Page 10 with DeeDee Davis

Page 10

DeeDee Davis, Contributing Writer

Finally! After a miserable COVID delay, the Lee High School class of 1971 was proudly able to celebrate their 50-year reunion. Being a member of this esteemed group, I had looked forward to the gathering since it was announced more than a year before the originally scheduled date. Most of the pandemic threat had actually passed by then but, hey, we are all considered seniors now, and I don’t mean in the high school kind of way. That put all of us in an at-risk category, so the party had to wait. But it was worth it. While there was plenty of music and fun, let’s just say that the energy level wasn’t quite the same as it was during our 10-year class reunion. I had a hangover after that one. This one was already over by 10 pm.

If you haven’t experienced this milestone in your life yet, I highly recommend going when your turn comes around. My husband had his three years ago and I had to threaten him in order to get him to attend. Granted, he went to school here and is still in contact with the people he cares about. He didn’t care about going to see who would show up, but this was his 50-year reunion so, it’s one of those right of passage type occasions. The organizer of his party was one of those take-charge types of people and she intercepted my unsuspecting didn’t-want-tobe-there husband as he took a shortcut across the dance floor to get a drink. After the shortest dance in the history of music, he bolted. I know him well enough that there was a reason he didn’t stop to get his keys, or me. He wasn’t coming back. Approximately 12 minutes after we arrived, I gathered his keys and phone and met him at the car.

My reunion was in Huntsville, Alabama so it wasn’t as easy for him to run. I had warned him that I was excited about attending and that it was probably going to be painful for a spouse meeting people that I knew 51 years ago. He put on his best “I can do this” and went to the party. Surprisingly I recognized most people, though their weight and hair color (for the ones who still had hair) had changed significantly. Women tend to use enhancements to help fight aging. Men, not so much. A good salon, a gym and some Botox are the fountains of youth and keep us at least resembling our high school senior portraits. Cooperative classmates had brought all kinds of memorabilia, so newspaper clippings of sports events were scattered everywhere and each one brought back such memories. It was wonderful to be in the room with all of those people who actually cared that Lee High won the state baseball championship in 1971 and that we finally beat Huntsville High in football. Oh yes, glory days for sure.

Our schools integrated in 1968 so by the time 1971 rolled around, we had significant diversity in our class, including a superstar athlete who went on to become the first Black SEC college quarterback for the University of Tennessee. I won’t say integration came easily but for the most part we all seemed to do pretty well, though the parents and outsiders were another story altogether. Sadly, not one of our Black classmates came back for the reunion. Not one. 1971 was the year of focus in Remember the Titans. Funny how sports and music have a way of uniting people at the time, despite politics and war.

And then, there was the table set with candles and flowers and a list of those who passed since high school. It was a long list and filled with names that made you hurt to read it, especially the classmate in attendance who read his name on the list! They did make a special announcement regarding him being on the deceased list of class members incorrectly, but most of us had figured it out by then.

The DJ played all of the popular music of our time. I really wanted to dance but I watched a lot of my classmates on the floor and decided that was not how I wanted to be remembered. It sure was fun, though. Our moves have changed a bit since 1971 but at least we are still rocking.

Like probably every generation before me, I have shared plenty about the 70s with my own grown children. And like those generations, I feel we experienced the best music and the worst social injustice of any other era. Integration, Vietnam, Motown, Beatles, Stones, bell bottoms…quite a time.

They recently tore down our old school and have built a new one located nearby that’s still Lee High School. I hear there was quite a drive to name it something else and who knows? Maybe it was time to retire the Confederate general mascot but evidently, 150+ years isn’t enough in some places to let it go. I didn’t go and see the new school, because it certainly isn’t the same place I attended, even though it does carry the same name. But for one evening, 100 or so members of the graduating class of 1971, very much made that school come alive. We may or may not see each other again, but every cherished memory of happiness AND pain was shared once again.

Raisin’ hell and havin’ fun

We are the class of “71!

OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS

4 Eric Milstead 10 Johnnie Wright 12 Teresa Gilroy 27 Dona Usry 28 Dr. Martha Saunders