Ours is a house divided. And there is no other time during the year that that is more evident then during football season. I am a BYU Cougar and Eric is a Utah Man. Although I constantly like to remind him that I am the only one with a degree from the university I cheer for! But I must say that I am not one of those pushy, obnoxious fans who is always antagonizing or referring back to the glory days of the Cougars. For the most part our children are being raised as Utah fans and I feel just fine about that. I like cheering for the U as well, especially over the past few years when their star has been rising so fast and high. But every once in awhile I like to assert where my true loyal lies.
I attended BYU in the early 90's and absolutely loved it. When I look back at my formative years, I can say I had fun in high school now but I'm not sure I could say that while I was going through it. But I can say with assurance that I knew I was having a good time in college while I was going through it. I think even while I was in my "Provo Bubble" I was oblivious to the true, full nature of the BYU-UTAH rivalry. I knew they were a foe but back then BYU was generally the dominant team. So I took pride in being the winning team without losing a lot of sleep of what the U of U students thought of me. Since my years at BYU I have since discovered the at times over-simplified, generic stereotypes that some fans from both sides like to place on each other. I won't go into those now because I don't want to perpetuate groups of people being painted with a broad brush. But needless to say there are a lot of both Ute and Cougar fans whom I love and adore.
But like I said, my children are inundated with a whole lot of Ute propoganda and paraphenalia. We have Ute blankets, t-shirts, sweatshirts, magnets, rugs, Christmas decorations, footballs, foam #1 hands, hats, pencils, banana chairs, flags, stickers, license plates, beads, pajamas, etc. And I am so not exagerrating. We have every single on of those items in our house and not one Y to be found. Well last weekend I decided to remedy that situation. Eric was at a scout camp overnighter with Finn. Friday afternoon a young guy knocked on my door offering to paint my house address on my curb. I had just recently had it done so I wasn't interested, but then a lightning bolt struck my head. I asked him if he painted letters too, like so many Y and U fans have on their curbs. I explained the college rivalry situation in our household and asked if he could paint a royal blue Y next to my house number. He said he could but he would have to come back tomorrow because he didn't have the paint or stencils. He thought it was so funny that he was happy to come back the next day. I warned him that he had to come in the morning because if my husband caught him, he would for sure stop him. So at about 9am Saturday morning he showed up with a buddy to paint this beauty on my curb:
After he was done, he had me come admire his work and told me he would come back in a month to see if it was still there. He even offered to later paint a U on the other side, free of charge, because he thought it was such a great joke. Now the trick was waiting for Finn and Eric to get home and see how long it took them to notice. I made my girls swear not to tell them. Remember they have been indoctrinated too, so I pretty much had to threaten them with their lives to keep their "Utah Man" song holes shut! But when they did come home the girls kept saying things to them like , "Notice anything different?" or "What has changed around here?" But luckily the men in my home are use to vague, probing questions made by females in a vain attempt to get attention; that it didn't even faze them. So Saturday passed by with no reaction. Then Sunday nothing, and Monday the same. But Tuesday Finn and Eric needed to mow the lawn before the garbage man came on Wednesday. It was during a pass with the lawnmower down the front park strip that Finn noticed the inconspicuous Y on the curb. He immediately called Eric over to take a look at it. After which Eric marched right in to me, while I was in the bathroom no less and demanded, "Was that you or Harold who put that Y on my curb?" Now I must say here that Harold is a neighbor of ours who is a devoted BYU fan and an avid reader of my blog. So, Harold, I want you to know that I exonerated your name and took full responsibility. But I was curious to know why he thought it was you so I asked him. He responded, "Because that seems like the kind of sophomoric prank he would pull." So I'm sorry you got pulled into our household rivalry!
Eric informed me that evening that the Y would be gone by morning, but I am proud to say that it is still there. This probably due to laziness rather than any newly developed sympathetic leanings toward the Y. But I did find this on my front window the next morning as I was driving my kids to school:
I commented to Eric on the subtlety of his U response to my Y. But I think that just speaks to U fans... they are kind of loud, obvious, in your face people whereas Y fans are a bit more refined and soft-spoken. In fact I think the term I'm searching for is "meek." ;) Oh, did I say I was going to stay away from stereotypes? Well I just couldn't help myself. But if you would like to help me continue these sophomoric pranks, I am up to suggestions. I have a few ideas ruminating in my brain, but I could always use more. After all we still have 3 more months of college football to go!
This is first picture was taken in 4th grade. What is so great is I think it was the first time my mom let me do my own hair for my pictures. "Feathering" was all the rage back in 1983. I'm not sure if I didn't use enough hairspray on the right side of my hair or if I played dodgeball extra hard during recess, but somehow only one side of my hair stayed "feathered." Which I was probably mad about when I got my school pictures back, but now I think it tells a story about what I was like when I was that age. I'm glad my mom didn't insist on me getting a retake so my hair could look perfect. That wouldn't be near as interesting. And speaking of retakes, this is another one of my favorite school pictures.
This was a year later, in 5th grade. Apparently I got the feathered look down, but not the keeping my eyes open look-because this was a retake. And even though this was my second and last attempt at a good 5th grade picture, I'm once again glad that my mom didn't destroy the picture because it wasn't perfect. Something I just noticed about these pictures is that in both of them I am wearing a button-down shirt with a sweater. I was living in Georgia during this time and I assume they took pictures in the fall back then like they do now. I can imagine I was hotter than hades in my sweater and button-down shirt in the southern heat and humidity. No wonder one side of my hair fell flat!
Sure they don't have bows, braids or curls in their hair and it looks like Katie and Annie have some static-y hair goin' on and could have used a quick comb-through but for the most part they look pretty good. I mean this is a more accurate reflection of what they look like day in and day out at school than any other school picture. Now don't get me wrong I did plenty to get them picture ready this year- Finn got a haircut the day before, I blew dry Annie's hair and Katie got braids but I think we should say no to retakes and let our kids' childhood shine through. I mean what says childhood more than big glasses, big-gaped teeth, half down hair and half open eyes!
What really struck me about these things is how quickly they became a pop culture sensation/kid fad. Katie got some for her birthday the first week of school; this being the first time I had seen them. Then within a week Annie was coming home from school begging for me to take her to the store so she can spend her allowance on them. Before i knew it every kid I saw was wearing them. It got me thinking what makes these fads and who decides them. It seems like a few years ago pokemon cards were the big thing. And I remember when i was in elementary school trading stickers on the bus. I even had a photo album I stored them in so I could see all my prized possessions at once. And of course the scratch and sniff stickers were like the Snickers in your Halloween loot, meaning they were the most sought after. Annie has informed me that the Tie-Dye silly bands are the Scratch and Sniff of the silly band world and that the simple ones like an ice cream or a heart are like the Bit O Honey of the Halloween loot, meaning they will take them because they are technically candy but they won't be happy about it. So my purpose in recording all this is maybe one day twenty years from now Annie will read this and say, "Oh, yea! I forgot how much I loved those silly bands."
