Staff have homecoming memories
Updated: 6 days ago
“And for our queen…” Lily's heart pounded as she waited impatiently to see who was named homecoming queen. “Put your hands together for Lily Smith!” The crowd's energy was electric, but she can’t quite recall what happened next. After 20 years, the memories have faded, but she is always excited to tell her students her homecoming story.
Believe it or not, teachers were once in high school. Students are often stuck in what's happening now and rarely consider that their own teachers have once been in the same position as them.
At Mead High School, homecoming is celebrated by a week of dressing up with different themes every day to generate school spirit for the football game on Friday, and then the dance on Saturday. But for secretary Jess Miller, she did things a little differently.
“Our homecoming was strictly based on school spirit,” said Miller, who graduated from Palmer High School. “We went to volleyball practice, and then we went straight to the football game, and then we went straight to the dance.”
In addition to the Palmers homecoming dance being on the same day as the football game, students also dressed differently than current students. Opposed to wearing dresses and suits like Mead students, they had a different style.
“We wore football jerseys that day, and that is also what we wore to the dance,” Miller said.
While Miller’s experience of what they wore to homecoming was unique, Mead social studies teacher Brandi Zetocka said that she and her peers wore big, fluffy dresses. She said that during high school, she and her friends saw a lot of sequins and sparkles in girls’ dresses.
Zetocka participated in golf, dance, and more activities throughout high school.
Miller participated in cheer throughout high school. She said that being a cheerleader made it more fun “because you had to show extra school spirit.”
After the homecoming dance, Zetocka and her friends from Doniphan-Trumbull had a tradition of going out to eat at the local Perkins.
“We’d always go eat breakfast at Perkins as a group,” Zetocka said. “It was like, we’d fill the whole Perkins with our whole school, essentially.”
Darin Kovar, the principal at Mead High School, was a football player at Seward High School.
“Our homecoming was always the same night as the game., Kovar said. “So, it was always tough because you’d have to quick shower as quick as you could, quick change, pick up your date, and get to the dance, and you maybe had an hour left.”
A large part of what makes homecoming fun for students is the music.
“Some of the songs that you guys play are still reminiscent of what we played, which is really weird to me,” Zetocka said.
Zetocka said that her homecoming used the technology that is used now. Dissimilarly, Miller had a DJ due to the lack of streaming platforms at the time.
As well as the music being different, Kovar’s and Miller’s homecomings were on the same day as the dance. Whereas Zetocka’s was on Saturday, the day after the football game.
Kovar had a girlfriend throughout high school, so he always had someone to take to the dance. On the other hand, Miller says Palmer's homecoming didn’t stress all the “fluff” about homecoming.
“It wasn’t about the dance and the dress and the dates. It was just a fun thing we did as friends.” Miller said.
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