My memory of this is solidly locked into two core memories.

Let me preface this by first saying I was a severely asthmatic child growing up. And I wasn't popular in grade school

At. All.

So my first core memory is when I was doing the running portion. I was gasping for air, could hardly breath but still trying my best. And i remember a bunch of kids shouting my name and encouraging me on.

And I fucking hated it.

It was the hypocrisy of it all. most of them wouldn't even say hello to me in the halls. I knew the teahcers were just egging them on to do it. Probably to make me feel accomplished or something. what ever.

And the second memory was how meaningless the ribbons actually were. I pretty much [laced last or second to last in all of them. so Like someone else here, I got alot of last place ribbons. But after the event everyone was just milling around, and there was the box that held the ribbons. No one was guarding or anything. So I just went up grabbed a handful of No. 1 ribbons and called it a day.

I'm 54 and that memory is still clear as a bell in my head. Among other not so great ones...

"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon"

They got rid of field day?

So, for someone who isn't American... What?

Nowadays education can't afford ribbons and children are required to download a digital sticker

WOW that just unlocked a few memories!

Did yours have the little sticky bit at the top back so you could “pin” it to your shirt too?

This was known as “surprise day to goof off”.

Reminds me of swim meets

I went to track and field camp one summer for my first time. It was supposed to be a weeklong event, but my mom sent me on the last day. Well, I had never done any of the events before and the last day was when the competitions were. So, they threw me directly into it and I competed, with the competition being the first time I had done any of these events. I came in dead last for all of them. I still remember getting many purple 8th place ribbons just like these. And, I never tried track and field again.

And you didn't just get one for sitting on the side line!