The Homecoming Ritual By Kenny Gerling   Everyone knows what the Homecoming dance is all about. You come in, dance, sweat, mooch the free soda and then leave. But though it is the most organized school sanctioned point of the day, many would say it is not the highlight, because before and after the dance often are the times when people really get to enjoying the day itself. Beforehand you have the flurry of last minute phone calls for the procrastinators and the rush to organize a night worthy of remembering. For the well-organized you have the wait and anticipation until that time you sit for pictures and your reservation at the fancy restaurant comes up. Once the plans are finalized and the minute hand has run its course it comes time for the pre-dance festivities. Everyone is looking good in a new dress or borrowed tie, and pictures are taken worthy of framing. From there it is on to a restaurant where no matter how hard everyone tries, at least on person walks out with a stain on their shirt. After that is taken care of, everyone heads off to someone’s basement to talk until the time to go to the main event arrives. That was great! You went and danced like there’s no tomorrow and now you are ready to move the party elsewhere. Everyone rolls caravan-style across town to “party one” and stays there for an hour or so. Once that is over, the group splits into many smaller subgroups that then go to one person’s house for the night. This is Homecoming. It may not be exactly everyone’s story but odds are your night consists of most, if not all, of these events in the course of a few action packed hours.  It’s the kind of night that you remember years from now and though a lot of it is just the hype of homecoming, it truly is a time to make memories that will last a lifetime.