Happy homecoming Warren County High School! Having recently attended my 30th high school reunion, my own memories of homecomings during my school years are becoming increasingly foggy. What I do remember is homecoming was always a really fun week.

All the way back to my days at Eastside Elementary School, the high school’s homecoming always meant we had Pioneer Day.  That usually meant a bunch of kids in overalls and bandanas and a few straw hats mixed in.

There was always that one kid who would win the costume contest who had a full buckskin pioneer suit with fringe, complete with a coonskin cap and an actual shotgun. That’s right, when I was a kid they’d let us bring actual guns to class and nobody ever really thought twice about it.

Once we made it to Warren County Junior High (now Bobby Ray Elementary), homecoming meant a whole new level of freedom. On the day of the parade, we were allowed, to our own amazement, to leave school and walk unchaperoned from WCJH to downtown. We’d always first walk to Hardee’s to get some burgers and then walk to Court Square to see the parade.  That was a pretty big deal to a 13-year-old to be released on the streets to freely walk to town and be trusted to find your way back home.

Then, of course, when we moved up to Warren County Senior High, we were the centers of the homecoming universe. Homecoming was one of the biggest weeks of the year and all the homecoming celebrations we thought we understood at other schools paled in comparison when we made it to “The Big Show.” Every class had their own T-shirts. There were all the different theme days and, of course, the Super Bowl of homecoming - the parade competition.

I don’t recall much about my class’ float entries (it was well before the days of fire-breathing dragon floats or KISS floats belching fireballs). But I do recall my class was one of the few senior classes that couldn’t even capitalize on the standard senior-class bias for a parade-float win. And there were only two other classes competing. The freshmen went to the Junior High then. 

There wasn’t a lot of winning done by my senior class that fall. My junior year saw the last winning season for Warren County football until all-time WCHS great C.J. Taylor and his teammates broke the streak of futility. My senior year saw the team go 0-10 and that became an all-too familiar record for much too long. But senior year was redeemed two days after our graduation as the 1992 WCSH baseball team won the state championship against Germantown and their mighty ace pitcher Mickey Callaway (Google what he’s up to nowadays; it’s quite the story).

Sorry, I roamed a little off topic there, but that’s what us old guys do. Homecoming is a highlight of your high school career. Here’s wishing all students - future, present and past - a great one. Go Pioneers!

Standard managing editor Seth Wright can be reached at (931) 473-2191.