Image taken from Excalibur 1989

80s

Homecoming in the 80’s was traditional and had lots of festivities to go along with the dance. The student council would traditionally pick out a theme for the dance and the float that would later be built that day of the dance. Saturday morning the preparation for the dance starts by setting up the float, to later be showcased in the parade. After the parade, the home football game would take place towards the evening, then finally from there students, would head to the dance. History teacher, William Crow remembers attending his senior year homecoming in the early 80s at Hazelwood Central where he was student council president.

“Saturday morning was the parade float in the morning, then the football game in the afternoon leading to the homecoming dance, ” Crow said. Guys wore a suite and girls wore some kind of dress.”

                                                                                   Image from Excalibur 1990

90s

Hard rock and pop music were popular song genres that were played at high school homecoming dances. The popular homecoming court elections would have the students competing for a spot on the dance floor and yearbook picture. Math teacher, Steve Willott went once to homecoming with a close friend in the year of 1990 at Saint Dominic High School. Homecoming fashion for Willott consisted of a simple dress shirt and tie, for girls he remembers a simple dress.

” I remember my best friend and I, we were at the dance and just talking about how the court was a complete popularity contest, we were a little bit uh cynical,” Willott said. Last time I went to homecoming was 1990, I remember it being really hot.”

Image from Excalibur 2004

2000’s

 Homecoming in the early 2000s and mid 2000s started developing more dance themes because of the student council body. The music that would be played on the night of the dance was picked out by the music surveys collected by student council members that would go around the school asking for recommendations from students themselves. No longer were bands hired for homecoming, but the transition to a DJ became more popular among high schools. The planning for spirit days the week of homecoming became more creative for the student council body to make the students participate.  Art teacher, Courtney Flamm was involved in student council all for years at Winfield High School for her creative work.

“All of my friends were involved, so we were the people planning it and being there decorating it , and making sure the spirit days were fun,” Flamm said.

The theme that Flamm remembers are from her 2008 senior homecoming which was Arabian Nights, and previous years were beach theme and country cowboy theme. The preparations for homecoming for the girls involved going to a mall “back when it was popular”.

“I wore a short dress, back then it was either like satin with a solid color or lots of glitter, me and my twin sister would do each other’s hair, it was always popular to do it up, like as high as possible, with lots of curls,” Flamm said.

From the planning of homecoming to the actual dance, Flamm was involved in every homecoming and went to every single one of them.

“I don’t have a favorite, but I would say maybe my senior year just because we were all seniors and it was a fun time,” Flamm said.

                                                                              Courtesy image from Excalibur 2010

2010

Homecomings were not the only popular high school dance, but snowcomings started getting more popular. For snowcoming, it was popular to have a winter wonderland theme and similar spirit days that led up to the dance. Para Jacob Kent, attended all homecomings at his high school in St. Genevieve, where he specifically remembers his 2011 snowcoming dance. During this time, Kent recalls music from Fallout Boy and Blink 182 to be popular.

“I believe it was called snowcoming, and it was kind of Frozen themed, I know for music there was a lot of Blink 182 and Fallout Boy, we still listened to a lot of 90’s hip hop,” Kent said.

Kent went with his friends each year and he remembers the senior and junior prank wars that were a tradition of the dance.

“Oh it was absolutely fun, I would definitely do it again,” Kent said.