Not a Day Over 50 Years

Class of 1963

How did the time go by so quickly. Seems only a short time ago that our little group of graduates were lining up to get the diplomas that our high school graduation promised. We were indeed a small group. The majority of us had attended all 12 years of school together. I think 20 graduated that May of 1963. We were students, drama performers, the club sweethearts, the FFA and FHA, and the sports stars. We were everything, because we were the senior leaders of a very small high school. The students (almost all of the students) were the life and heart of the school and participated in almost every activity. Otherwise, there would have been no activity. We didn't know large schools where students were left in the distant corners to struggle for community and friendship.

I read with great interest how Roscoe High School (in Roscoe, Texas) is changing.
Changes that take it for beyond the average small rural high school. This year there were 23 graduates; 19 of whom will also receive a Associates Degree from a local community college as they graduate from high school. There is a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics research building approved and in the planning. The old Roscoe High School building in which we attended classes, played basketball, preformed plays, and graduated is no more; replaced by a new building with a somewhat similar facade. And, of course, the teachers are now in the second or third generation of teacher since that May of 1963. The faith that that mostly farm and energy dependent community place in the schools is evidence of a forward looking attitude.

That attitude has prevailed in Roscoe for decades. We felt it as we were watched over by teachers, parents and community leaders (and every neighbor that might be in a position to do so). We had our troubles, but the attitude and expectations for success were everywhere about us. And, perhaps, there were more than average successes among the graduates. I remember (at this age that memory might be fading) that eleven of the graduates from 1963 attended college for at least a semester or so. Most of the 11 graduated college or university.

Some of the Class of 1963 as we were in 2004

Now, we are noting the anniversary of that May graduation day in 1963. Little did we know the adventurous and uncertain time in which we would live would become. It got going right away; civil right, JFK assassination, Viet Nam, hippies and all. Mixing that with dating, marriage and families and breaking of families. Whatever the times would bring got rolling that spring. We were soon on our own in the adventure of life. We  moved into our lives quickly, without much looking back. We seldom saw each other over the years.

Some of us got together in 2004 for the only real reunion we have had as a class. I guess eight (Gary Richburg, also in the picture, did not actually graduate with us, having moved away a year or so before) was a large group. We missed those who did not join us.

Class of 1963 gathering in 2007

An even smaller group got together in 2007. We look good for the years we have traveled. In so far as I am aware, two of our graduates have died, Lynn Wallace and Stanley McGlothin. We missed them, but honor the memories that we shared.

We don't have a 50th reunion planned. Most of us are too far away from that West Texas farm community in both distance and life to plan or attend an event.

No matter how much Roscoe High School changes, I will always remember the start that it gave me some 50 years ago.

I couldn't let this 50th anniversary pass without remembering the group of kids from not a day over 50 years ago.

A Valentine Box

Today Sophie and her mother are busy making a Valentine Box, a place for her school friends to put the Valentine cards they bring to school for her. Mother and daughter are having a great time.

Seeing the Valentine cards made me think of some cards I found in my uncle Carl Butler's box. I wrote about the box in 2009. Carl died in the Pacific during World War II.  He and his only brother both served in the U.S. Army Air Corps based out of New Guinea.

He was the oldest child in my mother's large brood of siblings. In many ways, everyone in the family idealized him. I was named for him.  But I really don't know much about him, other than what I have been told or found in that box.

A man of the depression, he managed to attend Simmons College (now Hardin-Simmons University) in Abilene, Texas, and through many trials (most likely financial, given the times) graduated from North Texas State Teachers College (now The University of North Texas) in about 1937. This led him into a short career of teaching in small rural schools in Texas. The "box" included some letters of job offers with annual salaries of $90. He later left teaching to join the Texas Highway Patrol for a salary of about $100 per year.

This brings me to the Valentine cards. The "box" contained about 1/2 dozen cards from Carl's days of teaching. The cards and messages are simple and illustrate a regard of students for a teacher. Maybe they were reciprocal, we just don't know. Uncle Carl taught in small schools at Olney, Dunn and Balmorhea, Texas. He likely taught, at least some of the time, in a multi-level environment or a one-room school. The school at Dunn has been closed for more than half a century.

In the pre-war (1937-1941), depression years, a little card must have been difficult to come by for some students.  Some of the student names on the cards are of Spanish origin, perhaps, indicating that they were from his last school in Balmorhea in far western Texas where more Hispanic students would have lived at that time.

A simple Valentine wish that survives for so many years after a teacher and probably the student are long gone registers in one's heart.

So maybe, making a Valentine box and the cards that are dropped into will make life-long impressions for another generation.

Note: Yes, it has really been over three years since I last posted on this blog. Maybe I will do a few more in coming days.