Homecoming means coming home, doesn't it?

This is the story of my high school's homecoming in -- well, I think it was 1966 or '67 -- a couple years after I graduated (in 1964).

I met up with an old school chum named Al (Class of 65'), who was home from college for the weekend. For something to do on Saturday night, we decided it would be fun to go to the homecoming dance.

I put on a dress, Al put on a coat and tie, and we got to the school around 9:00. We went in and approached a group of chaperones and teachers who were sitting at a table outside the cafeteria where the dancing was going on. We asked if we needed tickets and, if so, could we please buy them.

And they said -- no, you can’t come to this dance. It’s just for students.

And we said -- but we are alumni. We appealed to a couple teachers who remembered us who gladly verified that we had been students at that very high school

So we said -- see? We used to be students, which makes us alumni, and that is what homecoming is for, isn't it?

But they were adamant. They refused to let two alumni into the homecoming dance.

So we went away, disappointed. What we did that evening, I don’t remember. I wonder if Al remembers this happening.

What made me think of this story is that last night Michigan State University and at least two area high schools cancelled homecoming parades (and possibly football games for the high schools) because of the threat of bad weather.

They were not being alarmist – the storms actually did come, and they were doozies.