There's typically a dozen around the table. Pep rallies and principals are discussed with enthusiasm. They talk about grade schools: Edison and Zogg O'Dell elementaries. Gym teacher Alice Long is their favorite. They proudly brag about being the undefeated state football champs. This is the South Charleston High School Class of 1946.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- They meet for lunch once a month. There's typically a dozen around the table. Pep rallies and principals are discussed with enthusiasm. They talk about grade schools: Edison and Zogg O'Dell elementaries. Gym teacher Alice Long is their favorite. They proudly brag about being the undefeated state football champs. There's a bit of good-natured jealousy as they discuss their one classmate who has a cool car.
Their average age is around 80. This is the South Charleston High School Class of 1946.
Organizer Norma Cobb McDowell continues to be "dignified, neat, with heart-shaped lips," as described in their senior yearbook. She carries a small tablet, where she notes the location and participants of each lunch meeting. They each donate a dollar at the beginning of the meal, and then each summer they have a box-lunch picnic at classmate Al Deardorff's farm near Griffithsville.
Deardorff, who attends with his wife, Paige, was listed in the yearbook as "lots of fun with winning ways." Those personality traits remain as he tells tales and stories about their time together at South Charleston Junior High as well as in high school.
"Mr. J. Alfred Poe was the principal, and he could make any kid walk the line," Deardorff said. "I remember during the war days, he would march us up and down the street between Edison Elementary School and our junior high, with a brick in one hand and broom over our shoulder. That was our punishment," Deardorff said. Bud Austin added that he had been in the safety patrol, so he was probably the one who squealed on the others, hence the punishment.
Austin isn't pictured in the yearbook, but he's welcomed to the lunches with his wife, Betty.
"He lied about his age and joined the Navy, so he wasn't there for the photos," Betty explained. "His twin sister's picture is there, though."
Bud sweetly gives Betty a hard time about being a graduate of Stonewall Jackson High School, a rival to SCHS for years. Dunbar High School, now closed, was another rival. The students from Dunbar now attend South Charleston.
Charlotte Clower Atkins is still "tall and fair, eyes of brown ... nice, likeable and trustworthy all around," just like her description in the annual. She joins in the easy conversation, recalling her many years she worked at Stone & Thomas department store after her days at South Charleston.
Someone points to a photo of McDowell with a handsome young man by her side on a yearbook page titled "Hearts in Harmony." Like a teenager, she blushes, talking about her high school flame. Her memories are vivid as she tells about school traditions.
"We would have big pep rallies in the vacant field across from the school, on the corner of Third and C," McDowell recalled. South Charleston Middle School now occupies the building that once was home to the high school.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- They meet for lunch once a month. There's typically a dozen around the table. Pep rallies and principals are discussed with enthusiasm. They talk about grade schools: Edison and Zogg O'Dell elementaries. Gym teacher Alice Long is their favorite. They proudly brag about being the undefeated state football champs. There's a bit of good-natured jealousy as they discuss their one classmate who has a cool car.
Their average age is around 80. This is the South Charleston High School Class of 1946.
Organizer Norma Cobb McDowell continues to be "dignified, neat, with heart-shaped lips," as described in their senior yearbook. She carries a small tablet, where she notes the location and participants of each lunch meeting. They each donate a dollar at the beginning of the meal, and then each summer they have a box-lunch picnic at classmate Al Deardorff's farm near Griffithsville.
Deardorff, who attends with his wife, Paige, was listed in the yearbook as "lots of fun with winning ways." Those personality traits remain as he tells tales and stories about their time together at South Charleston Junior High as well as in high school.
"Mr. J. Alfred Poe was the principal, and he could make any kid walk the line," Deardorff said. "I remember during the war days, he would march us up and down the street between Edison Elementary School and our junior high, with a brick in one hand and broom over our shoulder. That was our punishment," Deardorff said. Bud Austin added that he had been in the safety patrol, so he was probably the one who squealed on the others, hence the punishment.
Austin isn't pictured in the yearbook, but he's welcomed to the lunches with his wife, Betty.
"He lied about his age and joined the Navy, so he wasn't there for the photos," Betty explained. "His twin sister's picture is there, though."
Bud sweetly gives Betty a hard time about being a graduate of Stonewall Jackson High School, a rival to SCHS for years. Dunbar High School, now closed, was another rival. The students from Dunbar now attend South Charleston.
Charlotte Clower Atkins is still "tall and fair, eyes of brown ... nice, likeable and trustworthy all around," just like her description in the annual. She joins in the easy conversation, recalling her many years she worked at Stone & Thomas department store after her days at South Charleston.
Someone points to a photo of McDowell with a handsome young man by her side on a yearbook page titled "Hearts in Harmony." Like a teenager, she blushes, talking about her high school flame. Her memories are vivid as she tells about school traditions.
"We would have big pep rallies in the vacant field across from the school, on the corner of Third and C," McDowell recalled. South Charleston Middle School now occupies the building that once was home to the high school.
"On the nights before games, we would meet at that field, and then we would snake dance, in a line, over to the mound." Others around the table recalled the marching band strutting down the street from the school to Oakes Field on Saturdays before a big game. Dances were held at the rec center near the field.
"We all jitterbugged; we never heard of drugs. We were pretty innocent," Deardorff said.
The group loves to tease Bob Ore, now the mayor of Clendenin. His beard was listed as one of his important characteristics in the yearbook, along with the fact that "he needs a private secretary!" His wife, Belinda, grew up in India, and was a first-time visitor to the lunch scene.
"I'm finally meeting all of these people he talks so much about," she said. The classmates welcome her warmly, as they embrace others who are loosely associated with the group. Rose Thabit Christian's late husband, Don, was in the class of ''46, but she hails from the SCHS class of '49.
"I still come to lunch," she said, "because we're all good friends."
JoAnn Jarrett Meadows, after five marriages, still fits the yearbook description of "frisky, carefree, saucy, happy." Calling herself the Liz Taylor of the group, she turns to Juanita Rowsey Diehl and asks, "Remember that big field by your house?" Diehl, who's in the class of '44, comes with her classmate Dorothy Cobb Amick.
Meadows launches into a story about Rowsey's brothers, who "wanted to tackle me when we played touch football." She takes a good-natured ribbing when the crowd laughs and asks, "Do you finally understand why they wanted to tackle you?"
Mary Katherine Kolwick Damron, who worked for years at Union Carbide in South Charleston following high school, still has "a willing heart, a helpful hand, always ready on demand." She wouldn't miss a lunch. "Isn't this a wonderful group?" she asks a guest.
Although he was busy turkey hunting and wasn't at the recent lunch, Doyle Hartwell is typically at the table. (His yearbook description reads: "flirty eyes, good looking, playboy, ladies' man, swank." No wonder he was missed by the ladies that day.) He helps McDowell make calls, to alert the group to the next gathering. Margie Durrett Stump helps, too.
"It's like we are 18 again," McDowell said. "It's like we were never apart."
The group members admit they were not best friends at South Charleston High. McDowell adds, "We didn't hang out together, but we all knew each other. But now, we're very close."
Reach Sara Busse at sara.bu...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1249.
Post a comment