23rd Curtis School Reunion

In 1985, my classmate of 12 years, Janice Cowen Hudson, and I decided to hold a class reunion for the old Curtis school. It had closed in 1967 and a few years later the building burned. We didn't know if there would be much interest, but there was and today we had our 23rd reunion.  What a great time! 

We honored a family that moved away from the community before their children graduated from high school, and we all lost touch with them. Last year one of the girls came to the reunion from Dothan to see her cousins that were being honored. We asked if her family would like to be honored this year.

They were so excited when they arrived today, coming from Atlanta, GA; Gardenia, CA; Dothan, AL. One sister from Baton Rouge, LA was unable to attend. There are pictured here, children of Howard and Ann Foley Danley. This photo was taken today and the man on the right, Tom Cowen, was their neighbor when they were young. 

We were all excited on Oct. 12, 1958, when one of the bus drivers, Dick Daniels and his wife Dot had twins, Jim and Judy Daniels. We sang happy birthday to them. They were home visiting their mother and celebrating their 60th birthdays tomorrow. I think they were surprised that we remembered!!

These 3 friends, Sara Young, Bessie Griffin and her sister, Loris Cauley, were so happy to see each other and talk about what they are doing these days. One is still teaching china painting and the other still gardens near Pensacola, FL and uses the riding lawn mower to cut her grass. And of course they are both driving and running their own errands. This would be common lace except for the fact that Sara Young and Bessie Griffin are both 91 years old. Sara's 71 year old son came with her from Opp. Bessie's sister Loris was there with her son Kenneth, who brought them to the reunion.

One visitor remarked that he would see if he could get invited back; that he had never seen such a spread of the best southern food he had ever eaten. So many homemade cakes and pies. And I counted 5 bowls of chicken and dumplings (the homemade kind). Kenneth Cauley brought a big pan of fried sidemeat (pork) and this was the hit of the day!

The reunion was held in a big pavilion that my friend Janice Cowen Hudson and I raised  money to build in 1998, behind New Ebenezer Baptist Church. The 10 large picnic tables which we had built can hold 8 people, and all were all filled. Approximately 90-100 attended.

Afterwards a classmate invited us to his house to talk some more and have a light dinner. For various reasons (medical and just aches and pains of aging) some had to go home and were unable to attend. There were 3 of us who went to our friend Ralph Crocker's new home. We were "stuffed" from all the reunion goodies, but still managed to eat finger foods. I put the photos that I took at the reunion today on a CD and took it to Ralph's house where we had so much fun looking at them in a slide show.

Many of us won't see each other again until next October (and some we'll never see again as they are getting very old). The school reunion is as the name implies - a great reunion for classmates who went to Curtis school.