A few weeks ago I wrote about the pleasures of watching high school sports, and last night I was able to take in what is certainly my favorite one: Friday night varsity football. Because of travel and schedules this fall, this was my first game of the season, and the first one in my new hometown. Sadly for our boys, it was a long night. The Rogue River Chieftans, playing with a roster of about 25 players out of a student body of 360, were defeated quite soundly by last year’s 3A state champs, the Gold Beach Panthers, 63-14. You can be sure that when you’re attending a contest at a small-town school, nearly everyone in the stands is a classmate of or related to the players on the field or the cheerleaders on the sidelines. (There are not enough students in the music program to constitute a band, so our musical entertainment between plays came via classic Jimi Hendrix on the P.A. system.) That means that, even with such a lopsided score, most stay to the bitter end, and the team still earns a heartfelt round of applause as the final seconds tick off the clock. I love the atmosphere at these games, the chill of the October night, the rising three-quarter moon, and the memories of my own Friday football nights in high school which they evoke. Yesterday, Kim Krol wrote of her favorite fall food (caramel apples–YUM!), and I’d have to say that my own favorite from this time of year is linked to those 35-year-old recollections. The menu every Friday night during football season in high school was always the same, but no one ever complained about the lack of variety. Coming in the door after school, we smelled the spicy aroma of a huge pot of chile con carne already simmering on the stove.  By 5:30 or so, a pan of cornbread would be drawn warm from the oven and placed on the table alongside the chile and all the fixin’s (honey butter, grated cheese, chopped onions, sour cream). We’d dive in, all the while discussing the upcoming game and our chances of victory. Then, having amply stoked our inner fires for a chilly evening and boisterous cheering, the whole family would head to the stadium, Mom and Dad and younger siblings to sit high up in the stands with the other parents while my sister and I would crowd in with our friends in the student section. The next home game this year is a few weeks from now. That should give me plenty of time to dig up Mom’s chile recipe.  Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader