The Boys of Fall

A recollection of high school days past by Richard Williams, A Regular guy… just say’n

As the days get shorter & a little cooler, I harken back to those Friday nights 30+ years ago under the Iten Field Lights.  Strapping on the pads, lacing up the cleats & fastening up that shiny black helmet (mine was shiny because I didn’t see much play time, it was all political).

The RRKMB (figure it out, I know you can!) Drum section outside our locker room, the drums beating that all familiar pre game cadence that got the team all pumped up to crush that nights opponent.  Coach Olin would give his pregame speech to make our adrenalin rise to a fever pitch,

teammates slapping each others helmets or banging shoulder pads into each other, to ready themselves for the battle that lay ahead. Running out onto the field praying to the football gods that I would not trip & fall causing a chain reaction dog pile, finally reaching the sidelines looking for my favorite spot on the bench, where there was 97% chance I wouldn’t get a splinter.   (I had a nice collection. All the splinters I received were color coded to match the opposing team’s colors & the final score on a wall plaque.  It would’ve made Mr. Reid the woodshop instructor proud.)

And after the last pass was thrown or the last tackle made & time had expired.  RRKMB would play, “We Are Loyal To You Clinton High”, we would all meet up in the Commons (home of the foosball tables & the SENIOR BENCH) for a dance deejayed by Mr. Schroeder.  Or maybe we would go to one of the pizza parlors in town, Pizza Hut on North 2nd Street, Happy Joes on 1st Avenue next to Masonic Lodge or Vitale Joe’s on Camanche Avenue.  We would sit around tables we pushed together with friends laughing, dropping quarters in the juke box listening to Robert Palmer’s Bad Case of Loving You, My Sharona by the Knack or The Commodores’, Sail On.  Maybe you played Pac Man or Asteroids.  The whole time thinking it would never get any better than this.

Ahh, those were the days. Kenny Chesney’s song, “The Boys of Fall” kind of captures that feeling for me.

I look back now thinking I would not change a thing… well one thing.  I would wear thicker pants.  Those splinters hurt like hell, especially the aluminum ones…. Just say’n.

Written by – Richard Williams

(Photo above – Senior cornerback, Tim “Buck” Henry, is in a hurry to stop a Muscatine Muskie.  (Final score, Muscatine 19 – CHS 21.  Go Kings!) )

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