Thursday afternoon I attended my third Syrup Sop since living in Bainbridge, and I have to say I love this time-honored tradition.

Most of you know I grew up in Albany, and having an activity like this in our downtown would have been unthinkable, if not dangerous. I love my hometown, but there are definitely areas, such as safety, that could be improved upon.

Despite this, we still had multiple other traditions that got us excited for rival games. Like the student section at the Bearcat games, we often had a theme. We would be “hunting for a win” and dress in camouflage or saying “peace out to the competition” and dress like hippies.

My favorite times always happened at the pep rallies, though. The cheerleaders would organize a game and choose one or two students from each grade, along with a handful of faculty to participate. It was great to see teachers and coaches be real for a moment and just have fun with us. I always loved to see the dancing games. They would blindfold the competitors and you had to dance your heart out, even though you had no idea who you might be dancing against while the crowd cheered for you. Some of our teachers had moves like you couldn’t imagine.

However, the best tradition we had at my school was always during Homecoming Week. There were several different activities, but the senior lunch auction and reverse homecoming always came out on top.

Every year, senior football players, cheerleaders and dance line would create a lunch basket that would be up for auction. The catch? The students who bought it would be dining with them. All the proceeds went towards the athletic program and booster club.

The first year five of my friends and I went in together and bid on a Chick-fil-A tray with a dance line member and had the best time. We all went out on the football field and had a picnic lunch. Other players would go all out. Their parents would get involved and bring their grills out, and kids could have a steak dinner for lunch. It would get competitive; people’s bid paddles would be flying, and if you were an upperclassmen competing to eat lunch against a freshman it may get ugly, but all for a good cause.

The day would finally end with reverse homecoming. Two students from every grade would dress up, opposite of their gender and see who had the best showoff. One year our grade did Snooki and “The Situation” from Jersey Shore, while our senior year we reenacted a couple from our grade, all in the name of fun.

I’m sure every school has their own activities, but I feel like small towns go above and beyond to make rival games and the football season as fun as possible, and for that I’m thankful.