Homecoming 2009 and Life In A Small Town

Last week was homecoming week for the local high school.

It's always a busy week with all the silliness that comes along with homecoming week.

On Friday the kids finished up the week with a pep assembly and then a noise parade.

Each class rides down Hwy 101 on the back of a big truck and decorates a "float" for the parade.

Every now and then I still giggle inside from these small town experiences.

I mean I've been here for sixteen years and it still cracks me up.

You remember that song ....Everybody Dies Famous In a Small Town?

Well I walked a block over to Hwy 101 about the time the noise parade was supposed to be starting and positioned myself so that I could attempt to get some unobstructed photos. Hoping that with any luck I'd end up on the same side as Dylan.

This is not a large school...so this is not a large parade.

Things happen pretty fast.

There I am in position.

Here comes the Junior class truck.

All of a sudden all the kids start yelling "Dylan's Mom!" and going nutso.

Sorry for the photo quality obviously I didn't check my shutter speed very well...but you get the idea.

If I were to die this week...in this small town.... I'd be famous for being "Dylan's Mom".

That's fine by me.












Saturday night was the big dance.

Dylan's date, Heidi, had a few friends over for a really nice dinner prepared by her mom and her brother... and of course the requisite photo ops.

Just before the kids were ready to eat the sky got really pretty outside so everyone went out for the photo shoot.

Heidi's mom also made her dress for the dance... a woman of many talents I tell ya.


The whole group.

Check out that sky

Gotta love Brendan's purple Van's ordered specifically to match.


It's always fun to see the kids all dressed up.


But the stuff I usually like the best are the candid shots.

The real stuff.




The fun stuff.


And the downright goofy stuff.


Ok now in the midst of all this silliness...take a look at the background.


As I was driving up to Heidi's house for this stuff I had a sense of de ja vous.

The next day it came to me.









In May of 1993 we came to Brookings for the first time for Rich's job interview and to look around at relocation possibilities.

We took a bunch of photos of places on that trip to help us remember what things looked like so we could dicuss them later.

The first piece of land that we really loved was this.

It turned out to be too much acreage for our budget but it was still a place we talked about for a long time and would probably have bought at the time if it were possible.

Now scan back up to the last picture on the deck...I'll wait.




Ummm hmmm same place.

How weird is that?

Life in a small town.






Dylan didn't remember looking at that piece of property.

Probably cause he was a little short on that trip.

And he was really more about eating rocks...and dirt...and grass on this stopover in Novato on our way up.

Check out those awesome Birki's I have on.

Admit it.

You had a pair too.

Those were the only thing that made carrying a ten and a half pound baby a doable thing for my feet.



Cath