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CLASS OF 1962 30-YEAR REUNION AUGUST 8, 1992

CORINTH HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1962 30 YEAR REUNION HILLANDALE COUNTRY CLUB AUGUST 8, 1992 PRO GRAM I.

INVOCATION JIM JOHNSON

II. WELCOME TO THE CITY OF CORINTH ALDERMAN BARRY RICHARDS

III. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS AND VISITORS JERRY NIXON

IV.

PRESIDENT'S REMARKS DIANNE MILLER PAPASAN

V.

MEMORIAL DEDICATION JIM & JAN JOHNSON

VI.

A

CLASS OF 1962 MEMORIES MILTON SANDY, JR

VII.

PRESENTATION OF CLASS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT MARY NELL KEMP KUHLO

VIII.

AWARDS PRESENTATION CAROL WILLIAMS BRIGGS SANDRA DAVIS CADLE

IX.

VISITING AND ENTERTAINMENT

Special THANKS to local class members who made this reunion possible: Nancy Bingham Hight Brad Brawner Vonceil Brewster Smith Wade H.S. Bronson Peggy Butler Green

Jim Bynum Sandra Davis Cadle Gwen English Franks Jimmy Johnson Jan Keaton Johnson

Mary Nell Kemp Kuhlo Jerry Nixon Barry Richards Dianne Rogers Mills Milton Sandy, Jr, Carol Jane Williams Briggs

WHO WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TEACHER? ALL OF THEM: I feel that we had many excellent teachers, and I would hesitate to name one as the most memorable.

I felt close to and still do toward so many of my teachers that to place one more memorable above the others would be impossible.

They passed me! Think about the teachers. I bet that something memorable could be said about every one back through Junior High School. What is really unbelievable is how they ever put up with us on what they were paid.

The stopper in the water spout trick in chemistry--the bowling ball down the hall--the ladies lingerie up the flag pole--fishhooks attached to sweaters--the coat room antics--the library fiasco (Now that one really stunk!).

And then there was Miss Street and that awful stuff she poured down us. Mr. Parker looking (gazing) out the window. Mrs. Sharp raising her eyebrows and our hair. (Now those were the good old days when we had hair to raise!) What was it she called us? Tootsie, mothering us, and others scolding us but most of all, they worked hard to give us every opportunity to be a better person, a contributor.

Miss Street and Mrs. Dalton both in their own way helped us all through school. They would help if we didn't understand our work. They helped with our schoolwork and with our drive to take a class trip. Both were understanding but also strict when it came to discipline in the school.

MRS. TOOTSIE DALTON: She was an inspiration in guiding and trying to direct me in more ways than just school work. I personally think they were all great due to the fact that I wasn't the most cooperative student, but time and age has mellowed even me. Thanks to all of my teachers for putting up with me and helping me.

There were many that I remember with admiration, but I probably appreciate most the hours Tootsie Dalton spent creating our "Senior Follies" which gave us all so many happy times and fond memories. Now that I have a home and family to care for I know what a wonderful gift she gave us with all those many hours of work.

She taught me to appreciate the beauty of language and through her wonderful interpretations, literature just came alive! Not only this, but her 30 DAYS TO A MORE POWERFUL VOCABULARY has kept me talking for twenty years---I shall always remember her, too, for her love and enthusiasm for us and "The Follies". I know now that it was no small effort on her part that we were financed all the way to the "Big Apple" and back again. Thank you, Mrs. Dalton.

She was always involved in an activity with the students such as the Follies.

She was a true lady.

For putting up with all of us during those rehearsals for our "Show".

For her boundless energy and being a terrific chaperone on the senior trip. She came in later than the students!

EUGENE DORAN: For his dry wit and black humor.

MRS. DOROTHY KERR: For her unbelievable memory, off the wall ideas, and sincere concern for her students.

She was a creative and interesting teacher who had a fine sense of wit and was always game for a little adventure in the classroom. Sometimes you wondered whether she wasn't just a little on the edge of the Twilight Zone.

However, that sense of never knowing quite what to expect of her added to the learning experience in her classroom.

COACH RAY LONG: There were several teachers that I really liked, but I guess that I have remembered a statement that Ray Long made more than anything else that I learned in high school. He told us a plan for having true joy throughout life.

This plan was: J-Jesus first 0-Others second Y-Yourself third.

MR. GLEN PARKER: During the Cuban missile crisis as I recall, he was called up on reserve duty for several weeks. I wrote then President Kennedy and our State Senators Stennis and Eastland in an effort to expedite his return. The only problem is that now I can't remember whether Mr. Parker was that good a science teacher to inspire that effort or whether Julian Prince who was substituting was that bad.

MRS. MAGGIE REESE: She so untiringly persevered and endured all of the first and second year Latin students. To this day, I can remember her saying time and time again, "The V's are pronounced as W's, such as 'Sil-Wa'." Well, amo, amas, amat, Mrs. Reese! We remember you.

I had her for three years--5th grade, 1st and 2nd year Latin.

MRS. ROPER: I remember she was a dedicated teacher who worked hard with a no-nonsense approach to teaching.

MRS. CLARA ROSS: I loved them all, and I can't single out any one as being most memorable. I did especially appreciate those teachers who were a little hard on me and made me study and learn. The training was especially helpful when I went to college. Come to think of it, there was one teacher who really stands out in my mind and that is Mrs. Ross. She taught me in Home Ec. and was a great inspiration to me in choosing a major in college. She also set the groundwork for my much-loved profession--homemaking.

MRS. RUTH SHARP: Mrs. Sharp probably made it possible for college English courses to be easy for me.

She was always calling me a dummy or a dead head.

She prepared me for Freshman English. Mrs. Sharp was most unique and still is. She was determined that we'd learn to speak "the King's English." I wasn't afraid of her and thought her sayings were quite funny. She definitely taught me more in one year than any other teacher that I had.

I learned the English she taught me. She drilled it in, and I am forever thankful!

I just couldn't stand her.

She taught me that all the "ignoramuses" were not on Court Square; some were in her classroom, and I numbered myself among them! However, because she taught me so thoroughly and so well, I went on to major in English while in college and "breezed" all the way through. (I credit her with providing the basic foundation for that venture.)

Eleventh grade literature teacher----because she snatched your hair and called you a deadhead.

Because she scared me to death. My English background was very poor before I reached Mrs. Sharp's class. I was intimidated each time I walked into her classroom---I should have had her for more than one year!

Hard teacher but I was thankful for all I learned from her, especially in college.

I know everyone won't agree---but she is the only teacher that I was afraid of and she made me learn grammar-clauses, phrases, how to diagram a sentence, basic English! I really wish my teenagers had her for one year.

Moreover, this woman gave me words to live by when she taught Shakespeare, "Let me have fat men about me,"---this has been a source of great comfort during the past twenty years, with every added pound!

Mrs. Sharp is my most memorable teacher. I will never forget her for many reasons: First and most important, she taught me so much. Second, she was the toughest and hardest teacher I had in all of my schooling. Third, I'll never forget the way she conducted her class. I can close my eyes any day and still see those rows of students. I remember who sat where and can hear Mrs. Sharp calling on each student "to do the next sentence." She is unique and I love her today for what she did for me.

For her unique teaching method--scaring you into learning.

MR. HAROLD SMITH: My husband.

He always assured me when I was a student in his homeroom (and talking during study time) that if he ever, ever had me in a class of his, I would fail for sure! Well, when all the cards were on the table, and he had his chance to live up to that threat, he let me pass plane geometry and with a "C" at that!

Harold Smith was the most memorable because I knew nothing about plane geometry and had to copy Billy Linder's paper every morning before class.

I remember him as a man who could keep his good-natured sense of humor in the face of great adversity. In his first class after arriving fresh out of college, I remember the fellow class members answered roll call each day in a random fashion with people answering to a different person's name each day. After several days of this and Harold's apparent confusion in having so much difficulty in remembering this class's names and faces, the snickering from the class became so great that the joke fmally came out. Harold berated the class at length, fumed a bit, then laughed himself and went on to more trials and tribulations in his first year of teaching at Corinth High School. In a sense, we may have prepared him for his position as principal--if he could take us, it's probably been downhill ever since.

MISS EMMA STREET: Miss Street demanded respect both to her as a teacher and among each other. She also showed respect to her students. She instilled in each student the basics of her course and expected you to learn it. Conduct was of utmost importance and everyone knew it. I feel the strict adherence to these basic roots of education helped me to develop into a mature, fruitful lifestyle and a meaningful relationship with individuals throughout all walks of life.

She gave you a desire to want to learn and encouraged you to learn. She was always there if you needed her help. You could count on her assistance in anything.

Miss Street made her eccentricities work well for her in the classroom.

She was always prepared---cared about each student and was fun. Her solid geometry class did more to help me learn how to think than any of my other classes.

Many of our teachers, including Mrs. Dalton and others, were truly dedicated to their work, but Miss Street really stands out as an individual 100% dedicated to expanding our minds and I feel her life revolved completely around her commitments to her profession.

She was understanding and she made you learn what she taught. She was a super teacher.

Great teacher. Genuine concern for students.

And then there was Emma Street, a legend in her own right. What a lady! And I didn't even like math either, but she and "Dr. Tichenor" made math fun! Those were golden years, golden moments and "Golden People". I am happy that I was a part of Corinth High School and the Class of 62!

Because of her ability to explain algebra to me so well!!

Because of the personal effects she had on each of her students.

She was, and still is, a legend!

Very caring of all her students and always ready to give you a second chance. I remember failing a six weeks test by two points. She said I could take it again the next morning at 7 A. M. Becky Perkins and I stayed up all night at her house, drinking coffee and studying. I passed the test the next day. Also, I remember Miss Street and her "Dr. Tichenor's" antiseptic for all cures.

Her concern for students taking her course.

She really cared about all of us and she had no favorites.

Miss Street and hitting ten in a row in the waste paper basket after school are my most memorable moments.

She failed me three times---once at Corinth and twice at Northeast, and I still like her.

Miss Street was totally unique, without a doubt the most memorable teacher I ever had in any of my school years. She had every fine quality you could ask for in a teacher, and I can't recall any faults. For the past 20 years, I have on many occasions recalled her admonishment to "Don't believe anything you hear as gossip or hearsay, only believe about half of what you read in the newspapers, and only believe what you see if you're sure you saw it and understand what you saw." If the whole world followed that advice there would be a great

number less of hasty conclusions based on faulty information.

MRS. SWEAT: Mrs. Sweat is memorable too, because she caught some of us cheating in algebra class when we were having a test and gave us a big fat zero. That really made our six weeks report card look bad.

MRS. UNDERWOOD: Mrs. Underwood probably had the greatest personal effect on me. I always admired her gentleness.

For her delicious biscuits!

HAROLD WESSON: He whipped me the most.

EMMA STREET SPURRED CLASSES TO WORK I always look over the obituaries every morning, hoping that I don't know any of the deceased. When I was much younger, I would always notice the ages and if they were much older than my parents, then I felt like they had probably lived a good life by doing the things that they wanted to do, making their contributions to society, and now it was time for them to go.

Now many of those listed are my parents' age and many even nearer to my own. Therefore, I recognize many of the names of people I knew while growing up. I can picture them as they were then and what, if any, direct connections of influences they may have on me.

One of the deceased, Miss Emma Street of Ripley, whose obituary appeared in the May 4, 1990, issue of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, had an influence on me and I suspect thousands more during her 49 years of teaching.

I hadn't seen Miss Street for many years but any time the subject of education comes up and teachers are mentioned, she comes to my mind I believe that she epitomized the dedication to her profession that all of us need to strive to achieve.

Miss Street's classes started at 7 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. Absences from class or failure to complete assignments necessitated attendance in the morning or evening classes.

Her class was different from everyone else's as she had blackboards on three walls, enough so that the entire class could go to the blackboard to work problems from their homework. After all the problems were on the board, the class would go over them so she could tell at a glance if more explanation was needed or if a student needed to attend one of her extra sessions before or after school.

The first class I took under Miss Street was algebra at Corinth High School in 1960. She didn't agree with the current text, but she had enough copies of her favorite, Sholding, Clark and Smith, for each desk. I'm not sure about the spelling but I can almost hear her request, "If you will get the Sholding, Clark and Smith from underneath your desk and turn to page 120 and copy your homework problems for tomorrow."

These old books were tattered, many without backs, but I believe that she had the text memorized because she could cite the page number and paragraph to illustrate a question you might have or to remind you a point had

already been covered. She had taken a razor blade and removed the answers from the back to eliminate any temptations. I believe that is why she stuck to the old books, because the administration probably wouldn't let her cut the answers from the newer textbooks.

Sometimes the administration was a stumbling block to Miss Street. She wasn't afraid to give them her opinion, and if she felt strongly enough, she would pack and go to another school. I think that is why she taught at 10 different schools during her career. She was her own institution wherever she taught.

I know she would raise her eyebrows at being called an old maid, but it was the truth. She was a rather large woman with eyes that could easily pierce through most excuses. She wore plain dresses, and her short hair stood tall in front as if she were heading into a slight breeze. And moving she was, although at a slow gait, confronting any problem that might disrupt the learning process.

School policy prohibited chewing gum on school property, but most of the teachers ignored the rule on school grounds. Not Miss Street. Never saying a word, she would approach a gum chewer with an outstretched hand, her palm covered with a piece of scrap paper, waiting for the deposition of the gum.

In the classroom, she had some unusual ways, as well. For example, if you came to class without a pencil or paper, you wouldn't get the dreaded zero. Instead, you would get the opportunity to buy a pencil or a piece of paper. The pencils would be one or two inches long, found during her collections on the floors and schoolyard.

She would supply a half a sheet of paper or maybe one that had one side used.

She always said that lack of paper was no excuse for not doing homework. She would accept problems done on paper sacks, cardboard or anything but newspaper, as it already was printed on both sides. Her prices for pencils or paper were pretty high, but her customers had little choice but to pay.

She knew how to charge a captive audience and at the same time practice recycling, long before Earth Day. She was defmitely frugal. After a while, we understood this and donated short pencils and her most favorite gift, the coupon from Blue Horse brand notebook paper. I really don't remember what she bought with the coupons, but it was probably something for her classroom.

She was a misplaced entrepreneur of sorts, as I have faint memories of her running the school store and also selling Eskimo Pies in the cafeteria.

I made one purchase that I still have somewhere. The teachers, often under protest, had their pictures taken.

Once, before class, she was viewing her picture with jaundiced eyes. She refused to show the photo but offered to sell one for a quarter. I took her up on the offer, but once the deal was made, she offered to return the money.

I think that it helped her pride to know that someone really wanted her picture, and I felt pretty good, too, because I had something of hers no one else had.

Miss Street had sayings for just about every event. I used one the other day when I told someone to be perfectly safe by deciding to believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see. Sometimes this might pay off.

All this rambling about past experiences does say something about the influence that a teacher can have on the education of students. Miss Street taught more than the solution of an algebraic expression; she also taught her students about the more complicated equations of life where the test usually precedes the lesson. She was always there, ready to help with the coursework and at the same time set an example for dedication to her work. She made everyone who had her classes, no matter what they are doing today, try a little harder.

(The above article appeared in the Tupelo Daily Journal submitted by former Corinthian Don Thompson, who now lives in Belmont and is reprinted here with his permission.)

WHAT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING YOU REMEMBER HAPPENING AT CORINTH HIGH SCHOOL? Watching Julian Prince's face when he saw "McCorinth" on the front of the high school building.

Our train trip to New York.

Albert Stevenson wearing white bermuda shorts and getting sent home. Someone blew locker doors off. We thought a bomb had hit---no suspects.

Johnny (Green) still remembers the first time he carried the ball in a high school football game. Johnny, 130 pounds, was hit by the infamous Buck Randall (250 pounds) who picked him up and guided him toward the bench for a rest. Johnny thought if this was a typical play for him, that perhaps football was not his sport.

Jimmy Johnson and the "McCorinth" sign.

In plane geometry class, which was Mr. Smith's first year to teach (I forgive him), being sent to the office for laughing at the school pictures. Mine was said to resemble Dracula, which I had to admit, it did. Being sent to the office was a new experience for me, and it wasn't all that funny at the time. Also, the time in Miss Kerr's class I forgot my speech completely. Miss Kerr was astounded. I remember at a bowling senior party when Ruth Hall's gutter bails couldn't make it all the way down the alley and had to be retrieved by the management. Joe Garrison explaining to Mr. Smith that he was mispronouncing his last name by putting the accent on the wrong syllable. Jan explaining in typical Alcorn County fashion when I corrected her grammar that "Hit don't matter none to me no way."

Follies. Burping in auditorium when he picked me out (Coach Wesson). Fainting when it was my turn to recite McBeth for Miss Kerr. Mr. Dabney catching me skipping school getting a hair cut when it was time for Jan Keaton and I to have sophomore favorite pictures made at the fire station--it wasn't funny when we got back to school and Mr. Dabney whipped me. Jerry Nixon getting caught in the gym whipping Charles Murray Stewart and Richard Graves with a board, but Coach Wesson relieved Jerry of the board and used it on HIM. Nothing I can recall, other than Jerry Nixon and I were sent to the office after I was married.

I've been out too long to remember.

Morris and I graduated.

Being in the 12th grade and never having really skipped school. So Judy Byrd and I wanted it to be legal so we went to Principal Fessmire and asked him to OK an excuse for us to leave and also to OK his wife to release Buddy Fisher to take us on our appointment.

On our class trip a group wanted to go see Paul Anka at a night club. We were to meet at 11:00 PM but in the meantime we were to rest. I woke at 10:45 and got ready (my roommates weren't going. I went down to the other room to go with the others, but when I got there I had to wake them up, and I was informed that they had already been there and gotten back---it was 4:00 AM. The joke was on me, and was I embarrassed! Later, we were packed waiting in the hall for the porter to get our luggage at the end of the class trip. One of the girls was walking down the hall when she decided to take a wig she had bought off. What she didn't know was that a middle aged couple was right behind her. The man yelled, "She's lost her hair!" The girl turned and ran to hide but was found as she was combing her hair. The couple got a big kick out of it, and the class just roared. The girl was Jan Keaton.

Joe Garrison turned in a morning test that was appropriated for an afternoon class.

When I put the cork in the lab faucet and Mr. Parker turned it on and got bopped. He blamed Jimmy Johnson and paddled him When I was taken to the police department and blamed for putting soap suds in an apartment fountain. When my alibi was I was at Pickwick with the Mayor and George Hughes. Albert Stephenson being arrested, after the egg war, as a public nuisance. When Jerry Nixon got bombed in New York on our senior trip.

The Big 5--Leabig'ยง beer and Rat Ferguson's hot tamales at the drive-in. Jim Bynum deflating the air-filled globe in the library with darts. Bert Coleman and Fraley's fights.

Funny now--EMBARRASSING THEN--when Milton Sandy took a snapshot of me which was most unbecoming He proceeded to blow it up to an 8 x 10 and posted it on the bulletin board by the office.

(Milton Sandy never took any bad pictures-Ed.) I plead the 5th Amendment.

On the senior trip in New York, Jan Keaton and I buying those platinum blode wigs and parading around the block. The native New Yorkers must have thought we were just another couple of streetwalkers.

This wasn't really funny at the time but as I look back it seems funny. I showed up at an out-of-town football game dressed in the wrong cheerleader outfit. The other cheerleaders had changed plans as to what we would wear and forgot to tell me about the change. The funniest thing that happened to a classmate that I can think of was when my husband, Jim, had our geometry class and Mr. Smith believing he had appendicitis. We didn't get much work done that day. I think that was the purpose of the whole thing. Jim must not have had his homework that day.

The day Mrs. Sharp told me she could hug my neck. I along with the help of some classmates taped a cardboard MC in front of the letters of Corinth High School. This was for Julian Prince's benefit since he wanted Corinth to be so much like McComb High School. You all know how Ruth and Mr. Man got along. One January day, Nelson, Stanley, Frosty, and I went skiing at Pickwick. When we came back into shore, there stood my mother and daddy. My mother singled out Stanley to ask if he could afford to skip school. Stanley had been expelled from school for three days the day before the ski trip.

Not enough room here to tell. The funniest had to be when I was Mr. Fesmire's secretary our senior year. He was often "out of the office", and bedlam would break loose. One of the funniest was the day that Albert Stevenson (with his black leather jacket) came running in to tell Mr. Fesmire that a motorcycle gang was circling the back parking lot. Mr. Fesmire ran to the back of the school and found nothing--Albert kept a straight face!

Ringing the bell early-- or when someone else would run in the office and ring the bell early, and everyone would dash out of school. Helping Pat Rogers put the street policeman on Lee Luther Hasseltine's front porch--and then decorating it with buttercups. Spend-the-night parties at Carolyn Mason's. The Senior Play was fun. Miss Kerr was one of the funniest teachers, but when she lost her temper-- beware. She loved to give zeros and berate you to shame.

The senior trip was a real hoot--from the departure with Milton's champagne to losing two chaperones and Jim B. and Albert in New York City.

Mrs. Sharp refused to let Charles David Allen out of class to practice for a parade that afternoon. Mr. Doran sent Johnny McMahan to get him and Mrs. Sharp turned her tongue loose--she said Charles Allen could not leave her class to "toot a horn." She shut the door on McMahan's foot. Mr. Doran then came and said he wanted Charles Allen. I don't remember their words, but I believe she held her line.

Somehow I see little humor in some of the things I thought were funny then. I'll write later if I think of something.

When I started in chorus, Eugene Doran tested us by making us hit a middle C. If we couldn't hit it, we went to the alto section. I had been a soprano until then, but when the middle C was played, one of the boys made a face and got me tickled, and I couldn't hit it. So I was put in the alto section and have been an alto ever since.

It has been so long that a lot of things have faded from my mind. But I remember Ray Moore in Mrs. Sharp's class. She used to tell him she was going to pull his red hair out if he didn't behave. She would do it, too! And Ray gave her quite a bit of trouble. We got a kick out of the two of them.

Falling down running through the paper on the goal post on Homecoming during our Senior Year.

Stealing Miss Hussey's Listerine bottle and pouring some of it out and refilling it in the bathroom in the 8th grade.

Jim Bynum getting his pants torn off in front of the school.

Bert wetting the bed over at Spencer Lee's house after a night of beer drinking.

Some people thought that the smoke bombs put on my car were funny! After the services one night at First Baptist Church during Spiritual Emphasis Week, the students gathered for fun and fellowship in the Church Fellowship Hall. We played a game where raw eggs were thrown at a target---I threw mine too hard and hit Albert Stevenson and his nice sport coat. I was horrified and very apologetic. I'll never forget how nice and forgiving Albert was.

Someone made fudge for Coach Plummer and Albert Stevenson ate some. It had Ex-Lax in it, and they missed two days of school. Guess who? Carolyn Jo Mason. It was rumored that if he ever found out who did this, he would expel them for three days.

I loved it when the front of the school read McCorinth.

On our senior trip, Mrs. Bynum dressed up and went in a bar where Jim was seated and acted like she was trying to pick him up.

Sorry, my memory must have already failed.

Gosh, I guess the joke's on me because I can't pinpoint one particular occasion. Every day was a hoot and is the basis for some of my fondest memories. One "slumber party" night at Carolyn Mason's, we didn't want to wake up her mother, so we pushed Carolyn's old green Chevrolet out of the garage and down the driveway and about the time we got to the street and were going to "crank it up" for a midnight ride, out came Josie Mason, sleepily DEMANDING to know what we were doing! (We were caught and we never did get around to that midnight ride!)

One night during a halftime show, I sat down on a little brown jug we had made one round too soon.

We had a practice teacher one day and Carol Ann Seltzer went up and told him she had to go "take a leak" and just walked out of the room. I'll never forget the look on his face.

Getting paddled by Harold Smith! (It was a big joke.) The pudgy guy never could hurt. Also, getting caught "cheating" in Mrs. Sharp's typing class.

Jimmy Johnson in Mrs. Dalton's literature class while she was out of class (smoking in the teachers' lounge), "faked" a fainting spell, and while he was still on the floor, she came back into the classroom. Jimmy carried his fake all the way, in spite of the fact that I goosed him in the ribs in front of her. He held on, and left school sick.

Also, Jimmy and I stealing every teachers' paddle in CHS in a period of approximately 3 weeks. We also changed the name of Corinth High School to McCorinth High School---for Julian Prince's benefit, who had served at McComb High School. Also, putting "Kick Me" signs on Milton Sandy's rear belt loop in Mrs. Dalton's class.

Also, watching Brad Brawner place a piece of "defecation" under Benny Warford's vehicle accelerator pedal, while the car was parked at First Baptist Church.

It's not funny anymore.

The production of the "Follies" by the Senior Class.

Completing a layup without the ball. The other team had already picked off the pass intended for me, but I went ahead and went through the motions. Everyone (except the player with the ball) reacted to me. When the player with the ball turned around to see what was happening, he double dribbled, and we got the ball back.

Albert Stevenson didn't want to memorize "The Raven" in speech class. He worked out a deal using a hidden speaker in his ear and had Milton Sandy read the poem from backstage. Miss Kerr never did know what happened and she even made him start over after the presentation had begun.

Lanny Rhoades and I breaking up. I told him I just wanted to be good buddies. He gave me a "Buddy Bar" for Valentines. Carolyn Epperson and I skipping school one afternoon to go to Pickwick and getting caught.

During choir practice we were standing on the risers, and I fell off and split my tight (fitted) skirt. We lived on sixth street, and I was able to walk home and change my skirt and be back before class was over.

Come on! Making Ex-Lax brownies for the football coaches at Carolyn Jo Mason's house---and her mother eating them--her mother failing to fmd the humor in this. Being forced to stick my tongue out for one hour after being discovered in this activity by Coach Myers---(funny now, not then). Going blonde with the money from my honor roll report card to my mother's horror and learning that blondes do not necessarily have more fun.

Being bitten by a dog while running away from home (to Peggy Bowers' house) and having Dr. J. T. call my family, despite my pleas--et. al!

Possibly the funniest thing that happened to a classmate was the time I convinced Jerry Gurley I could drive, and skipped geometry in order to get masking tape from his father for the Halloween Carnival cake walk. In the tradition of "things that always happen to Janis (absolutely through no fault of her own)", the axle of his Studebaker disintegrated on the overhead bridge. Needless to say, he could not allow that I was driving, and I suppose, looking back, it might have been humorous to see his explanation of all this. Nice quiet Jerry. I never did know how they managed the cake walk.

Dianne Miller and I as class officers had contracted to have a trophy case built for the school as our present from the Class of 62. The cabinet maker was about 10 miles from town out Hwy 72 East toward Iuka. On the Saturday we were to go to pick it up, we headed out toward his shop. Upon arriving there, we were told by his wife that he had come into town to find us to collect his money. We turned around and headed 10 miles back to town to try to find him. Upon arriving at Dianne's house, we found her mother in a state of panic because he had come to her house in a state of advanced intoxication demanding his money and upon hearing we had gone to his shop, he turned around and headed back toward luka. We then went back to his shop only to fmd he had corn; found he missed us, and headed back to town. We arrived back at his shop, found we had missed him but counted out the money to his wife and made her sign a receipt--and rushed back to town. Dianne's mother had barred the doors and was quite upset over the affair. By the time we got back to her house, the drunk cabinet maker had departed and we never caught up with him or he with us, despite multiple crossings of paths. It was a "keystone cops" type of Saturday morning.

Modem day kids with the benefit of all the space age technology will not appreciate the crudeness of our early attempts to avoid work by scientific means. Albert Stevenson in typical fashion put off memorizing a required reading for Miss Kerr's speech class. It was 5 minutes long and had to be committed to memory. He asked me to help him and our solution was to wire Albert with an intercom system strapped to his back under his shirt and the other end of the intercom offstage out of sight. This was before CB's and wireless communications, mind you, and Albert had a wire running down his back, down his pants leg, and trailing beside him as he side stepped out onto the stage of the auditorium. Albert's delivery was less than completely smooth as I read a line of The Raven and then Albert would repeat it. Miss Kerr grew impatient, and at one point made him start over. Albert managed to finish as I recall and then sidestepped back offstage. The rest of the class who knew what was going on were just about to fall out of their seats.

BRUCE'S My most vivid memories of Corinth High School, and our shared youths, are the hours we all dedicated to Bruce's Drive-In. I remember so well, a true daughter of the Magnolia State would more likely have walked the streets of Corinth naked than be seen inside its sanctified walls.

Bruce's interior--the cracked-linoleum booths, the counter, the wobbly stools--was the domain reserved for those fortunate few who one day would be men. They were the ones who, amid air conditioning, faced the plate-glass window, their elbows propped on the counter, watching us through the heat waves that bubbled the asphalt of Bruce's parking lot, while from the Seeburg we caught strains of Gene Chandler advising us he was the Duke of Earl.

We, the daughters, sat in our fathers' cars, in 100 degree Augusts praying for a glance. Our prayers were seldom in vain.

Eventually, we saw buttocks encased in what were then dungarees lift themselves from the stools. Penny loafers sauntered through the asphalt, at last the counter was replaced by our fathers' car windows where elbows found themselves propped.

Trivialities, such as breathing, forgotten, we awaited the opening gambit, "Buy ya'll a fountain Coke?"

To us it sounded like a proposal of marriage. For some of us--Maynette and Donnie, Jimmy and Jan, Peggy and Johnny--it was. Others of us went our separate ways, via Ole Miss, I went to Memphis where I met the hippie artist to whom I have been so thankfully married for twenty-six years.

Now it is thirty years later, my hippie artist's hair is no longer on his shoulders; it is mostly long gone down the drain, and instead of peace he now speaks of something he calls the McIntosh. I, on the other hand, haven't changed at all.

Neither has Corinth, not very much, except Bruce's Drive-In is no more. But all I have to do is close my eyes and across its asphalt comes Sonny James telling me of Young Love.

And when I look at you, with my eyes wide open, those boys who are now men, both here and departed, are still handsome, brave, and strong. We are still daughters, beautiful and lithe.

We, all of us, will always be young.

Judy Lowry Gravenmier