When the bell rings on Friday morning, freshman Mason Ericson walks into math class sporting a clean, black leather cadillac fanny pack. He pulls out snacks from the fanny pack and eats while learning the lesson for the day.

Ericson has been participating in the self-proclaimed “Fanny Pack Friday” since he was in seventh grade. This first started as a contention between Ericson and Mill Creek Middle School choir teacher Mindy Fry.

“Mason always kept goldfish crackers in his fanny pack and was always eating them and handing them out during class,” Fry said via email. “He would always get in trouble because you weren’t supposed to be eating in choir.”

However, out of this conflict, a tradition was born.

“We originally made the deal for ‘Fanny Pack Friday’ that if everyone had a good week, we could plan some extra time at the end of class on Friday’s for Mason to share goldfish (or other snacks) from his fanny pack.” Fry said.

Since then, Ericson has continued this unique practice, wearing his fanny pack every Friday without hindrance.

“Sometimes it’s been difficult to remember to wear it,” Ericson said. “Other than that, it’s just been all fun.”

Ericson’s peers have had mixed reactions about this tradition as well.

“Some think it’s weird. Some think it’s fun. In eighth grade, some people did it on the last day of school, which was cool,” Ericson said. “My personal favorite was going to Worlds of Fun in eighth grade and people all of the park were wearing fanny packs. I have no idea if that’s related or not, but there was hundreds of people wearing fanny packs, which was pretty great.”

Looking towards the future, Ericson plans on continuing the tradition.

“I don’t know about the rest of my life,” Ericson said, “but definitely throughout my high school career.”