So I just had to do a little post about going back in time. I went to Notre Dame High School in Belmont, CA. At the time, it was a small, all-girls school where the answer to football & homecoming & all things “classic American HS” was this spring ritual called “Acquacades”. I don’t know the origin of the term, but I suspect it was probably a play on the Ice Capades or something. It was a Big. Deal. Each class was assigned a color upon starting at the school (mine was the “Green Gators”) & each class had a cheerleading squad & fielded (I kid you not) teams of synchronized swimmers to compete in the ‘Cades. There also is competition in “backdrop design” (that’s the top pic – my favorite backdrop) & “spirit” (I hear “Bring it On” calling). It’s been a tradition there since who knows when, so when a friend from HS organized a little group of us to go back & be judges (this is serious competition, y’all) I couldn’t resist the idea of going back in time. I hadn’t been to the HS since I graduated & unlike a lot of things, it looked almost exactly the same. Acquacades was almost the same too (although we griped that today the kids just “sign up” to swim – in our day, you had to try out & it was serious business). We had the best time & Tom Wolfe was wrong – you can go home again sometimes. Or at least revisit the past. Here are some pics from the night (I can’t be without a camera, especially at something like this):