Elba High School where I graduated in 1952It was an exciting day in Elba, AL on May 17, 1952 when we assembled for graduation, all 61 of us; 30 girls and 31 boys.
Imagine packing that many students on a small stage, all wearing cotton caps and gowns and many of the girls wearing white, cotton dresses and high heels under the gowns. We marched into the auditorium to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance. There was no air conditioning then and the big windows were raised. The fog from the river bottom crept into the auditorium, along with flying insects.
The honor students were selected and the top three students all came from the Curtis Consolidated School 8 miles out in the country; and I was one of them. The other two were Annette Taylor and Floyd Griffin. We attended school together for all 12 years. When we graduated from Curtis in the 9th grade, we started to school in Elba for the next 3 years. We got a good basic education at the country school.
The day before graduation, I had a sore throat and my eyes were burning. I went to see Dr. Kimmey and he gave me a shot of penicillin (a cure-all back then) and said I would be better the next day. Graduation morning I got up and went to school but didn't feel too good. I had a terrible headache and my eyes were burning.
I had to make a speech and although I had memorized it, I had notes in case I faltered. When I got up to make my speech, I was very light-headed and vision was so blurred I couldn't read my notes. I remember it was dark out in the auditorium and that helped the situation. I got through the speech and sat down. Immediately I began itching all over with a rash. It was so hot on the stage and I thought I was going to pass out. Graduation was finally over and we marched back through the auditorium to the hallway.
I was invited to a graduation party and had brought clothes to change into but all I wanted to do was to go home and cool off. I located my parents and my mother said that I had little red bumps all over my face and arms. Guess what! I came down with the big red measles the night I graduated.
Recently I was reading old Elba Clippers on microfilm at the Elba Library and I found an article about our graduation and it mentioned that a large number of students in all the grades had had the measles the last few days of school - and I was one of them!
We had our 55th class reunion this year and sadly, many of the 61 are no longer with us. We are all in our 70's now and many have health problems. But when we get together it's as if we were back in school and we re-live those days and have fun recalling them. We agreed to start getting together once a year now.
By the way, the year I graduated our football team won almost every game (tied one).
