Cold Weather Memories

It is interesting what your memory keeps and what brings it back to you. This weekend I was driving around town for some errands, it was nice out so I rolled down the windows (with the heat on inside) and tuned my XM to the Led Zeppelin channel.

As I drove the back roads of Seymour while listening to The Stairway in my two door standard hatchback, I flashed back to senior year of High school. It is obvious why this could have happened, on a nicer day in the fall 7 years ago I would have been doing the same thing. Different Town and Different Car but the similarities of both are quite astonishing.

My senior year of high school was pretty normal as far as I can tell, I played some sports, had my handful of friends that I hung out with, and I didn't want to be in high school any more. I have memories of my friends and I doing many things that I enjoyed, and that I will not divulge here(I don't feel the need to implicate my friends in things done out of youthful ignorance). And I have memories of the silly things everyone goes through during adolescence. In total I don't think i remember as much as other people, most of that time i was looking forward to the future and let the days just slip by.

One particular memory came to mind while I was driving this weekend, it is one of my favorite memories from high school. I don't remember exactly how it happened and how it worked out but at some point during lunch a bunch of guys in my grade said they have been playing football up on the old village green once a week. It was only about 6 guys and they played full contact. They asked if I wanted to play with them next time. I said yes.

These guys were not on top of the school's food chain, they did not hang out outside of their clique and mostly stayed away from everyone else. They weren't outcasts but they would not have been considered popular but high school standards. I also was on the same level but was in a separate group than them (my group dated, they didn't so much). Anyway that first day was about 8 guys playing tackle football out on the village green. We had a great time.

Deciding to make this a weekly ritual (I believe on Wednesdays) we told our friends and the next Wednesday the number of guys doubled. What the strangest part is who showed, it was a break from the cliques we all developed over the past 4 years. Since our graduating class was huge some of the people we played with that day I had not really spoken to. Guys from the popular crowd, guys from the band, guys from the goths, guys from the jocks, guys from college advance classes, and just the regular middle ground guys.

The teams split evenly since everyone was different sizes and levels everyone just picked someone they thought they could play against and we played. It was a mix of people that i never thought would be in the same place at the same time.

The next week it rained. I assumed that less people would come. I was incorrect. More guys came, and I made another observation, there where no guys from any lower grades. Without specifically making the rules, the rules were followed, only our grade and no girls. This was basically most of the guys from our grade who weren't playing a sport or had something else that obligated them not to be there. Since it was raining the green turned into a mud pit. Guys who never talked to each other now tackling each other in the mud, everyone wanted to win but it always ended in everyone laughing. I remember blood and bruises but no truly bad injuries, we had no safety equipment and at no point was there any shouting or fighting.

Looking back today, that was our Fight Club. After that week there was a couple more Wednesdays before it go too cold or the sun was down too early. Every week was a new battle and I remember during classes nodding to the other players because we didn't want too many people knowing about it. After the Wednesday football ended the common bond we all had faded, we all went back to our cliques and I don't think I have talked to anyone I played with about it ever since.