For nearly three decades, one Sunday afternoon each fall has transformed the hallways of Hardin High School into something almost unrecognizable.
Ordinary walls and hallway openings become elaborate scenes as students and parents spend hours bringing months of planning to life — all for a Hardin Homecoming tradition that began with one teacher simply hoping to build a little more school spirit.
This year, students and parents transformed them into Monopoly, Jumanji, Candy Land and Clue — complete with handmade decorations, elaborate scenes and details that took some classes months to plan. By Monday morning, Sept. 21, the school was ready for Homecoming Week.
It is a Hardin tradition that began 28 years ago with a much simpler idea. Government teacher Amanda Key started the Homecoming Halls tradition during her first year at Hardin in 1999. At the time, she was simply looking for a way to build school spirit.
“When we started this, it didn’t exist at other schools,” Key said. “This was new.”
There was no Pinterest for inspiration and relatively little Internet use to search for decorating ideas. Students had to come up with their own. The first halls were also far less elaborate than what students create today. Key remembers those early decorating sessions taking perhaps an hour from beginning to end.
Over the years, however, the tradition grew, but so did the expectations. Today, students may begin talking about ideas months before Homecoming Week, with decorations built in advance and brought to the school for one concentrated afternoon of work.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, students and parents had from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. to turn ordinary school hallways into this year’s board-game-themed creations. Freshmen took on Monopoly, sophomores chose Jumanji, juniors created Candy Land and seniors transformed their hallway into Clue.
The halls also give students plenty of opportunities to personalize their displays. Along with highlighting Hornet athletes, students find creative ways to poke fun at favorite teachers and administrators, and work in some good-natured rivalry aimed at the week’s football opponent. This year, that means the Crockett Bulldogs, who will face the Hornets on Friday, Sept. 25.
Key said the class president divided the hallway into sections over the summer, assigning different components to students and parents so everything could be brought together during the decorating session.
Senior Class President Audrey Lanier said the months of preparation are worth it because of what happens when the class comes together to create the finished hallway.
“My favorite thing about homecoming hallways is that they bring our class together and allow us to create fun, lasting memories,” Lanier said. “They bring so much energy to the school and create an exciting competition between all of the classes.”
Lanier has participated in the tradition throughout high school, with her class winning the hallway competition during both her freshman and junior years.
For senior Olivia Dryden, the class treasurer, this year’s project was the last of four Homecoming Halls she has helped create. Her favorite remains last year’s Las Vegas-themed hallway, though she said this year’s Clue design is a close second. Dryden hopes the tradition continues long after her class graduates.
“I think that it’s genuinely one of my favorite things that I’ve ever done in high school,” she said. “I know some people don’t agree with me, but I think it’s part of the fun.”
The work can be hectic, she acknowledged, but that is part of what makes it memorable.
“It’s definitely very chaotic, but I feel like that’s part of the fun of it,” Dryden said.
The project also gives students a chance to be creative. For this year’s senior hallway, planning began near the end of the previous school year.
Senior class Vice President Peyton Hotaling said decorating also gives classmates time together outside their normal school day.
“We get to all interact together as a class,” Hotaling said. “We have a good class, and we’ve always gotten along, and it’s definitely a good time for us to all get together and have fun together.”
About 40 seniors participated in Sunday’s decorating session, according to students interviewed Monday. Dozens of students in the junior, sophomore and freshmen classes, along with their parents, also participated.
The tradition has also come full circle for Key. Some of the parents now helping their children decorate Hardin’s halls were students who participated in the tradition during its earliest years.
Key recently interviewed several former students about their memories of Homecoming Halls. Some became emotional as they talked about returning years later and creating those same kinds of memories with their own children.
That connection between generations is one reason Key believes the tradition has value beyond the decorations themselves.
As children get older, she said, parent participation in school activities often begins to decline. Homecoming Halls gives families another reason to come back into the school and work alongside their teenagers before they move on to college, work or lives of their own.
This year’s freshman decorating session was a good example. Key said the hallway was crowded with students and parents working together. For Key, that involvement matters.
What started in 1999 as a young teacher’s attempt to generate a little more school spirit has become something she could not have envisioned at the time.
There have been years when circumstances required the tradition to be scaled back. After one hurricane, when families in the community were dealing with flooded homes and financial hardship, students kept decorations simple with a blue-and-gold theme, but the halls continued.
Key admits the tradition requires considerable work. Decorations are displayed for only a short time before everything must come down again, and families often spend their own money on materials. Still, after nearly three decades, she returns to the reason she started it – creating school spirit.
Judging from former students who have returned as parents, that part appears to be working. By next weekend, all of the decorations will be gone, but the memories will last a lifetime.