BY EILEEN BRADY
THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO ​

The weather was unseasonably warm on that Friday night.
The weather was miserably cold and rainy the very next morning.
There were 5,100 people attending that Friday night football game between Clinton-Massie and Blanchester, people supporting high school warriors fighting to advance in the playoffs.
There were about 25 people — not including the volunteers or the speakers — attending that Saturday morning Veterans Day service at  J.W. Denver Williams Park, in honor of real warriors who have fought (and are still fighting) real battles around the globe.
Yet I’m pretty sure the weather had nothing to do with the disparity in attendance figures.

BY EILEEN BRADY
THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO ​

We traveled back in time last Friday night.
We crossed over the threshold to 1986 at the Thorne Avenue entrance to the Wilmington High School football field.
We could hear the cowbells ringing in the distance and could see blurs of orange and black, as high-schoolers in their varsity jackets sped by on the way to meet their friends. 
Underneath the hats and scarves, we couldn’t even tell that their hairstyles weren’t teased to the heavens, a la Aqua Net Extra Super Hold.
I felt 20 years younger, even though this time I was toting a toddler and not a teenage attitude.