School Songs/Alma Maters

That is sweet.

At my high school, we did sing it. And it was in French!  Some umm 40 years later I can still sing most of it!

In undergrad, singing school songs was an important tradition and done all the time. It was a major cultural component of life there.

Before or after that period of time if my schools had a song I ever even knew it.

My kids attend the same school I graduated from. When I was there, I don't remember singing the alma mater at anything. I remember hearing the choir sing it sometimes, but never the band or at prep rallies. Only the fight song. I don't even know the words to that.

Now, the band sings it at the end of every game but not on the field, but rather around the flag pole before being dismissed. Why, I don't know. No one follows the band from the field but the parents. One kid off mine admits he just sways with the group.

Yes, the school fight song was played before every home game, at every pep fest, and a recording was played over the school intercom system every Friday at dismissal. Everyone sang. I come from a little town of less than 1,000 people plus the surrounding farms. School spirit was big. I went to the same school that my dad and his brothers attended. Everyone in town knew the words. It was written by one of the early band directors at the school and lived on until the school consolidated with other districts. It's still played at class reunions according to my family.

DS is in marching band. They do a pre-game show on the field -- a song by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the National Anthem and then the fight song with the cheerleaders doing their moves to the song. The students sing and some of the parents. At half-time, they do a half-time show on the field. This is the school's 50th anniversary and all the songs are from the first few years the school was open. The final song is the school fight song. The band is still playing as they march off the field and toward the stands. They finish on the track, filling the stands with their sound. It's impressive to have 142 instruments pointed right at you. It definitely gets the crowd cheering and ready for the second half. After games, the drum line plays until the team and the band are inside the building. He also plays pep band for the winter sports. The school fight song is played a couple times a night then, too.

We were back in my hometown over Labor Day to celebrate my grandpa's 90th and take DS's senior pics. Grandpa asked my son to play his horn for him. The first thing he thought to play was the school fight song and the National Anthem.

My school fight song player...