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Strickland Field. When I was a kid, you<br />
would have found me there in my “Eat<br />
Dirt PURL” homemade tee shirt with a<br />
Gatorade in one hand and a pack of sour<br />
straws in the other. In high school, not<br />
only did I cram in the student section on<br />
Friday nights with my friends, but I also<br />
played high school soccer and powder-puff<br />
football on that field. That stadium has<br />
almost too many memories to count,<br />
and I wanted to paint it. However, I<br />
decided to draw it the way I remembered<br />
it when I was in high school.<br />
The press box has “BRANDON”<br />
written across the top, and the Louis<br />
Gene Strickland Field sign is back in<br />
front of the bushes like it used to be.<br />
Selfishly, I moved the sign back because<br />
I had to fetch so many soccer balls from<br />
behind it when we missed the goal and<br />
kicked the ball in the bushes. I guess,<br />
subconsciously, I wanted to immortalize<br />
my struggle. So, for my teammates who<br />
climbed in the bushes as well, I know<br />
you’ll understand.<br />
I also wanted to paint the stadium<br />
because I know its days are numbered.<br />
<strong>Brandon</strong> High School will soon be<br />
opening its stadium out at the new<br />
campus, and the days of Friday night<br />
football on the field where it’s been<br />
played for well over half a century will<br />
be no more. Like all things, change is<br />
inevitable, but I think the painting of<br />
the old football field will be a special<br />
keepsake for those who have grown up<br />
in <strong>Brandon</strong>.<br />
Finally, another significant place that<br />
has my heart is Oxford, Mississippi.<br />
Oxford is where I have spent the past<br />
six years of my life, and it’s where I’ve<br />
grown up and experienced the first<br />
pangs of adulthood. I’m about to wrap<br />
up my last year of graduate school at<br />
Ole Miss, and I couldn’t love Oxford<br />
any more if I tried. It’s a town filled with<br />
as much history as it is creativity, and it’s<br />
a haven for artists and writers alike.<br />
The famous Oxford square is in the<br />
middle of North Lamar and South<br />
Lamar, a street that is lined with<br />
Victorian era houses and antebellum<br />
homes. The trees lining the street have<br />
branches that lace over the road and in<br />
the fall, it’s one of the most beautiful<br />
places I’ve ever seen.<br />
32 • Fall 2014
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