Friday Night Lights

Naperville Central played West Aurora tonight on Central's brand spanking new football field.

I must confess, I barely recognized the place, it's so fancy.

The concession shack is long gone and in its stead is a real live brick-and-mortar building, where devoted parents still sell hot dogs and hawk hoodies.

Even the band was new, all tricked up in plumes and crimson and black (so we're not red and white? sorta red and not so white?).

And of course the players, all 900 of them, played well and pretty much crushed the Blackhawks.

Yes, time marches on, from grass to astroturf, gravel to composite track, bleachers to skyboxes. (Okay, there really aren't any skyboxes, but they sure look like they could be.)

And while we look forward to seeing the rest of the additions and improvements from the inside, I'm a bit wistful. It takes time to get used to alterations in my space-time continuum.

Rendering by Wight and Company