Whither the concept of Homecoming royalty?

Will high school Homecoming continue to be a solid tradition into the future? Surprised I would ask this question? Look what happened to the concept of Homecoming royalty at UMM. The students seemed to be determined to make a mockery of it. We suspect that in high school, the concept is more likely to remain within safe and traditional bounds.
Sometimes there are undercurrents, though. Why would this be? There is precedent in the sense that we have seen cheerleaders, the "class will" and class prophecy wiped out. The will and prophecy can be added to the list of things we used to consider fun, harmless, innocuous etc.
We used to consider heavy consumption of alcohol acceptable. With alcohol, though, we discovered the undercurrent eventually. People were outraged at traffic fatalities caused by drunk drivers.
People rose up through the political process wherein we finally saw a prohibition on smoking in restaurants and other public places - pretty much everywhere now. Step into your imaginary time machine and go back to when you'd enter a restaurant like DeToy's and find several people smoking. Imagine having to work in a place like that.
I have opined that a high school "cheer team" would be acceptable and desirable in this day and age. It would be considered like an athletic activity. We'd see boys with girls. Remember the cheer team competition in Las Vegas in the movie "Dodgeball?"
I think back to high school and how in my era the cheerleaders were the "cute girls." They had to have a modicum of coordination to perform the cheers. But fundamentally they were chosen on the basis of being cute - we all knew that. We knew certain girls would never be considered because of their appearance, like being heavy. They need not apply.
The "cute" criterion has been rendered anachronistic. This may well be the reason, even if unstated, that cheerleaders were canceled at Morris Area.
So now we proceed on to the subject of Homecoming. On what basis exactly are the "royalty" chosen? Are these criteria also to be considered anachronistic? Ponder the criteria: Is it "popularity?" That doesn't even answer the question because we must then ask: What is the popularity based on? If this cannot be answered, then the royalty concept might well be considered a candidate for the scrap heap like the class will and prophesies.
I remember that Tony Cruze of my class had a prophecy of being "mistaken for the Hamm's Bear and shipped to the Como Zoo." I remember a couple females who sniffed at how they were referenced, for good reason as I recall, but I don't remember enough of the details to share them here. So we saw cracks in the tradition even back then.
There is a little nugget of Morris history that ought to be preserved in connection to royalty. Certainly the Historical Society would have nothing to do with this. It's significant though because a particular glitch happened not once but twice within a relatively short period. The crown got bestowed on the wrong girl. It happened with the high school junior attendant and it even happened with Miss Morris. These events have receded in time so perhaps not many people remember. I was there so I remember. Had I been a cartoonist, I might have done a drawing with a billboard outside of Morris saying "Welcome to Morris, home of botched coronations."
A Morris school administrator commented in the wake that no longer would we have a crown presenter "fake" putting the crown on a certain head, going back and forth until finally putting it on the right one. The administrator thought this practice to be "tacky." In saying this he was offending the small schools around Morris who indulged liberally in this.
When I was in high school the coronation was held in the 1968 gym. So were many music concerts. That location seemed quite nice - people could sit up in the bleachers and get an ideal view of everything. I remember a band concert that featured Renee Schmidt (male) as flute soloist. You could see every member of the band. Once the auditorium got built and concerts moved there, you could only see the front row of clarinet players.
We performed a pops concert at the 1968 gym. Tables were set up for the audience, as I recall. I played a trumpet solo on a "Carpenters" medley.
Jane Larson was crowned as our Homecoming queen there in the fall of 1972. We had pep rally skits on behalf of the various candidates. Jane's skit presented her "first date." But you see, this stuff can get dicey and personal. Maybe the day will come when Homecoming royalty gets phased out just like at UMM. It'll be a dinosaur.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com