July 11, 2006

• This afternoon was Bethie's cheerleading class, and the instructor kindly permitted Brianna to be a guest-participant:

  

  Learning back bends, you see.  ;^)  Up above is Bethie, down below is Brianna.

  

  The
  instructor made the first steps toward teaching them to perform
  handstands, which entailed pushing themselves against a wall upside
  down; here's Brianna managing it:

  

  A large part of the class is running in place, bunny hops, cartwheels, etc.:

  

  And
  so another generation of cheerleaders is born.  Tell you what,
  though....it's just not the same as it was when I was a young'un going
  to the Arlington Heights High School games with my friend, Susan. 
  Her sister, Barry, was a cheerleader, which gave us a definite caché at
  the stadium, or so we liked to believe.

  Mainly, I recall the cheerleaders actually leading cheers,
  if you can imagine such a thing.  You know, "Push 'em back, push
  'em back....WAAAAAYYY back!" and the like.  It was a lot of fun
  when the opposing sides would try to shout each other down.

  Nowadays
  cheerleaders mostly just put on a show.  Not the same thing at
  all.  I'd think it's a little depressing for the players, not
  hearing raucous cheering from the stands, as the fans urge them on.

  [sigh]  Those were the days. 

  • 10:57 pm
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