[Sca-cooks] Re: bundt cake?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>  Homecoming (and where have they been?)

They were playing their sport (football or basketball) "on the road"
at other teams' schools for a while - now they come back and play at
home.

>  the terrifying ritual of the pep assembly/rally (as in Grease or Heathers)

These always terrified me. It's all propaganda and brain washing, to
get students all excited about cheering for their team shortly before
a game against the team from another school.

>  What purpose do fraternities/sororities have and why are they named after
>  strings of Greek letters?

This goes back over 100 years. Don't ask me, i feel about them as i
feel about pep rallies...

>  Why does everyone get so worked up about cheerleaders? (Vacuous *and* loud
>  doesn't seem to be a combination to laud, to me)

They get worked up a couple different ways. Cheerleaders are mostly
girls in very short skirts and tight tops. Getting chosen is very
competitive, so the girls get worked up about getting chosen. The het
guys get worked up about the opportunity to get close to a girl in a
short skirt and skimpy tight top.

Cheerleaders often have a reputation for being sexually available - i
am not commenting on the truth of this, but that's what het guys
think when they see girls as i've described.

Often the "stars" of the sports team they're cheering for get their
pick of the girls...

>  Do kids ever bring their lunch to school?

Kindergarten-5th grade - Elementary school (ages 5 to 10)
Where i lived we all went home - which was within walking distance -
for lunch. It was an upscale suburb in the 1950's and no one's mom
worked. Which didn't matter, since the moms were all out anyway,
shopping, golfing, lunching, or playing cards. We were served lunch
by our maids - and in the neighborhood where i lived, we all had
maids - usually live-in maids. They all had Sunday off, which time
families went out to dinner at steak houses or Italian restaurants.
It was pretty amazing when the first carry-out Chinese place opened -
it actually had no where to eat in it - strictly carry out - i don't
quite remember when that was, maybe when i was 10... There was no
pizza where i grew up.

Grades 6-8 - junior high (ages 11-13)
We were all bussed to junior high, where the kids from several local
elementary schools converged. We all ate together in the school
cafeteria. We either brought our own or ate what the cafeteria was
serving. Occasionally they had something edible... but not often.

Grades 9-12 - High school (14-17)
We were all bussed to high school. Here there were kids from the one
junior high, kids from a sleazy town just north of us that served the
nearby military base (it had (shock, horror) bars and "questionable"
motels!!! as well a decent Italian restaurant), and the kids who'd
gotten kicked out of the one local parochial school. Kids rarely
brought lunch, but i think i did some of the time. It was considered
uncool to bring your lunch, but i never worried about that. We ate
good food at home and leftovers were better than lunchroom food.

When i went to boarding school for my last 2 years of high school, we
ate what we were served. We girls fought over who would be servers on
the days there was chocolate pudding for dessert, because the servers
got to eat the extras.

Oh, and American public school system consistes of free schools
operated by local school boards and funded by local taxes in the
towns where the kids live. I gather that in England a public school
is actually a private school. So what's it all called in Oz?

Anahita