Old Ghosts And Hometown Rivalries

In my brief post about Mr. Hairball getting a new job and us packing up for another move, I left out some rather interesting details:

• Mr. Hairball's new job just happens to be located in my hometown.

• My hometown is one of those places where high school football is an overwhelming obsession a really big deal , and there is an intense rivalry between the two public high schools in town. 

• Mr. Hairball stumbled into a job working for the local school district, and will be working for the high school I did not attend when I lived here. 

I never thought in a million years I'd be living back in Hometown City, and dealing with the  whole high school rivalry and the football obsession thing again. It was insane back then, and from the stories Mr. Hairball is telling me about what goes on at work, nothing has changed. To make things simple, we'll call the school he works at Crosstown High School, as it is the "new" school that was built when Hometown City grew large enough to need another high school. Papa Hairball attended Hometown City High, as did Brother Hairball and myself. It feels quite strange to now live in Crosstown High's district.

Mr. Hairball is constantly hearing talk of how Crosstown High School is so much better than Hometown City High in regards to X,Y, and Z, and any instance where Hometown City High School actually is doing better, is regarded as a case of bad data or some other excuse.  I guess heads would explode if someone broke down and admitted that Crosstown High is usually better at X and Hometown City High is usually better at Y. *shrugs*

I drove out to see the old homestead a couple of weeks ago. The new owners have made some changes and the old house looked nice. I hadn't done that in many years as I was afraid it would be painful to see new people living in "my house". Mama Hairball told me that they were a nice family and she felt they would take good care of the house. It looks like she was right. I had forgotten just how far out of town we used to live. It's about a half hour drive from our new apartment near Crosstown High out to the old place. Pretty much another world as far as I'm concerned. I passed a gentleman driving a pickup truck on the way down my old street, and he waved at me as I passed him. Can't remember the last time a stranger waved at me like that!

Mama Hairball asked me how the town had changed as she had moved away before the last oil boom happened, and I told her that the "affluent" side was now an unending sea of big box stores, strip malls, and chain restaurants.

I guess never being more than a block away from a chain restaurant is considered progress to some people.


Still unpacking, I'll post more later on.