By Cathy Mackey
For South Side High School students, these telltale signs are a harbinger of their hearty but frivolous festival of Olympic proportions known as Spirit Week and Homecoming.
Planning for the week started in mid-September when the guidance office announced this year's theme, "Perfect Couples." The freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes were assigned Beauty & The Beast, Barbie & Ken, Fred & Wilma and Mickey & Minnie, respectively. In driveways around the town you can hear banging and sawing as students fashion their themed floats for the big Homecoming Parade that ends Spirit Week.
Concurrently, each class is selecting and training its best athletes for the solemn feats of strength and skill to come. These include the pie eating contest, the tug of war, the academic trivia challenge and, the perennial favorite, the lip sync dance competition. As the appointed week draws closer, the halls of South Side disappear behind posters and banners of wit and wonder. Assigned colors define how each grade is garbed, as the classes close ranks for the big competition. When the week finally arrives in mid-October, the school is at a fever pitch. Each day, after classes, the grades compete in a different event, the results of which monopolize the next morning's announcements. On Saturday, Mayor Bossart turns over the streets of Rockville Centre to a bizarre parade of floats and antics, which conclude at the school and are followed by the traditional homecoming football game. While the week's competitions invariably have winners and losers, all involved benefit from friendships forged and memories to last a lifetime.
Please consider that the parade and football game are not just for South Side students. They are a community celebration, a chance to meet your neighbors, and perhaps relive your own high school days. See you there on October 20!
Cathy Mackey, a sophomore at South Side High School, is one of the students who will be a regular contributor to the Herald's weekly column featuring perspectives from the high school.
If you, or someone you know would like to become a high school correspondent, please contact us at (516) 569-4000 ext. 208 or RVCeditor@liherald.com.
