One of the joys in life is learning how to \u201cput your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about.\u201d\u00a0 In a small town in the Shenandoah Valley, they\u2019ll need that simple joy now more than ever.<\/p>\n
Blacksburg, Virginia became home to the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1798;\u00a0all the students were cadets under the direction of James H. Lane, the youngest general of the Army of Virginia.\u00a0 Later, the school name was changed to Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and then, in 1970, it was lengthened to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until the 1990\u2019s that the current moniker \u201cVirginia Tech\u201d was officially sanctioned.\u00a0 Today, as you walk the campus, you\u2019ll see \u201cVT\u201d, \u201cVPI\u201d or even a \u201cVPI&SU\u201d.\u00a0 But for generations of fathers and sons and sisters and brothers, the place is simply \u201cTech\u201d.<\/p>\n
Everything about it is refreshingly quaint and idiosyncratic.\u00a0 The mascot is a turkey, the \u201cFighting Gobbler.\u201d\u00a0 The school colors are maroon and burnt orange.\u00a0 The VT Corps of Cadets Regimental Band are the \u201cHighty-Tighties\u201d.\u00a0 And the VT nickname?\u00a0 That would be a \u201cHokie,\u201d derived from the \u201cOld Hokie Yell,\u201d winner of an 1896 contest for a new cheer for VPI.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 On game day, if you head over to Lane Stadium, you can smell the aroma of roasting turkey legs.\u00a0 The place shakes as fans in the West stands bellow \u201cLet\u2019s Go!\u201d and the East side responds, \u201cHokies!\u201d\u00a0 When the home team captures a first down, the PA system blares out the squabbling call of the Fighting Gobbler.\u00a0 With each score, the cadets fire the cannon.\u00a0 And then, after the 3rd<\/sup> quarter, 65,000 self-respecting human beings rise together, and join in as the Highty-Tighties lead them in the world\u2019s largest communal Hokey Pokey.\u00a0 Seriously.<\/p>\n This week has been the blackest in the history of Blacksburg.\u00a0 In the coming days, there will be many memorial services.\u00a0 The realization of what has happened will set in.\u00a0 The students will return to their classes and their playing fields.\u00a0 They\u2019ll try to maintain their focus and their spirit:\u00a0 Hokies just trying to be Hokies again.<\/p>\n You can help them, just by performing this simple ritual:\u00a0 Put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about.\u00a0 Do the Hokey Pokey and turn yourself around.<\/p>\n Because in Blacksburg, that really is what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the joys in life is learning how to \u201cput your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in and shake it all about.\u201d\u00a0 In a small town in the Shenandoah Valley, they\u2019ll need that simple joy now more than ever. Blacksburg, Virginia became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[146,578,579,1259,1304],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","tag-blacksburg","tag-hokey-pokey","tag-hokies","tag-tragedy","tag-virginia-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}