Sunday, May 30, 2010

Tales, Tunes, Laughter, Love, and Remembrance: 50th Class Reunion


The air was hot heavy, and humid May 29, 2010 as we gathered to finish the set up for the fiftieth reunion. We sought the shade of a large oak tree behind the VFW Post in Jasper, Florida as we awaited the arrival of the key. We were finally on minute count down after fourteen months of preparation. Today it would all finally come together with the arrival of our other classmates at four p.m. Glenda pulled in a few minutes after three and we hurried inside to start the music, slip the music Cd's into the program folders, begin the slide show, dress the tables, and put out the appetizers. We fine tuned the seating arrangements after the screen was in place, checked the room, tweaked the displays and called it good.

Anticipation developed as four o'clock approached; long tables were draped in orange; ivy strands circled eight candles representing those eight classmates who are no longer with us. Orange and black balloons bounced from the sign near the road. Fifties music filled the room. The front door held welcome signs with photos. Appetizers waited on a table near the kitchen along with soft drinks, cups, and plates. The displays were in place, the music playing, and the slides of years gone by projected on the screen. We were ready.

Classmates started rolling in right on time (Nancy and D.W. first), receiving name tags crafted with small photos from school and print large enough to be read without squinting. We also gave them their event packet and took their pictures. People reconnected quickly, laughter filled the room, and the stories started flowing. "Do you remember..."; "Whatever happened to..."; "Is ____ coming?" all bounced around. By five-thirty all but two of the ones who had signed up were there, plus two walk-ins. Just as we were about to take the group photo, Bobby and Lucy walked in. We gathered for the group shot among a little prank playing. All the spouses seemed to have a camera in their hand as shots were taken of the assembled classmates.

After the picture, all thirty-one of us gathered round the table with heads bowed as Archie asked a blessing on our food. He spoke a lovely grace. The head table led the group to the food and we served our plates from a selection of roast beef, roast pork, green beans, squash casserole, rolls, and romaine salad with strawberry vinaigrette's. About this time the afternoon storm started and by dessert time (strawberries slathered with whipped cream on pound cake or Texas Sheet Cake} the rain falling on the metal roof drowned most of the other sounds.

The storm did not dampen our spirits as we continued to eat and visit around the table. After the lessening of the rain, we started the program with the welcome from Don who had us laughing as he shared some good remembrances. We then took time to remember Charles, Lester, Jerry, Mickey, Franklin, Linda J., Bonnie R., and Linda G. with a classmate leading off the memories for each. Then, it was remember when time with tales of some of our more memorable teachers and fellow students. We traveled back with Carl Ivey to remember one of the favorite bullies in school who made his life miserable and his early days of adjusting to our school. Confessions were made which may ultimately lead to revenge even at this late date. Joyce found out why she may have had to take the hookworm treatment. Sports stories were shared. Minor crimes and misdemeanors were confessed. The reunion committee reported, plans were made for 2015, and Linda led us in the Alma Mater.

It was clean up time, good by time, throw the trash bags in the truck time, pack up the car and go home time. Little groups lingered giving last hugs and sharing parting thoughts. No one seemed to be in a hurry to leave. We were taking with us a renewed sense of wonder at how much those people in that room that evening still meant to us. The ties of childhood are timeless.

Fourteen months was a long time to prepare, but Saturday evening was priceless. It was good to pause and come together, remembering where we started and with whom we shared the first part of our journey. Everyone brought a little something special to the reunion; all of us took away a sweet memory.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Fifty Years

The months have quickly passed since we started planning our high school reunion and Saturday the miles slipped away easily as I drove through the golden roadsides of Hamilton County towards my last meeting of the fiftieth reunion committee of the Jasper High School Class of 1960. I got to the Dixie Grill early, and since it was one of the warmest days we've had this May, I opted to wait on the rest of the girls inside letting my mind wander from this to that while I sipped my ice water.

As I looked over notes and thought about the meeting, my mind drifted to those years that all of us had spent together and a myriad of thoughts and memories crowded my mind. We graduated in May. When we went to school, the year was still tied to an agricultural economy, specifically, tobacco. Other than the box factory and some sawmills, the economy was based on agriculture and tobacco was the main money crop. So, we started school the last week of August. We had two days off at Thanksgiving, two weeks off at Christmas, and on teacher workday. By the time we graduated, we had Good Friday off. Other than that, we went to school. Tobacco harvesting would usually begin just as school let out for the summer.

Our graduating class was a mix of town and country kids, probably more town than country by the twelfth grade. We started out in the first grade with over sixty children and by the time we marched up the aisle together, there were just thirty-seven. This was before consolidation hit this county and integration. Consolidation of three high schools would happen in 1965 after we were off leading our lives; the other, integration, in the early seventies.

By 1960 Jasper was the largest town in the county. It was also the county seat. The other two "white" schools in the county graduated less than twenty between them. We were still a commercial center. We had a motel on each end of town and a hotel in the middle. Highway 41 streamed cars through town headed to and from south Florida all day long. By 1960 talk of the interstate that was to bypass us was already going on and people were nervous about what would happen to people who depended on these people coming through town and spending their money. They were right to be nervous. Those who survived found they had to move their businesses to the interchanges or slowly dry up.

Jasper was not a bad place to be in the forties and fifties. We had a variety of stores and you didn't have to leave town to find what you needed. Chain stores were pretty much still a thing of the future. We had dry good stores, hardware stores, jewelry stores, grocery stores, and others which were more fun such as a bakery catecornered to the city park.

The park was where we spent our recess hours from about the fourth grade on. The little kids went out behind the school to play on the playground where there were swings, turnovers, and slides. Us older kids played more inventive games and in the spring time the girls would spend their time making daisy chains and talking. We also played in the blocked off street where the school buses disgorged those who came in from the country and picked them up after the bell sounded. During the day, it was a place of jump rope, marbles, jacks, and pick up games of Red Rover, Mother May I or whatever was in season.

Anyway, the bakery was one of our delights. Owned and operated by Mrs. Adicks, it turned out the best cinnamon rolls with the most luscious icing I have ever tasted. By high school, they cost five cents each and were about four inches across. Doughnuts were three for a dime. When we had money, and we could always use our lunch money and skip lunch, someone would either bring a note from home or someone would write a fake note from home, take it to the office, sign out, and go to the bakery. Then it would be time for us to slip out of study hall and go to the little balcony overlooking the playground, that was next to the rest room. We didn't get to do this too often, but of the delight when we did!

Jasper also had a fruit stand just across the street from the park. The fruit stand had all sorts of candy from a penny up to a dime. Everyone had their favorite kinds. I think one kind was called Jigs and it had five pieces of individually wrapped strawberry wrapped chewy candies in a pack. They were cheap. We got good value for our money with those little candies. I suppose they sold fruit, too, but I never bought any. The fruit stand was next to the theater.

Down the street, one on one side of the railroad; the other on the other side, were two drug stores. When you had the money, they had ice cream by the scoop and fountain drinks. Our favorites growing up were cherry pepsi or vanilla pepsi. Most of us felt quite daring after our Sunday school teacher admonished us that we should not drink the vanilla pepsi because it contained alcohol! We were also a little shocked to think that our mamas used vanilla to cook, but the teacher assured us that the alcohol disappeared with cooking.

Anyway, it is May and my thoughts kept wandering around. I thought of the evening when graduation had finally come. We had had a busy year. In the spring of our last year, our standings were figured up after the final grades were announced. The first spot, the valedictory rank went to Linda Clardy who had made straight A's all way through high school. This was no surprise. We weren't sure who would be second until the grades were calculated. Three of us were extremely close: Billy Pennington, Bonnie Riley, and me. I had some issues my ninth grade year when no one understood me, and my grades had slipped. That was also a year our family was in a lot of turmoil as we moved from town to the farm. For me, it was one of the most miserable years of my life. By the time I got into my Sophomore year, things had started to level off and I did well from then on. I think the A I made in trig was what tipped the scales and my scholastic average was a slight percentage above Billy and Bonnie.

By spring, we had also taken the Florida Placement Test which was the way you qualified for college in this state. A perfect score was five hundred. Three of us topped 450 (99th per centile) which was considered extremely good: the three B's, Billy, Bonnie, Barbara.

Some time after the caps and gowns arrived, some of us went to Valdosta to get our formal pictures taken. Mine were a gift to me from Mrs. Perry. She had taken me under her wing. In fact, I rode with her in her big car, I think a Buick, and that in itself was an experience. Mr. Perry was still alive then, but he must have been in ill health, because I never remember meeting him. Anyway, we went to the studio and had our pictures taken in drape and in our cap and gown.

Early in May, the juniors gave the seniors a banquet and prom. The theme was "The Stork Club" which, of course none of us had ever been to. Anyway, it sounded glamorous and we all had vivid imaginations. A week or so before graduation, we had class night. We had the prophesy for our class read and the history. I do not remember if we did a will or not. We also had some other entertainment supplied by our classmate such as Don's Shelly Berman routine.

About a week before graduation, we all went to Twin Lakes to the pavilion to swim and have a class picnic. This was fun. There was a jukebox and booths in the snack bar. I remember there was a pier going out into the lake.

Baccalaureate was moved off campus to the First Baptist Church which had a fairly large building that was new and could accommodate the expected crowd. It was also air conditioned and the seats were more comfortable than those in the old school auditorium. The only thing I remember about that night, Sunday, was that we had to go over to the church the week before so that their choir director could teach us to sing our hymn correctly. We sang In the Garden. I remember his lesson to this day. However, when I look at the program for that night, I find no mention of us singing a hymn. Maybe we never lived up to his expectations! I assume that we donned our caps and gowns for this occasion, but I do not remember. This was long before daylight saving time, and the service started at eight p.m. We exited the church to the tune of In Festive Mood by Kohlmann which probably caught our mood fairly well. There may have been some who were sad about graduation, but I, for one, was ready to be done with Jasper and leave. It is usually not the graduates that cry at these things.

We were out of school by graduation. I remember the day was clear and hot. I know I went to town and got my hair cut and set then went home and my mother put a Toni in it. I had to sit outside most of the day to get it dry. We did not have a hair dryer at that time. Therefore, I did not have the long page boy hair that shows in my cap and gown picture that was taken the week before. I had short, curly hair. It was a wonder any of us who slept on those awful brush rollers so that those long hair styles looked just right graduated at all because we sure didn't sleep good on those things.

Anyway, May 30, 1960 we showed up to the school to put on our caps and gowns. Air conditioning did not exist, so we all waited until the last minute to don the heavy robes. Girls were in one room; boys in another. We wore white. They wore black. I remember that the auditorium was full of people. We marched in to Pomp and Circumstance possibly played by the band since no pianist is listed. We sat on the stage. I see by looking at the program that a woman minister gave the invocation. I am guessing that she must have been Church of God, because I know that the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians wouldn't have put up with a woman minister at that time. Don spoke because he was President and Pola Clardy, one of the valedictorian's older sisters sang. Then I gave the Salutatory address and there was another solo by someone who was not directly related to our class. I think he was the choir director at the First Baptist Church. Then Linda gave the Valedictory address. After that, the principal, Mr. DeShazo introduced the speaker, the president of North Florida Junior College, Dr. Marshall Hamilton. Mr. Reid, the superintendent of schools gave us our diplomas, the preacher from First Baptist prayed over us and we left to War March of the Priests. Little did me know that just down the road our country would be brought into great turmoil by an undeclared war in South East Asia.

Anyway, that night brought an end to twelve years of basically the same people in our lives. The majority of the staff loaded on a bus a couple of days later and headed to Washington, D.C. for the class trip. I headed to Tallahassee to participate in 4-H Short Course where I was giving a dairy foods demonstration one evening. Others headed pretty quickly to National Guard Boot Camp. After Short Course, I would start college on June 16 at Florida State University.

Each of the thirty-seven who marched together have our own stories, but we share some commonalities. Most of us married and had kids. Most of us had a job or jobs. More of us experienced divorce than our parents. We moved more, on the average, than our parents did. We traveled more. We watched our world change. Surprisingly, the majority of us ended up, fifty years later, within a fifty mile radius of where we graduated. Eleven of us ended up with college degrees, with four of us having advanced degrees.

I have found the preparation for this reunion interesting. Several of our graduates have not participated in my fact finding efforts, and I am sorry that they haven't. I have enjoyed getting a little glimpse into the lives of those with whom I shared so many years. I have also enjoyed the chats I've had with people on the phone that I have not seen for so long. One, Carol Spruce left the night of graduation. Her parents had already moved and she had finished out the year living with the Denmark family. I knew that she had gone to the the nursing program at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, but I had lost track of her. I find that she has been eighty miles west of here for the last twenty-six years, working at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. I wonder if she has been in some crowd at a restaurant when I was there. We would probably not have recognized each other.

We had our first reunion after twenty years. We came to it and everyone had great plans of doing this every five years, but we were all busy. Getting a reunion together is a great deal of work whether it is a large or small class. There were occasional efforts to gather groups of multi classes together. One, I attended. The others I have missed. Now, though, we are coming up on the big one. We started planning over a year ago, hoping to generate interest and get as close to everyone as we could. Glenda is happy that we have fifty per cent coming. I am not. We have people who are coming from a distance away and some of the ones who are within fifteen or twenty miles of Jasper are not coming. Others made other plans. Realistically, I understand, but the selfish part of me wants everyone there.

We could never have imagined fifty years coming this quickly when we walked into that old auditorium nearly half a century ago. We also could not have imagined that by this time eight of our classmates would have died, five guys: Charles, Jerry, Mickey, Lester, and Franklin and three girls: Linda J., Bonnie R., and Linda G. That is more than twenty per cent of the graduating members.

Panty hose, transistor radios, tape decks, fast food, ethnic food, disposable diapers, nursing homes, moon shots, seat belts, baby seats, birth control pills, mini skirts, disposable razors, blow dryers, hot rollers, dental floss, air freshener, instant mac and cheese, Gatorade, color TV, cable TV, satellite TV, cell phones, Cd's, DVDs,cat scans, MRIs, self-service gas stations, computers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, air conditioning in the car and house, clothes dryers--the list of things that have come into our lives goes on and on. Most of our mothers were stay at home moms. The wash alone took a morning of the week and ironing everything took another. We could not have imagined all the things that have come along to make our lives easier and more comfortable. We could also not have imagined many of the societal changes that have made our lives less meaningful.

So as the temperture begins to rise toward summer and we approach June, we, at least fifteen or sixteen of us, who walked down the aisle in the old three story school, torn down for progress after consolidation, will gather to reacquaint ourselves, to remember the years we spent together, and to honor the ones who have left us too soon. It will be an evening spent to the background music of the fifties with pictures from our years together playing out on the screen. I plan to have a blast.

Music Junction: Authentic Music

As we drift through the middle part of May in North Florida, my thoughts turn fondly to one of my favorite experiences, Music Junction in Rogersville, Tennessee on any Thursday night of the year. I wonder who played last week and who will have a new song to sing this week. I wonder what corny jokes Rosie will crack this week and whether or not some stranger has dropped in to get a taste of mountain music from its people.

Our last evening at the Junction (held at the recreation department, no charge, thank you!) was April 22, 2010. The evening was mild; spring was in full force in East Tennessee. Little league baseball was going on right down from the building, so we parked in the grocery store parking lot and walked down to the building. A bower of wisteria, laden with clusters of blooms perfumed the air as we entered the small space and found seats. The crowd was good; the musicians had already started. One of the band members was singing.

The absolute best things about Music Junction is the "house" band. Now none of these musicians are paid, but most of them are there week after week. I have become a "groupie" OF THE fiddler, Gene Vance, but there are other musicians who are probably as good as he on their instruments. There are always acoustical guitars, electric guitars, a banjo, and sometimes a bass. One of the guitar players will also break out his harmonica sometime during the evening. In times past, there has been a keyboard player, Linda Bright, but she is absent from the band, fighting a valiant battle against cancer. Currently there is a young boy whose grandpa is breaking him in on the drums. He's learning, and it is good to see that the band accepts him and the audience, too. His little brother, about four years old, sits in with the band to and he strums along with great seriousness. He has been known to fall asleep on his stool.

We had missed Rosie's welcome and first joke of the evening, but after three songs, she introduced Ernie Graves and old time rocking blue grass performer. If you get Ernie off to the side and get him to spinning tales (not too hard to do!), he will tell you about his days with Bill Monroe. Ernie is eighty years old, if he is a day, but he still has power to his voice and music. He knows he is a star and his swagger as he leaves the mike and struts through the audience lets you know it!

A regular, Junior Bradley, was on next. Now, to me, Junior is a true East Tennessean. He keeps a straight face all the time. He is totally without artifice: What he is,is what you get. Junior always does hymns and gospel music opening with Beulah Land, a crowd favorite, and finally ending with Amazing Grace during which he asked the crowd to stand in join in.

Gene followed Junior with a rousing Orange Blossom special as the highlight of his performance. His fiddle purely sang the sound of the rails, and the harmonica added its plaintive sounds.

The next performer, Betty Miller, came down from the coal mining region of Eastern Kentucky, Loretta Lynn country. We had met her last October, but she hadn't shown up for any of the April nights before this one. Klep asked her if she was planning to sing, and she said, "No." But when she was asked by Rosie, she went out and got her lyric book. Betty doesn't play an instrument, but she sings her songs full out and clear. The voice gives the strength to the music and the expression. She stands with her hair gleaming white, puts back her head, and sings her heart.

A young mandolin player, Ryan Hennard performed two numbers, shedding his nervousness on the second to a rousing round of applause.

Two regulars, Pete Smith and Hugh Kyle Rogers followed Ryan. They each sang about five songs, demonstrating that those who kept order to each evening's performances, were nervous about filling the evening. On a normal Thursday night, it is three songs and you are off.

While Hugh Kyle was performing, a group of musicians slipped in with instrument cases and headed back stage. Actually it is where the coffee pot is located and near where the bathroom is.

Rosie introduced them as the Cloud Creek Band and they headed into the old favorite, singing about that good old mountain dew followed by Like a Fox on the Run. By this time the crowd was fully with them as they segued In the Jailhouse Now, and several other banjo twanging, mandolin singing, fiddle in the background songs. Their O Come Angel Band was beautifully harmonized, Their "Rocky top, superb. The final number left us all laughing and clapping as they did their do wop, Stay a Little Longer with their lead singing falsetto.

The evening had been a good one. We stood around after helping fold up the chairs and store them, talking to Rosie and Gene, hating to turn loose the evening. Just as we had surmised, Rosie told us that they worried they would not have enough music to fill the evening, but instead, as usual, there was good music and then some. Rosie told me that she felt that there were no better musicians anywhere. Most of these people could have gone other places and made it in the music business (some of them have.), but they choose to live in East Tennessee, to go to their jobs each day, to raise their gardens, and to rear their children. But on Thursday night they gather and make their music together.

Such a delight their music is. As one woman from the audience said to us as she was leaving, "I feel guilty for not paying! I've paid a whole lot of money to hear a whole lot of music that wasn't as good as this."