One thing you don't do in Hereford

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger and you don’t pick against the Herd.
Only one person so far has had the gumption to – as Sports Editor Skip Leon would say –“bust my chops” to my face because I picked against Hereford two times as one of the Fearless Forecasters.
Skip, however, has received an earful on my behalf. Let it be known that I have heard the message loud and clear. You just don’t pick against Hereford.
Apparently people around here take the picks a little more seriously than I do. That might explain why I am so far in last place.
When I first volunteered to be one of the Fearless Ones, I had never even heard of half the high school teams we were asked to pick, let alone know how good any of them were. I mostly picked teams that I had heard of, or teams with funky-sounding names.
Since then, I’ve received an education in Texas high school football. Apparently I still have a lot to learn.
I chose to pick against Hereford in the games with Abilene Cooper and Frenship because the Whitefaces were huge underdogs. It had nothing to do with supporting the home team or wanting the Herd to win. Of course I want them to win.
The way I saw it, if I was to be a Fearless Forecaster, I shouldn’t be afraid to pick any team I think will triumph. Otherwise I would be neither fearless nor a forecaster.
Boy, was I wrong.
I will be picking Hereford to win the rest of their games, not because my chops are busted, but because I feel they have a good chance to do that.
As the Lone Ranger (in more ways than one) of the Fearless Forecasters I still reserve the right to pick any team to win that I see fit. I do, however, forecast an incredibly long winning streak for the Herd from here on out.

Halloween
As a youngster, Halloween was always my third-favorite holiday right behind Christmas and my birthday. As I’ve gotten older, it has bumped past my birthday to the No. 2 slot, only to fall back to No. 3 behind Father’s Day.
I was always more excited about dressing up in costumes than I was collecting candy or going to parties. I would plan for weeks what costume I was going to wear. When the time came for Mom to take me and my brothers to Kmart to pick out our costumes, I would already know what I wanted to be and exactly where to find my disguise.
When we got home, Mom would let us try on our costumes to make sure they fit. She then put them up for the next few weeks until Halloween arrived.
Those weeks were sometimes as long as the days before Christmas. When the big day finally arrived, we got to take our costumes to school and parade around the building before settling down to a class party. That evening, we got to take to the streets and go door-to-door seeking our fortune in sweets.
Of course, growing up in Colorado usually meant having to wear a jacket over your costume and traipsing through snow along the way. I was usually stubborn enough to not wear my jacket so everyone could see that I was Batman, or the Road Runner, or Luke Skywalker, or whoever.
As much as I like Halloween, it has never been a good day for me. In the sixth grade I was going to be Capt. Kirk. That week I sprained my ankle and had to go around on crutches (and wearing a jacket).
I finally quit dressing up for Halloween as a junior in high school. I will never forget the day – Oct. 31, 1981. We had a home football game. It was a rare Saturday afternoon game and the team met for breakfast at a local restaurant. After breakfast I went to gas up my car and the reverse band in my transmission broke. I limped my car home and took my mother’s car back to the stadium.
During the pre-game warm-ups, I took a bad hit and broke my wrist. I didn’t know it was broken but, because we blew out the other team, I saw my first varsity experience – the last play of the game. That night I was in so much pain that I stayed home and passed out candy.
(By the way, you Harry Potter fans might recognize that date. Oct. 31, 1981, is the day Lord Voldemort killed Harry’s parents.)
Years later I began to take an interest in Halloween again, this time as a father. Rather than roam the streets for treats, we always took our kids to “Halloween alternatives” offered by churches.
Now I enjoy listening to my kids talk about what they’re going to be for Halloween. It’s nice to know that the excitement hasn’t been lost, even if some of the tradition has.
I have to work a double shift on Halloween this year, so I won’t get to go out with the kids. But that still won’t stop me from wanting to dress up. After all, I do have a pretty decent Lone Ranger costume to wear.