Rensselaer Homecoming parade

I was reminded Thursday afternoon that the Rensselaer Homecoming parade was scheduled for the evening, and since I had nothing better to do, I meandered downtown to see what was happening. It has been a while since I last saw one of these parades, but during the years in which my kids marched, I attended them all. Not much has changed. Near the beginning was the car for the grand marshal. Jim Earnest was most recently a guidance counselor at the high school, but before that he was the band director.

The girls golf team was in a golf cart with a sign that said "Conference Champs." Rensselaer had had a tradition of producing strong girls golf teams. I recognized the cross country teams (on bikes), but if the volleyball team was in the parade, I missed them.

Each class had a float, and I guess political correctness forbids anything too cutting. I went to high school and college at St. Johns, and we were the Johnnies. If we were the homecoming opponent, there would be multiple "Flush the Johnnies" floats in the parade. I wonder if they are allowed to do that anymore. But Do-Si-Do the Devils?

After the sophomore float was a long line of tractors. Maybe this year I will pay more attention and get out to the high school for "Drive Your Tractor to School" Day.

If I were awarding the prize for best float, the Junior class would have won easily with their "Level the Devils" road construction float.

At the end of the parade were the fire trucks with the football team, which is something of a tradition.

There was a good attendance, and after the firetrucks there were a couple of trucks that were not part of the parade, but the drivers had some fun pretending that they were. It is nice that they had a sense of humor and enjoyed the situation rather than getting angry at the delay that the parade caused them.

Congratulations to the Bomber football team for winning their game against West Lafayette, 27-10. West Lafayette was ranked number one in Class 3A coming into the game, was the defending Class 3A champions, and had a 20-game win streak, so it was a big victory. With it, Rensselaer remains undefeated and may move up in the 2A rankings from their current number 2 spot.