A Friday night 10 years ago this week

Major-college and NFL football games were cancelled the weekend after Sept. 11, 2001. That was the only choice. Those games are spectacles.

In Iowa, at least, the Friday night high school games went on as scheduled. That was the best choice. Those games are for families, schools, communities. It was a time that begged for community.

Anyway, here's my offering to the 10-year remembrances. This is the the column I wrote after traveling to Cascade for high school football on that Friday, Sept. 14.

CASCADE - "So, it's supposed to rain?"

That question was posed by one diner to another Friday night in downtown Cascade 's Narrow Gauge restaurant, a place where you can get a perfectly good fried shrimp dinner for $4.95.

The exhaustive, exhausting coverage of the aftermath of Tuesday's attacks on the U.S. could be seen on a television in Joyce Donovan's eatery. Some customers were talking about what it all means in somber tones. But others talked loudly, and laughed about one thing or another, and concerned themselves with lighter matters.

Like, "So, it's supposed to rain?"

And high school football.

It was a football Friday night in America, and alongside U.S. Highway 151 between Dubuque and Cedar Rapids. In one well-traveled 21-mile stretch of road, the lights of football fields in Anamosa, Monticello and Cascade burned brightly. Those towns and their high schools welcomed teams and guests from Midland, North Cedar and Mount Vernon .

On this night in these places and so many others in the nation, things seemed normal. Not that the backdrops hadn't noticeably changed.

"God Bless America" was on the signs of gas stations across from each other in Marion on 151.

A U.S. flag hung atop a crane on a highway renovation work site in Springville.

At Thiesen's department store in downtown Monticello, a man was taking down the words "National Day of Prayer" from the store's signboard early Friday evening. The store had a large flag in its front window.

Flags were displayed every several feet from one end of the Cascade city limits to the other on 151.

Yet, once you arrived at Cascade High's James P. O'Meara Field, you knew it was a Friday night in September. The same sights and sounds as those from a week ago, a year ago and a generation ago filled the senses.

As always, younger boys paid no attention to the featured game, preferring to play their own rough-and-tumble football down a hill behind the visiting team's bleachers.

As always, players' mothers wore buttons showing photos of their sons in uniform.

As always, volunteers took tickets and sold concessions. The popcorn, popcorn bags and oil were donated by an area bank.

As always, high school kids hung in packs, shouting and flirting.

As always, coaches tried to pump up players who seemed to need no pumping.

Mount Vernon came to Cascade this night, and Mount Vernon is a Class 2A football machine. The Mustangs' freshman-sophomore team is a dynamo, too. It held a 48-0 lead over Cascade 's Cougars.

But with 4:24 left in the game, something good happened for the home team. Stewart Otting, listed in the free handout provided by his school at the front gate as a 5-foot-8, 120-pound freshman, hurled a long pass that 145-pound sophomore Andy Stoll caught for a 63-yard touchdown.

That 48-6 score had to look a lot better to the Cougars than 48-0.

The varsity players then took the field for warm-ups, ceding to Cascade 's marching band a few minutes before kickoff. Someone on the public-address system gave a poignant reading, saying "what was taken for granted may now be held dear."

The U.S. colors were raised to the top of on the field's flagpole by American Legion officers, then lowered to half-mast. A minute of silence was observed. The joyous shrieking of children, the cowbell a female fan persistently rang, the buzz of dozens of conversations going on simultaneously - all were stilled in the cool Iowa night.

Then, the band performed the national anthem. Moments later, the game was on. Mount Vernon kicked off, and it sounded like the pounding hooves of horses as the opposing players raced toward each other.

It wasn't much of a game, with the Mustangs winning 44-0 against a Cascade team that had just 19 players dressed for duty.

But it was better than nothing. Much better.

The rain? It only sprinkled.