Do You Remember… Songleaders
Reprinted from October 15th, 2008
High school football – back in the day. Pep rally’s, football players wearing their jersey to class. Ribbons being passed out for the upcoming game. Then the big night of the game. The cheering fans. The surfers acting cool. The crazies in the student section. The band geeks playing the fight songs. And the cheerleaders in their keds, swinging their pom-poms and doing their cheers on the dirt track – behind them, the line of songleaders.
Wait. Songleaders?
Yes, kiddies. In our day, we had songleaders. Okay, coming from a country school (Go Surfriders!), we didn’t have songleaders. But all the town schools did.
The pretty girls with long straight hair. Shiny satin dresses in their school color with their name embroidered on the top left corner. Nylon stocking and low heel shoes. White gloves. And the famous carnation lei with the long ribbon streamers of the school’s colors.
While the band played, the cheerleaders would be doing their kicks and jumps and pumping arm motions with their pom-pom, and the songleaders would be doing their smooth routines with almost hula like hand motions and gentle spins with such grace and class. And the pep squad coordinator would be on the end of the line hitting the big drum, keeping the beat.
It was so contrasting, yet it worked. Almost like a group of dancers dancing jazz while another group of dancers danced lyrical – all to the same song.
Nowadays, the cheerleaders are doing herky-jerky motions and acrobatic tricks – almost like a mix between hip-hop and street dancing. And the songleaders… Well, there aren’t any songleaders anymore.
What happened to the songleaders? They were so graceful and classy. Their outfits were almost formal attire – especially accented with the carnation lei. The white gloves and nylon stockings made them look so mature.
I remember when we used to go to town school football games, my friends and I would always take a walk around the field during halftime to scab, er… I mean, to stretch our legs, and we’d pass the pep squad of the opposing team. The songleaders would look so beautiful. Almost too classy for us, that we’d silently say to ourselves “out of your league, brah”.
The cheerleaders were hot too – but for me, I was attracted to the songleaders. I guess I was more of a Lexus than a Porsche kind of guy.
Do tell, where you a songleader or cheerleader kind of guy? Did you sit with the cool surfer dudes? The crazies? The band geeks? The brain-niacs? (Did brain-niacs even go to football games?) And for you ladies, were you ever on the pep squad? If not, did you ever want to be?
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This Saturday (10/20/12) at Gordon Biersch – FUNKSHUN!
