In October, when the weather gets cooler, leaves change from green to vibrant reds and shimmering golds, evenings get longer and football lights blaze.
With football comes homecoming, dresses, crowns, roses and escorts. There’s a fl urry of activity and emotion as anxious girls spend countless moments striving to appear as though they belong to the upper echelon.
Flashback to October of 1963, when Hershey bars were a nickel, Pebbles Flintstone made her fi rst debut and Pea Ridge football had just started with an eight-man team. Ann Foster, Barbara Patterson, Jane McKinney and Sue Walker were selected as members of the very fi rst Blackhawk football Homecoming Court.
Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, marked the 50th year of Pea Ridge football, and the first time these four women had seen each other since high school. Bedecked in red, black and white, toting pompoms and cowbells for their roles as Grand Marshal-ettes of the parade, these women obliged us with our questions before they ascended their throne in the back of a pickup truck. Time restraints only allowed us to interview two of the women, Sue and Ann.
When asked about their fi rst homecoming, Sue and Ann both agreed that it had been exciting and a “community a
• air.” Sue told us that everybody came together to clean up the field and ready the space for the exciting debut.
Both women exclaimed that it had been exciting to be chosen for the fi rst Homecoming Court, and Sue, crowned in ’63 as the first queen and escorted by her now-husband, said it was: “Neat; I felt special to be the fi rst queen.”
We asked the two women to compare being chosen for the court then and now, and whether it is a bigger deal for us than it had been in ’63. Sue replied, “The first year was special. Not a bigger deal; just special, because it was the fi rst time.”
Ann added that it’s “a bigger deal now, but still quite exciting after so many years.”
Out of pure curiosity, we questioned them on what they did after descending their respective thrones and more importantly, after high school. Sue went to work as a legal secretary and Ann went to work for a phone company in Georgia, then she came back to work at Kennametal, and is now retired.
We concluded the interview by asking them what they thought of our new field, since they were only acquainted with our “Pea Bowl.” Sue admitted she had not seen yet seen the new addition but was “anxious to see it.” Ann’s enthusiastic response was, “Oh, gee. It’s beautiful. We are just amazed by it.”
October — a time for football, sweatshirts and, now, fond memories. From Sue Walker Ruddick to Kaylee Laster, Pea Ridge has crowned 50 young hopefuls. As we open our eyes to the future, let us also embrace the past, and all the traditions we still keep. One thing is for certain, 50 years from now another homecoming queen will take her place reigning over her maids and watching the boys of Friday night who help to make it all possible.
Visit the Pea Ridge High School newspaper Hawk Eye News at http://hawkeye-news.weebly.com.
News, Pages 1 on 10/16/2013