Harker's Rally Went Ahead, Rain or Shine, Mostly Rain

The rally would not happen in heavy precipitation. It happened in pouring rain. I have stood in the gap between those two phrases at every youth soccer game since 2016.

The sophomores had practiced a dance with a mountain theme. One of them told the student paper that it fell apart, because nobody could hear the music and it was "just really wet." She still had a good time. A freshman said she had never danced in the rain before, and it was fun.

Then the sophomores went to the gym for lunch with their eagle buddies, the third graders they are paired with. One sophomore described the scene to the paper: many shivering sophomores, with eagle buddies "looking at them as if they were dying." He had been prepared, and was warm. His conclusion: rain and spirit rallies "don't go well together."

The person who brought the jacket always gets to write the review.

Rallies at Harker end with the scream-off, each class trying to out-shout the others. In 2011 the school's news site reported that the senior class, as a joke, took its turn by miming a scream in complete silence. The juniors won. As far as I am concerned, so did the seniors.

I have taught this to the youngest. When we are in a restaurant and she wants to yell, she now opens her mouth very wide and makes no sound at all. The waiter, the first time, looked as though we were dying. My wife laughed so hard she had to put her fork down, without making a sound.

The middle one wanted to know whether a silent scream counts as screaming. The eldest said only if you mean it.