Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9407020004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By WENDI GIBSON RICHERT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``Oh yeah,'' he says, as he recognizes his high school classmate - 60 years after graduation. ``Just as pretty as ever.''
Across the room at the Jefferson High School Class of '34's 60th-year reunion, most folks are doing the same. That's what you do at your 60th reunion, says Etta Mae Tarpley of Salem. ``You say, `Who are you?' and you take your bifocals and go like this.'' She adjusts her glasses for a better view of the name tags everybody is donning. And she laughs.
It's hard to find somebody who is not laughing, or at least smiling, at this reunion - a two-day affair that began in Roanoke on Friday at 2 p.m. and wound up about 9:30 Saturday night.
And while most admit the memories are a bit fuzzy now, for the almost 80-year-old crowd, their memories are the glue that brings these alumni together. Of course, talk invariably moves to children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and retirement. Many wonder where old friends are and if they are still living. Carl Carter, who lives in Roanoke, acknowledges the deceased by placing a ``D'' by a classmate's picture in his senior annual.
When about 45 class members and their spouses met for a reception at the Jefferson Center on Friday, some couldn't help but remember walking to and from the old school in the days of the Great Depression. Their tour through the old halls, recently renovated and turned into office space for Roanoke Valley organizations, carried them back six decades to life in their teens.
Lawrence Sink, a retired Roanoke police officer who lives in Franklin County, remembered his father helping to build the high school in 1925. ``I thought I'd get lost in there,'' he said. It seemed so big then.
When the group descended the steps they climbed hundreds of times as kids (Laura Sweet Weaver of Roanoke used to play jacks on those old steps) and headed to the last-to-be-refurbished auditorium, most simply cried with delight.
From Vaughan, who lives in Salem: ``I remember getting in trouble here, in study hall.'' Mary Elizabeth McDonnel Drewry of Roanoke remembered the racket made by marbles being rolled down the floor. ``It wasn't worth a darn for a study hall `cause how could you study with marbles going down?''
Then, in the dingy and dark cafeteria, also not renovated, talk flowed to the brown-bag lunches most brought to school with them. And of the 10-cent lunches you could buy, if you had the money. Another nickel would get you a candy bar, too.
But at the reunion dinner on Saturday night, memories weren't celebrated so much as the here and now of just being together. ``Happy new year!'' announced Clyde Jones of Roanoke, who organized this year's reunion. Every day is another year for him, he explained as he welcomed old friends home again. He said he'd never seen so many happy people in all his days.
That happiness paused for a moment, though - a long moment - when a candle was lighted and extinguished for the class's deceased members. Then smiles returned as gift certificates were doled out for the first to respond to the reunion invitations and the ones who traveled the farthest. The latter was won by John Wilson, a former Roanoke attorney who came from Sarasota, Fla.
This class only had its first reunion 10 years ago, but it hasn't missed many chances to get together since then. They celebrated a 52nd-year reunion, too. And since then they've held dinners in the spring and fall of each year. Locals mostly attend those. But many of the Jefferson High School Class of `34 are locals.
Clara Hutcherson Hall still lives in Roanoke, though she and her husband also have a home in Arlington. ``It's wonderful,'' she said of the reunion dinner. ``I loved high school. And of course I was in love with all those fellows.'' She pointed to one near her table. ``In high school I thought he was so cute. Now he's not my type at all,'' she explained.
There were no Jefferson High sports heroes or cheerleaders at this reunion, though the most attractive girl in school, insists Mason, the one from West Virginia, was Mildred Perkins Tompkins. The retired Hillsville teacher still was pretty in her pink suit.
And, according to the senior annual, Mason himself was voted the senior with the best line - for picking up the girls. ``They call it `bull' these days,'' his wife, Micky, joked.
In an impromptu speech, David Mason of Martinsburg, W.Va., apologized for his lack of memory. ``I love you all, but I can't remember who you are,'' he said, laughing. ``Beautiful oaks from little acorns grow,'' he continued, referring to the acorns that decorate the name tags. The school's magazine was called The Acorn.
``Some of our foliage has changed colors over the years. And for some of us, the wind has blown the foliage off! ... It's good to be with our brothers and sisters again.''
by CNB