rides are great if you can get one.

At my high school, there was a football team, but nobody ever went to the games, they didn't wear their uniforms during the day at school, and the only reason the rest of us knew they existed was because they commandeered the only table that was out of the rain to eat lunch at.

[ABay]

One thing I would like to go back in time and tell my fat younger self is punch back. That was the most valuable thing I learned in high school.

[SusanM]

24 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Sports are a big deal in the US because of the potential for a college scholarship.  Free rides are great if you can get one.

 

My cousin from Nova Scotia got a scholarship to play hockey at Notre Dame so even if the school as a whole didn't care there must have been scouts going the rounds.  Never really thought about that before! 

Anyway I always did wonder why sports, especially football, was such a big deal for a high school -  well I mean I can see why the high school and the football players would care of course, but based on TV and Archie comic books it seemed to me that the whole town was invested in the high school football program.  I am assuming, at least in part, that a successful football team means extra money coming into the school somehow?

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

Then, after the game, there was the Homecoming dance, which was the second biggest dance of the year after the prom; it wasn't a formal attire dance like the prom, but it was dressier than regular school dances.

Our Homecoming Dance was on Saturday night.  I think the parade was Saturday morning after the football game on Friday night.  But we had about a half-day worth of a pep rally Friday afternoon before the game.  A surprising number of alumni came back for the game and parade, too.  

Our prom was limited to Juniors and Seniors, unless you were the date of a Junior or Senior.  Homecoming and other dances were open to all students.

17 minutes ago, SusanM said:

especially football, was such a big deal for a high school -  well I mean I can see why the high school and the football players would care of course, but based on TV and Archie comic books it seemed to me that the whole town was invested in the high school football program. 

In rural or semi-rural areas, that was about all there was to do on a Friday night.  Our games were packed -- everyone went, including parents and even people who didn't have a kid on the team.  This applied to away games as well.

Basketball was not as well attended, but was still fairly big.  Other sports were mostly ignored.

[Ohiopirate02]

My high school had a homecoming dance that no one went to.  It began right after the homecoming football game and only lasted until something like 10:30pm or 11pm.  No one really went to it, just the way our admin planned.  It was definitely an event the school was obliged to set up, but not one they really wanted to do.  I do get it.  Our admin and faculty did not want to press their luck and have the hard fought racial harmony thrown right out the window due to a school dance.  Not to mention holding the dance on school property meant faculty was responsible for making sure students didn't sneak off with their boo.  

The only other school sponsored dance was junior-senior prom, and that was held off campus. So, while there were teachers there to make sure we behaved, they did not have to be in charge of security.  Also, we were vetted when we purchased our tickets to make sure we would be on our best behavior for prom.  Misbehaving at prom meant you did not walk in graduation even if you were a junior.  Our principle was a hard-ass who remembered.  

[DearEvette]

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Sports are a big deal in the US because of the potential for a college scholarship.  Free rides are great if you can get one.

Same deal with band.  There are some colleges that give out marching band scholarships.

At HBCUs (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) being in the marching band is almost as big a cachet as being on the the sports team itself.  They are their own spectacle and have their own aura.

I think one thing tv shows and movies do get right is the whole frenzy surrounding homecoming games:  The party atmosphere, the school spirit stuff, getting the team all pumped up, and the sort of tribalism that comes with all that.

One of my more memorable experiences was once when I was visiting the Tuskegee University and I was interviewing for a job in their NCAA compliance office.  And I got invited to watch the Homecoming game and holy man, they do some school spirit!  They have a fight song/spirit song called Ball and Parlay and the student seating at the football stadium is this area called Under The Shed and it is where the marching band also is until they have to take the field.  And they get into really singing that song and getting hyped for the games. 

I found a YT video of one it and it really captures the spirit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T6sXw2QW1w

 

 

[meep.meep]

Grambling came out to play San Jose State University a few years ago.  It was the first sellout they'd had in years.  Everyone wanted to see the band!

I think TV focuses more on small town USA and how the high schools operate.  My high school was more like the one that Cher attended in Clueless.

[Moose135]

5 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Naturally, this only truly and fianlly happens once she takes off her glasses and undoes the ponytail/bun her hair is in.

In slow motion...she needs to shake her hair out in slow motion.

[methodwriter85]

"Dog fights", aka the plot where a group of friends like a fraternity/sorority have to bring the "ugliest date" or "fattest girl" to a dance, sometimes going as far as having sex with them. That never made sense to me, especially outside the context of middle school/high school kids teasingly telling a "loser" that their "friend" had a crush on them in order to embarrass said friend. In general I remember your late teens/20's being people chasing people they actually wanted to hook up with, not wasting time on people they have no attraction to.

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by methodwriter85

[AgathaC]

My high school was pretty big (about 1000 students for grades 10-12) and our football team was undefeated while I was there so they were a pretty big deal.

We didn’t really have cliques either. Different groups, yes, but no one really ruling the school. I was shy, brainy, kept mostly to myself. But I got along with pretty much everyone and being in choir (which, like sports teams, was a huge deal) helped. Actually, the fact that I was a straight-A student seemed to earn respect more than anything. No one ever picked on me for it. They thought it was cool.

[andromeda331]

My high school was more like Mean Girls. Everyone had their own clique they generally left each other alone except for the group of mean girls who liked to terrorize everyone. Sports were big for those who played sports but except for Homecoming and teams that made the play offs no one really paid attention to sports. But most of our teams weren't that good so that could be a reason why. The girls' basketball made it to the playoffs and I think they won regionals we had week of theme days and pep rallies.  They haven't since I graduated either. The cheerleaders and football players were nice. Dances were only really a big thing for those who were interested. My friends and I skipped every dance except for the senior prom. No one cared. All the teachers in Saved By the Bell reminded me so much of teachers I had I wondered if they somehow went to my school. We had the senile English teacher who couldn't name one of her students if her life depended on it, the teacher who felt like he should be principal, the nerdy math teacher, etc.

Did any school have a diner where all the high school kids hung out? My school never had that. What about school newspapers? We only had newspaper one year and that was every quarter. High schools always seem to have a big staff and articles.