By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER,Lifestyles & Features Editor
For Washington High School students, alumni and other fans of the Pam Pack, this will be a week to remember.
It’s homecoming time at WHS, which means a week-long celebration of all things blue and white. It also means a parade, a homecoming court of pretty young ladies and some great high school football.
Hodges, himself a 1971 graduate of Washington High School, remembers being active in the celebrations as a student and he said the homecoming tradition goes back long before he took part.
In conjunction with homecoming, the students and staff are observing Spirit Week, too, according to Hodges. Today is “Crazy Hair/Hat Day,” Tuesday is “Crazy Sock Day” and Wednesday is “Extreme Make-up/Face Paint Day.” On Thursday they will observe “Sport Your Shades Day,” when they will don their sunglasses, and Friday is the traditional “Blue &White Day,” when everyone is asked to wear the school colors with Pam Pack pride.
Preparations for the annual homecoming parade, set for Friday at 4 p.m., are scheduled to begin Tuesday after school, according to Hodges. The school rents the Shrine Club adjacent to the WHS campus for the week, giving the students plenty of room to exercise their creativity. Each grade level — freshman, sophomore, junior and senior — will design and make its own parade entry. This facet of homecoming shows that not all the competition takes place on the football field.
Downtown merchants are tapped to judge the entries, basing their decision on originality, use of color, theme and general school spirit. The results will be announced during Friday night’s football game with the Vikings of D.H. Conley High School, Hodges said.
And if the past is any indication, the Vikings will be roasted by the Pam Pack during the parade.
The parade route is the same as in past years. The entries line up along Stewart Parkway before heading down Main, Market and Second streets. In addition to the class floats, the parade will feature the school’s band, Jr. R.O.T.C. Color Guard, club representatives, cheerleaders, reigning homecoming queen Taylor Rogers and this year’s homecoming court.
Each grade chose its own representatives
to the court — two freshmen, four sophomores, six juniors and eight seniors — and the new homecoming queen will be elected Wednesday during school wide voting. Following school tradition, only the seniors are eligible for the title of queen.
The results — the queen and two runners-up — won’t be announced until half-time of the football game on Friday.
Among those waiting to hear the announcement will be Sara Tate and Susan Braddy, two of the senior class representatives. Despite being up for one of the school’s highest honors, both said making the floats is what they enjoy most about the homecoming celebration.
The students — and Hodges — won’t get much of a break after this week’s festivities conclude.
That other time-honored WHS tradition is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 17.