Cheer, Cheer For Ole’ White House High
By:Margery McCurdy Plummer
At this moment, I can hear sounds coming from the White House football field as White House plays yet another early season game. The band is there, I’m sure, as well as the cheerleaders, and I wonder how many very small girls are there imitating the cheerleaders’ movements and cheers, just waiting for the day very soon when they will become cheerleaders. You can see them courtside at basketball games and as near as they can get to the field at football games. They become interested at an early age with practice and coaches and perhaps cheerleading camp like the big girls.

I was a cheerleader but not until I was a Freshman in high school, and we were not nearly as sophisticated as the cheerleaders are now with their sequined, sparkling outfits and near professional acrobatic feats that sometimes were almost unbelievable. They do tumbles and build pyramids with their bodies and other stunts that really dazzle the onlooker.

There are nationwide or maybe even worldwide cheerleading competitions. One night, when I was watching television, I saw some teams competing in a nation wide or maybe even a worldwide cheerleading contest. I couldn’t believe that those girls could do the stunts that I saw during that competition. The girls seemed as beautiful as their uniforms, and every move was on cue. Cheerleading has come a long way, and in a sense is almost big business.

Our outfits, by today’s standards, were almost laughable, but don’t think for a minute that we didn’t think we looked great. The skirts were made in someone’s home by a talented mother who was a good seamstress. They were cut in a circle of Blue Devil blue material and fell somewhere a good distance between our knees and above our anklets. They looked good---for that time.

The sweaters, however, were another matter. They were white, but for some reason we couldn’t get sweaters of identical knit. Some were close knit and others knit fit. The letters were individually bought and not all uniform. It didn’t seem to matter, though, as we went through our cheers without having had benefit of a coach or a summer cheerleading camp to teach us how it all was to be done. We just made up our own stunts, borrowed some from other schools that we played, and did the same with out cheers.

I can’t for the life of me remember more than two or three cheers that we used, or maybe I just purposefully forgot them. One that I should have forgotten went:

“Had a little rooster,
Set him on a fence,
He crowed for White House,
Because he had good sense.”

Another one that we thought was very catchy had more action in it. It went,

“Our team is red hot.
Our team is red hot.
Our team is red hot.”

(Arms outstretched and drawn back with each line. Then a sizzling sound was made and each made a forward somersault).

We thought that one was a pretty risque’, and a mother of one of the girls thought so, too. She objected to our skirts flying over our heads and exposing too much underside, completely covered by blue tights. We paid her no mind and continued using our favorite “Red Hot” cheer. It was a daring thing to do, and that was what we were looking for.

We did pretty well, though, and had great fun without benefit of a coach, cheerleading camp, or much knowledge of what we were doing. That was then and this is now, and it’s OK with me. Far be it for me to try and dictate how and when generations younger than I should be doing their cheering.