Central royalty reunited

School dances have been a viable part of school life at Central High School since the first Girardot Queen was crowned in 1921. In 1932 we crowned our first football queen at the Thanksgiving Day game. Subsequent coronations have included dandelion queens, TWIRP kings and queens, Mr. and Miss CHS courts, basketball queens, fall and winter sports courts and prom kings and queens.

My mother, Carol Ervin-Knight, class of 1958, was a member of the basketball and football queen's courts and remembers wearing pearls with both of her formals. My grandmother made each dress. Mother recalls one crafted of lavender tulle and the other of aqua taffeta.

As a little girl I studied her Girardot, thinking how glamorous all the candidates were on the two-page spread dedicated to each dance. Three decades after my mother graduated from Central, I was a senior and several changes in dances had occurred. A TWIRP Dance, to which the girls asked the boys, had been added. In 1987, I was selected for the court for Miss CHS where the Student Council, now Student Senate, nominated females and males who were believed to be actively involved students and represented the school with spirit and good character. My dress was not nearly as formal as either of my mother's, but I was thrilled to be part of the court.

My mother and I (now an 18-year faculty member) invite all Central royalty to join us Oct. 7 for the fall homecoming game to be recognized on the field during pre-game festivities at Tiger Stadium.

TRACY KNIGHT-LOHMEIER, Class of 1987, Central High School faculty 1994-present, Cape Girardeau