Seat Scenes

When my mother was a little girl growing up in Atlanta, the Atlanta Constitution had a regular feature titled "Street Scenes," which consisted of several short description of odd or humorous happenings around town. My grandmother once told me a story of a funny thing my Uncle Buz said when he was little and shopping with her downtown (I can't remember now what it was), and the next day, she read about it in "Street Scenes."

Tonight's football game, in which Saint Peter the Apostle Rams competed against the Bible Baptist Braves, made me think about that column. Stephen saw little of the game because he had another occasion this evening. So I sat in the stands among the other mothers of seventh and eighth grade football players and cheerleaders. We watched the game, but we also conversed through much of it. I learn a lot about what Lawson's up to by talking to his friends' parents.

So although I can't offer readers the usual expert play by play analysis, I can offer you the humorous and interesting little scenes I observed from my seat.

For instance, readers who have never been to a St. Peter the Apostle football game might not understand that our school has a recording of the longest version in history of the "Star Spangled Banner." It's an exercise of patience to stand at attention through that song, not only because our feet get tired, but also because by the time we get to the rockets' red glare, the gnats have chewed us to the brink of insanity. But tonight, Carmen Thompson alerted me to this patient spectator, who stood at attention through the whole song.

And then the game started, and I just have one question: What vitamins is Drew Tison taking in the morning? Give that boy a ball and he will run like a locomotive for the end zone as if he's going to find a pot a gold between the goal posts. To my recollection, Drew scored the Rams' first two touchdowns. And even after that he was a man on fire. But I guess that figures. After all, his initials are D.T., which is TD spelled backwards.

Hats off to Cameron Parish, who scored the Rams' last touchdown of the game. Lawson tells me Cameron was playing fullback tonight, which gave him the opportunity to score. I don't know what the fullback position has to do with it, but I still offer three cheers for Cameron.

Other things I noticed from the stands:

• Rocky the Ram can bust a move on the sideline. Who taught that goat to dance? I want to sign up.
• I finally learned the rest of the cheerleaders' names. I know Anna, Claire, Caitlyn, Renne, and Riley, but I get the other ones mixed up. Because I have boys, and because Lawson's not yet a regular in the dating scene, until now, most of the girls looked alike to me: long haired, in blue and gold dresses and pink bows. And there sure are a lot of them! But Kathleen McCarthy helped me figure all of that out tonight. Thanks, Kathleen!
• I got a great photo of Lawson, thanks to Chuong Dang, the team's expert photographer. Kado's dad is always on the sideline snapping shots of all the Rams, and he graciously gave each mom a 5x7 photo of her boy. How generous of him. Many thanks for that, too!
• There's some confusion as to when next week's pep rally will be. Many eighth grade moms are hoping they'll get emails explaining the agenda for next week's festivities. Do I have to make a poster for Lawson? Somebody clue me in, please.
• And finally, I learned that the eighth grade boys' basketball team needs a coach this year. Scott King is taking a well-deserved breather, and the man who had originally agreed to coach the team went out and got himself a job while we weren't looking! So the position is open. We almost had Kathleen McCarthy lined up for the job, but unfortunately, she's baking a fancy cake that day. I nominated Kristi Lowenthal, but she asserted that she knows nothing about basketball.  Well, she could have fooled me. At least she knows each basket scores the team two points, and she's been known to remind me of that on occasion. Is she aware that I've been following her example for that past three years? Because of her, I know when yell, "Rebound!" and "Way to be there, Lawson!" like I know what I'm doing. I always just yell whatever Kristi yells. She explained it all to me last night. She was a cheerleader. She's good at rooting for the boys, but she doesn't really understand what she's rooting for.  I learned what little I know of basketball from someone who's just about six inches ahead of me in understanding it. Hand that woman an Oscar! Meanwhile, the search for a coach continues, but we might have to resort to showing the boys YouTube videos after school. Here's an idea:  iCoach.

As a result of my consistent chatter, I can't tell you the final score of the game. Maybe someone will leave a comment and inform us all. But I can tell you that the Rams won. Our boys scored more than 30 points, and the Braves scored once. I can't remember if they got their extra points. But at least you know it wasn't a shutout, but it wasn't a shootout, either.

Next week is Homecoming at St. Peter the Apostle School!  The Rams will take on the St. James Chargers, and they will be some tough competition. I'll try to pay more attention to the activity on the field, but I can't make any promises. I might get distracted by more conversation.