HS Reunion: Day 3

 

The last event of the 50th reunion of the class of 1961 was a church service led by class member B.J. Greene Funk in the Chapel of First Baptist Church with music provided by Ed Barr.  B.J. taught kindergarten, felt called to the ministry, and went to Emory University to prepare to be a Methodist minister.  By the time she retired from teaching, she had completed her degree in theology and is currently pastoring a church in Chula, GA, near Tifton. 

B. J. brought a message of God’s love for us and his presence in our lives to help us when we need help.  Afterwards, there was time for those attending to share remembrances of the 27 class members who have died.  As they were remembered, we all recalled the times shared by this class who mostly went to 12 years of school together – not just high school – and the different world in which we lived then. 

The service was a wonderful culmination of this outstanding class reunion weekend, and I thank Johnny Anderson and all those who served with him on the reunion committee.  Ya’ll did good!

HS Reunion: Day 2

 

On Saturday morning, Irene went with Dodie and Iris to tour the Valdosta/Lowndes County Museum which is in the old Carnegie Library Building. The history museum is a large and interesting museum, but most of our time was spent talking with class members and looking at scrapbooks of high school events.  (We’ll have to go back to see the history museum when we’re in Valdosta again).

From the history museum we went to the Wildcat Museum located at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium, the historic location of many Valdosta Wildcat victories.  While the location is the same, the stadium is totally renovated from our high school days.  It now has artificial turf, stadium seats on the home team side in black and gold (wildcat colors), and is much larger with a seating capacity of 11,249.  The museum was filled with photos, trophies, plaques, and other memorabilia – and more class members to see.  Mrs. Bazemore was also there, enjoying exchanging memories.

       

After Irene returned to the coach, our niece Meredith and her daughters came to visit.  Katie is performing in a musical at church and sang her solo for us.  She has a beautiful voice!  Rebecca (4 years old) sang Jesus Loves Me.  Irene and Meredith didn’t sing – they just talked, so George entertained the girls. The first activity was easy – taking the girls out to walk Tina. After that, the job became more challenging as all he had was two Newsweek magazines.

Soon it was time to move on to the next class reunion location.  Dinner Saturday evening was held at class member Larry Rodger’s cattle ranch south of Valdosta.  We drove the coach there and parked in the pine trees near the lodge.  People began arriving at 5:30 and dinner was at 7:00 so there was time to visit and take photos, including another group photo, before dinner – and afterwards.