Yesterday was the first “home” game we had attended for Addie’s cheering. Nevada is a fairly depressed little town. I’ve told this story before but when we moved there, Chad had just graduated from high school and you know the attitude that goes along with being 18. We drove from Owensboro, Kentucky; spent one night in Paducah, KY because I had to drop off quilts for a book. Then we drove to Springfield, MO and spent a couple of nights there, waiting for the movers to arrive in Nevada with our belongings.
The entire way from Kentucky to far southwestern MO, Vince was in front in the old red pickup, that was old but 15 years newer than it is today. I was in the middle driving the CRV and Chad was behind driving his Mazda. Chad and I had phones. Vince didn’t have a phone. He and I had walki talkies. Vince would buzz me on the walki talki and then Chad would call “What did he want?” Chad would call me on the phone, Vince would buzz me and say “What did he want?” I was definitely in the middle!
We stopped to get gas as soon as we got to Nevada. Chad came sailing out of his car and said .. in that 18 year old voice that drips . . you stupid people . . “Tell me this is NOT where we’re moving . . tell me we’re just stopping here to get gas!” Nope, this is your new home! And little did he know, it would become probably his forever home.
He was so unhappy with us for moving there, but had been for several years. He was going to college in Pittsburg, KS so he wasn’t going to be in Nevada that much.
As it turned out, he met Nicole whose parents, grandparents, great grandparents – generations on her dad’s side have called Nevada home. Chad has friends there, people he can count on, people who care about him. I doubt he ever leaves.
Anyway, we had been to one of Addie’s games in Webb City and one in Carl Junction. Both are places where a lot of people who work in Joplin reside and the houses, for the most part are nice. The football stadiums at both schools were pretty high class.
In Brownwood, where we had lived, the high school shared a stadium with a college there, Howard Payne, and it was definitely a first class stadium.
We got to the Nevada stadium yesterday and Vince said “This is sad!” I didn’t see it as sad. Honestly, I’m in that small minority that feels like spending millions on high school stadiums is a waste. It’s tax money, paid by people who often are struggling to pay property taxes on their homes, taxes that go up every year, and I feel like education is one thing and while sports is important, I feel like there’s a disproportionate value placed on sports vs. education. Just my feelings.
As we were leaving, Vince said “Think of the kids who play here, then go to places like Webb City and see their stadiums. They must feel somewhat sad about their home stadium.”
I thought about it and, of course, Vince and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things but I see it as a learning lesson. IF someone felt like their stadium was inferior, I hope they would see that working hard, getting an education or learning a trade (which does NOT mean a college degree in all cases) and bettering yourself and your income, is a good way to help your community. Also, I would hope these kids wouldn’t drive by super nice houses, then go home and feel inferior if their own home is smaller or not as nice. And that’s the same thing. If you feel second class because someone’s stadium is bigger and better than yours, it stands to reason you’d feel the same way about homes.
It’s society . . and so many things have gone the wrong direction since I was growing up. We moved to southwest Louisiana when I was 5 and my parents had a home built. It was on the outskirts of town, not in a subdivision (my dad had peacocks, guineas, quail, rabbits . . we weren’t fancy subdivision material). We had 3 bedrooms, 1-1/2 baths and a 1 car carport. Looking back, both my best friends lived in nice subdivisions. Both had bigger houses, both had two car garages with doors that closed. Never once did I feel inferior to them. Never once did I feel like we had less. I always thought of us as equals. I think they all felt the same way.
I told Vince that I respect an area like Nevada who has kept their stadium small and basic and not raised the property taxes on people who struggle to pay them.
Even when Chad was in school, not wearing the right brand of clothes brought shaming and ridicule. Why do people do that? Why do people have to make someone else look small to make themselves look good?
So many of the people in Nevada have lived there all their lives – parents, grandparents, great grandparents. I hope they’re proud of what they have, proud of their stadium and I hope they all do their best to succeed in life and, at some point, I hope they all realize that if having bigger and better means being in debt . . do not do it.
It really makes me sad to think that some kids could go to other stadiums and feel bad about their own home stadium. The school I attended was a small school but back then, no one had stadiums that rival the professional stadiums. Most everyone I knew who attended our school thought our school was the best; our stadium was the best but most of all . . WE were the best.
How do we get back to that? How do we get away from I’m better than you?
Who would have thought a trip to a ball game would have brought on all these thoughts?
Carolyn says
I agree wholeheartedly. When my son was playing high school football they were fundraising to get a turf field. I couldn’t believe they were wasting the money on that when there were so many other important issues to deal with, like the soaring rate of drug use in the schools that they were turning a blind eye to. We lived in a nice area, but nothing like the McMansions that a lot of others lived in and it killed me to see the entitled kids pulling into school in their BMWs and Mercedes and acting like they owned the place. How do you get back to good, wholesome family living? I wish I had the answer!
Lynda Case says
Very good thoughts. I agree about sports gaining more attention that classroom education. Our priorities in this country are all messed up.
Elle says
Until materialism becomes meaningless to the masses and people are HONEST about what they can afford, I fear we’re stuck with this. We are a good example. Got all our financial advice from the in-laws. Heck, they looked like they were having a good life (not fancy but nice). So off we went, buying a house, 2 new cars and the credit card because “you’ve got to have the interest to deduct on your taxes. Well, then the tax law changes of 86/87 hit and we nearly went bankrupt. Pissed me off to no end and when I’m mad, I can do anything but bankruptcy was not one of them. Hubster agreed to go along with whatever I asked. We literally stayed home for 5 years and we ate on the cheap. No eating out. Paid off all that stupid credit. Then bought a small home we loved and would stay in forever (31y and counting). No more credit interest. Paid our mortgage and saved $$ hard. We bought a small crumby cabin in the mountains near where we like to ski in 2003. Paid off both homes within the next 5y. We need nothing and want for little. We use our credit card-never stopped. But we use points for free travel and haven’t paid a penny of interest. 🙂
I share all of that because it is examples like we had that cause the problems. 21year old kids don’t know better. We need to be TAUGHT better.
montanaclarks says
I’m with you Judy. Our school taxes in Montana are awful and I would hate to think I was paying for a football stadium so ours would be better than the next town over. I grew up poor, we lived in a three bedroom, one bath house– I never felt poor but I sure knew those kids from town who lived in mansions thought they were better than me! Today we had the best experience! We sold a huge cargo trailer to a young couple who drove all the way from Seattle to buy it. They have three children and the mother told me all they did was work to pay their mortgage and never saw their children. Fast forward to the out of control real estate market. They sold their Washington home, paid cash for a larger/nicer home on acreage in Missouri and are going to spend more time with their children. They are buying this cargo trailer to move all their belongings from Washington to Missouri. Made me have a little more faith in our younger generation.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Oh, yes. That is a great story. Thanks for sharing. I hope they love Missouri and I feel like their kids will grow up to be better people by living on acreage and spending more time with their parents.
raylagrange52@gmail.com says
Small world. I am originally from Fort Branch, IN, about 20 miles north of Evansville. My daughter teaches at Burns Middle School in Owensboro. She lives in Calhoun, KY. There has always been something special about small towns and they will always be special.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I know where Burns Middle School is! My son went to Daviess County Middle. We lived on the east side of town so Calhoun seemed like a long way away.
We went to Evansville often when we lived in Owensboro. I loved the quilt shop in Booneville so went there as often as I could.
Thanks for writing!
Nelle Coursey says
The Brownwood High school stadium is nice because taxpayers did not pay for it. It was paid for by some ex-students who wanted Brownwood to look good. That was back in the Gordon Wood days. And that is why his statue is in front of it. At the time of his death, he was the winningest coach in the United States. Including high school, college and professional. Bill Parcells (former Dallas Cowboys coach) used to call Gordon to come and advise him on what to do with his teams! But Gordon Wood was not all about football. The band was in dire need of new uniforms and lacked a little having enough money to pay for the new ones. Gordon told them to take the money from the sports program because he wanted the band to look good. He won 7 state Championships for the town. The new artificial turf was paid for by twin brothers in Dallas who are multimillionaires and graduated from BHS. I think the cost was $80,000. Again, nothing charged to the taxpayers. In Texas football is king. And there happens to be a lot of successful people who have graduated from BHS. I know one man personally who is a corporate lawyer in Dallas and one year he was the richest corporate lawyer in Dallas according to the Dallas Morning News.
Also Gordon was once invited to be on “Good Morning America”. The show was going on and then someone showed a picture of a football team from “Brownwood” and the coach was hitting the kids, yelling at them and treating them disrespectfully. They said it was Gordon’s assistant or him, can’t remember which. Gordon just sat there and watched it. They asked him what he had to say about the scene. He looked at the and said “In the first place that is not my team or my coaches. And if they were, those coaches would not have a job the next day.” He then walked off the set, sued them and got millions from them for lying. We all knew it was a lie but what those people didn’t know is there are no palm trees in Brownwood Texas!! They got so many angry calls from ex-students that their phone lines went down! They had been caught in their lie and they knew it. They paid for it big time. Gordon Wood never had to bully or harm any kid to get them to play for him. They all wanted to play for him. He helped make them men and men to be proud of.
Off my soapbox now!! LOL
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I didn’t know that a private citizen paid to build the stadium but during the last five years we were there, when property taxes, the majority of which were school taxes, the ISD spent a LOT of money on that stadium – what I remember is over $400K for new turf and over $500K for a new sign. If that money came from private citizens, kudos to them but when many residents struggle to pay for property taxes, expecially people who are retired and who had hoped to live in their homes forever and find that property taxes may be the reason they cannot stay, some of those programs seem a bit over the top.
Joyce in Washington says
Judy, my family has lived in all the towns you mentioned today and I still have cousins in many! Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
BeckyT says
Yep!
What you said!!!!
Karen says
You nailed it! I couldn’t agree with you more.