My hometown is Manson, Iowa, population 1893. I graduated from Manson Community High School, nicknamed the Eagles with the colors purple and white. Shortly thereafter, my high school was consolidated with another high school, changed its name, nickname (to the Cougars), and colors (to navy blue and gray). Many in my hometown resented this, resulting in such mischief as an incident in which my hometown watertower was supposed to be painted navy blue to celebrate school spirit but instead was painted this magical color that looks navy blue from far away but when you walk close you can tell is plainly purple. Even so, after consolidation, my thought was the Manson Eagles were no more.
I was wrong! My hometown now has a minor league football team, called the Manson Eagles, with the colors purple and white and a fancy purple-and-corrugated-metal-themed official website. The teams in the league show an interesting geographic nesting: the Manson Eagles, even though Manson contain only about 1/1500th of the total population of Iowa, has to play the Iowa Threshers (based out of Des Moines), not to mention the Minnesota Maulers (a much larger state), and the Midwest Pioneers (who, coincidentally, play in the stadium of Chris's local high school). I don't know how well Manson will fare when put up against entire states or the whole of Middle America, but I know they will face their gridiron fate with characteristic rural Midwestern bravery, stoicism, and awkward squirming should strangers stand too close to us or want to hug.
BTW, my hometown had its Greater Crater Days celebration last weekend, in honor of it being built on top of the largest meteor crater site in the US.* I really think they should invite me back to be the Grand Marshall for the GCD parade. Come on! I have a blog! And a wikipedia entry!
* I explain all this on the webpage I used to have dedicated to my hometown.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
You SHOULD be grand marshall. Now that you mention it, I kind of want to be asked. Except I'm turning them down.
I don't really think a hometown festival cuonts unless it has an accompanying beauty pageant. Take, for example, Versailles, Ohio (pop. 2589). They have Poultry Days. The highlight of Poultry Days is the Miss Chick Pageant. I think Manson should get with the program and add a pageant so these young women can celebrate the heritage of their crater properly.
Maybe there could be a Crater Queen pageant for girls with acne.
hey jeremy, i'd never seen the midwest pioneers, but i spend a lot of time in that fine stadium.
Post a Comment