4.20.07 Turning Around in Blacksburg
One of the joys in life is learning how to “put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about.” In a small town in the Shenandoah Valley, they’ll need that simple joy now more than ever.
Blacksburg, Virginia became home to the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1798; all the students were cadets under the direction of James H. Lane, the youngest general of the Army of Virginia. Later, the school name was changed to Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and then, in 1970, it was lengthened to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the current moniker “Virginia Tech” was officially sanctioned. Today, as you walk the campus, you’ll see “VT”, “VPI” or even a “VPI&SU”. But for generations of fathers and sons and sisters and brothers, the place is simply “Tech”.
Everything about it is refreshingly quaint and idiosyncratic. The mascot is a turkey, the “Fighting Gobbler.” The school colors are maroon and burnt orange. The VT Corps of Cadets Regimental Band are the “Highty-Tighties”. And the VT nickname? That would be a “Hokie,” derived from the “Old Hokie Yell,” winner of an 1896 contest for a new cheer for VPI. Seriously. On game day, if you head over to Lane Stadium, you can smell the aroma of roasting turkey legs. The place shakes as fans in the West stands bellow “Let’s Go!” and the East side responds, “Hokies!” When the home team captures a first down, the PA system blares out the squabbling call of the Fighting Gobbler. With each score, the cadets fire the cannon. And then, after the 3rd quarter, 65,000 self-respecting human beings rise together, and join in as the Highty-Tighties lead them in the world’s largest communal Hokey Pokey. Seriously.
This week has been the blackest in the history of Blacksburg. In the coming days, there will be many memorial services. The realization of what has happened will set in. The students will return to their classes and their playing fields. They’ll try to maintain their focus and their spirit: Hokies just trying to be Hokies again.
You can help them, just by performing this simple ritual: Put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about. Do the Hokey Pokey and turn yourself around.
Because in Blacksburg, that really is what it’s all about.