Retro RFH Rainy Day Clowns in a Clown Car

RFH cheerleader guys and a VW bug circa 1977
Photo/George Day

Sometimes you just find yourself up a puddle without a paddle. And sometimes the way around it, or through it, is by spilling out of a VW bug like a bunch of RFH clowns in a clown car.

In this case, it’s a special brand of cheer, once again, at the hands — and fabulous outfits — of a gaggle of RFH Class of ’78 guys is a hard-fought one on a dismal day. Oh, you’ve seen these guys before. But the “before the big cheer” moment is a backstory that was missed by most.

And everyone knows that behind every great memory is an even better backstory. Well, this backstory starts with this bunch of RFH guys, most of whom are still friends, by the way, got all dressed up with somewhere to go — the RFH football field. They also had a great purpose in a special kind of cheer to be delivered to a powder puff football game.

How they got there was, well, assumed in a pretty uneventful way. It was actually quite the opposite.

With the sudden recent death of one of this motley crew of cronies, Dave Memmott (RIP), we found out that the guys piled into the Memmott VW bug, or, more aptly, Beetle. Yup. ALL those guys in that little car. They drove, and luckily didn’t get stopped, piled in the car, from Fair Haven to the field, where they proceeded to drive onto the track by the field.

As a preamble to the main cheer event, what became even more of an event was seeing them, in a seemingly endless stream, tumble out of the car they were packed into like sardines — or, really, true clowns.

They gave up the car before they hit that puddle and ran onto the field for their 15 minutes, or more like 2 hours or so, of cheerleading fame.

And, believe us, it was definitely a fame-making moment. Never forgotten. Though, now everyone knows that there was more to the story than the cheer. The ride to it was the other story the details of which are still a little fuzzy.

Then again, as they say, what happens in the VW bug stays in the VW bug, right? Any talkers? We’ll take that scoop. We do know this much: The Memmott VW was never the same after that fateful day.

** Many thanks to the fabulous George Day for another priceless RFH moment captured. George Day’s photos are exclusively published on R-FH Retro and not for publication anywhere else. **