Friendship Dance

Friendship Dance

The Friendship Dance is another huge tradition that surrounds Kirkwood and Webster. Every year the Turkey Day game and the Friendship Dance switch locations at the two schools, for example if the Turkey Day game is at Kirkwood the Friendship Dance is at Webster. The Friendship Dance is the equivalent of a homecoming dance for the two schools. We also don't have a typical homecoming football game because the Turkey Day game is all we need. Basically the Friendship Dance is where Kirkwood students and Webster students are all together before the Turkey Day game so we don't act so mean on Thanksgiving day. It's a way to show that we are all civil and that we can be peaceful. Personally I really disliked going to the Friendship Dance because it was so awkward. Not many people from Kirkwood knew anyone from Webster so Kirkwood students stuck with Kirkwood students and vice versa. Kirkwood and Webster both have a Friendship Court where twelve boys and twelve girls (all seniors) who are nominated to be Friendship queen and king. Sometimes I would stay to see who got crowned but sometimes my friends and I would leave before because it was boring. Some people have fun and stay the whole time, the freshmen are usually really excited because it's their first high school dance. 

Turkey Day Game

Turkey Day Game
The Turkey Day Game is the second best part of Thanksgiving in my opinion, the first would be the food, and if we win the game the game moves to the first best part and is better than the food. The game usually starts at noon and lasts as long as football games normally last. I am not joking when I say that there are police standing on the Kirkwood side, the Webster side, on the field and in the middle by the concession stand. The rivalry is so intense that if someone from the opposing team tries to even walk onto the other side the police will stop them and ask what their intentions are for walking over. At a normal Kirkwood vs Webster game there usually isn't more than one police officer. The reason there are so many cops at the Turkey Day game is because people during a normal rivalry game will run onto the opposing teams side and will yell curse words, flick them off, and just be as obnoxious as possible.

This is one of my favorite photos I've taken at the Turkey Day game because it shows the heat of the moment. This was during last years Turkey Day game at Webster. 

This is a link from YouTube.com that shows part of the Turkey Day game from 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku9BH9Os8pA

This link is also from YouTube.com and shows part of the game from 2004.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9_FObkVBxA

Spirit Week

Spirit Week

Spirit Week is actually kind of a stupid name because this "week" is only two days of school. Honestly, I think I looked forward to Spirit Week more than Christmas sometimes. It's the best part of the entire school year. With having one of the biggest rivalries in the nation, beating our rival and preparing for it with all of our rituals and traditions is a lot of fun and hard work. The first step in that process is Tacky day.

Tacky Day

Every Monday before Thanksgiving day both Kirkwood and Webster celebrate Tacky Day. Kirkwood's school colors are red and white and Webster's school colors are orange and black; so on Tacky Day, the students at both schools wear their rival schools colors to school that day. After school gets on that day everyone stays after school to decorate hallways into a theme. Underclassmen stay until 10 PM and seniors are allowed to stay until around 1 AM if necessary. Both schools have judges come and rank their hallways for overall hallway, best theme, and most creative. When I attended Kirkwood the themes for my hallways were Candyland, circus, superheroes, and Spongebob. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors and band participate in decorating their own hallways. 

These are some of my friends and I the night of Tacky Day our senior year. One of our friends wrapped all our bodies together in surround wrap and we walked around like this for about fifteen minutes.

These are some sophomores decorating some posters for their Willy Wonka themed hallway. 

Here are some juniors covering the walls for their Toystory themed hallway. That year the junior class spend over $10,000 on their hallway decorations when every other class spend about $3,000. They had a flatscreen TV in their hallway and they had been working on props for their hallway since August.

This photo is of my friend Brooke, it was taken during my junior year when our theme was superheroes. I don't really know how her dressing up as a homeless person ties into the superhero theme but it made everyone laugh and it's definitely something to remember.

These are my hands after our superhero themed hallway junior year.  We used lots of silver paint because we wanted the walls of our hallway to look like they were silver like buildings. Needless to say I got silver paint all over my car…

Spirit Day

Spirit Day is the opposite of Tacky Day because on spirit day the members of the schools dress up in their schools colors and then we have a school pep rally at the end of the day. Every class this day is shorter because we had to make time in the school day for the hour long pep rally. Here are some photos to help explain how fun the day is.

These are some seniors last year performing in the senior skit as some of the teachers in the science department. 

These are some other seniors performing as some of the teachers from the math department.

This is my friend Claire who dressed up as the Flying Dutchman from Spongebob and is sitting in a pirate ship someone made in senior hall.

This is the senior section of the pep rally, some people are dressed in Webster colors (part of the senior skit) and some are dressed as teachers. The excitement in this photo is from the video that got played which was about Kirkwood football. The video highlighted all of the seniors, touchdowns and memorable moments from the season so far.

This photo is of some of the seniors performing in the senior skit as some of the gym teachers. 

These are some of the seniors from my junior year performing in the senior skit, their theme was Harry Potter. The guy in the yellow bodysuit is dressed up as a golden snitch and the guy behind him chasing him is a Webster person who is acting as someone who is playing quiddich.

This is one of my favorite photos because this was taken my senior year at the pep rally. We do a chant called "Battle Cry", and when the seniors have their turn to yell and scream we all threw confetti into the air and it was the first time any senior class had ever done that before.

These are some of the seniors performing as some of the teaches from the social studies department. 

This is my friend Brooke again, she was the one who dressed up as the homeless person. This was a year later, so senior year when our theme was Spongebob, and Brooke dressed up as the crazy chocolate man from Spongebob who just yelled "CHOCOLATE!" As underclassmen walked throughout senior hall that morning all Brooke did was yell "CHOCOLATE" at them.

This is a video from this year, yes I was sitting in the alumni section and was very sad about it. This is a part of the community of the Kirkwood at the second pep rally on Wednesday night. It's a tradition that we sing our alma mater before we leave and this video is a part of us singing that. 

These are video links from YouTube.com that shows what the pep rally above would have looked like in 1985.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr9-23uwGWE

part one^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMqKGFduaaQ

part 2^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku9BH9Os8pA

part 3^

History

History

Kirkwood High School (my alma mater) and Webster Groves High School have had an ongoing rivalry for 105 years this year. The Kirkwood/Webster rivalry is the second biggest rivalry in the nation and the first biggest West of the Mississippi River. The Kirkwood/ Webster rivalry is a very well known rivalry;  it is covered on ESPN almost every year. On the 100th anniversary Turkey Day Game ESPN, USAtoday, and the New York Times have done stories on the rivalry which are available online to read.