Two teachers and twenty-nine members of the SCHS Class of 1964 plus 23 guests rendezvoused at the Smith County Heritage Museum at 4:30 PM on June 22, 2024, to celebrate their Diamond Jubilee year. In the 96-degree late afternoon heat, Donny and Shirley Horton Harbison arrived in a sweat in their un-airconditioned, all original, 1962 Oldsmobile Starliner convertible, which became a showpiece in the parking lot. Once inside, classmates clipped on their yearbook picture nametags so they could easily identify each other. Roaming through displays of history, these classmates became displays of history, living examples of the first wave of the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964) to graduate high school.
After a class photo outside, the group re-entered the museum and proceeded to Performance Hall where the most popular songs of the early sixties were being played. Claiming vibes from dearly departed band director Fowler Stanton, Vivian Reynolds, reunion coordinator, opened the event in her “band announcer” voice before the parliament of Owls. This event also served as a surprise celebration of Dr. Jane High, clinical psychologist who was retiring after fifty years of study and practice in the field of psychology. Also celebrated was our teacher Wayne Lankford and his wife Ana Mai Massey who were married 67 years ago in June. Special efforts to attend were recognized: Doris Beasley Drennan flew in from Atlanta, Bobby Harville drove in from Baton Rouge, Jane Gore Moore from Birmingham, and Frank Anderson from Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Museum board member and teacher, Nancy Woodard Pettross, gave the invocation followed by remembrances of deceased classmates led by Frank Anderson and Faye Woodard Glover. Dismissal for the food line was ordered. Veterans were first, following by those with replacement body parts: heart (including pacemakers), knee, hip, shoulder, etc. Charles Givens and wife Anita provided potato salad; deviled eggs by Linda Dickens Lankford; barbecue, buns and beans by Donna Skelton Macon and cake by Vivian Reynolds.
While dining and viewing video and audio of more top 60’s songs, our valedictorian, Jane Gore Moore, reminded us of the social, cultural and political climate during our high school years. Phil Kemp followed with memories of class hangouts. Donny Harbison led the conversation about cars and entertained us by singing a few country songs while we ate carrot cake, the most popular recipe of 1946. The first slices of the cake, adorned in the center with a large costume diamond, were served to our teachers.
Faye Woodard Glover named a few of our favorite dances. Shirley Horton Harbison reminded us of band trips, majorettes, cheerleaders and chorus. In discussing clothing and grooming, we could not remember any outliers to the common standard of the day. Girls wore clothing with hem lengths at the knee; boys wore trousers. Boys did not wear long hair or facial hair and girls styled their hair so that it didn’t touch their shoulders. No one would think of coming to school looking disheveled or wearing tattered clothing.
A cook for thirty years at SCHS, Linda Dickens Lankford helped us remember our nutritious meat and vegetable meals that were rarely unconsumed. Milk or water were the drink choices. Richard Brooks took us back to specific football games, also remembering that athletes used salt tablets and drank little water. Mary Friss Wilburn Lamoureux reminded us of the rite of passage in FHA (Future Homemakers of America): the straight-line stitching of ricrac on our handmade aprons.
Collectively, we remembered the physical health, mental health, and safety services provided. A small room with two cots was available to those who were sick; no one could remember classmates with obvious mental health concerns; the school doors were all unlocked; every boy carried a pocketknife; and some had long guns in their trucks.
Few discipline issues could be remembered but we all knew that SCHS principal Ervin Smith used his authority to efficiently and effectively process any problems in his office. Several school bus drivers were known to expel loud and disobedient riders spontaneously along the highway. For the most part, though, students respected authority and behaved in classrooms and school events.
A longtime teacher and our salutatorian, Donna Skelton Macon, reminded us of our curriculum, credits needed, grading structure, and the atmosphere of students and faculty on the hill. Since her last teaching stent in another county ended in December 2023, she knew and revealed some disturbing information about today’s public education.
Immediately following and specifically addressing each of the topics that had been discussed, special guest Dillon Reed, educator and member of the public information team for the Smith County Schools, informed us what high school is like today. Obviously, an expansive and “enlightened” culture has changed the face of education as we knew it. Perhaps we Owls could steer positive changes in education issues if we would give a hoot!
After video instruction on how to perform an owl’s hoot, we listened to Larry Bennett as he told a story about reunions, emphasizing that the more the years pass, the less we remember. We already knew that was true because neither Shirley Horton Harbison nor Richard Brooks remembered that their ambitions (documented in the 1964 Black and Gold newsletter) were to become President!
Approaching four hours into our Diamond Jubilee celebration, we lifted our voices in unison to the salient words of our alma mater: “Proudly standing as the years go by . . . forward ever be our watchword . . .” Then the parliament of Owls dispersed, humbly hopeful to rendezvous again in 2034, the year of our Platinum Jubilee. Submitted by Vivian Reynolds, class reporter.
