Lakeside High School's Class of 1958 celebrated its 60th reunion Friday at the same place the classmates held their senior tea -- Humphreys Dairy.
"This is the 60th class reunion and 60 years ago we were here for our senior tea," said Katherine Sligh. "We had 38 (classmates) to start out with and we've lost 15. We're just mostly going to visit. We don't have that much planned other than a few games and things we're going to do here, but mostly just got together and visit because it's really too warm for a lot of us."
Sligh said Sallie Humphreys, "Ms. Sallie, we called her," hosted a reception at the dairy house for the senior class in 1958.
"Harris' (Humphreys) aunt lived here in this house -- Ms. Sallie is what we all called her and she taught at Lakeside years and years and years ago," she said. "So she wanted us to have our senior tea here, so the class voted to have it here and we all came, our parents came and had a great visit with a big group of people that was here for it 60 years ago. Just a reception, senior tea here."
When the time came to plan the reunion, Sligh called her classmate whose aunt had been so gracious years before and the decision to host the event at the dairy again was made.
"I called Harris and we were talking about where we could meet and he said 'Let me talk to Mr. Lewis, the man that's bought the house, and see if he'd rent it to us,'" she said. "We just thought it'd be great. There's several of us that's spending the night because there's like five bedrooms, 13 beds total if you make out the couches and things so there's plenty of beds. We're looking forward to that."
The class, she said, has always been very close-knit, regardless of whether they are all together. Sligh's and Humphreys' classmates able to attend were Maxine Hanks, Jack McKnight, Mary Ann Miles, Bob Moore, Larry Mathis, Ed Jackson, Sam Stanley, Virgie Watkins, Ellen Rucker and L.D. Fendley.
"We really stay in touch when we get all this going together but at Christmastime, some holidays, I try to make a special effort to call the ones that were not able to be here because they are either in wheelchairs or maybe in nursing homes and can't be here," Sligh said.
In their school days, Sligh said the class enjoyed many a winning football game and polka parties at the home of head football coach Floyd Coker and his wife, Bettye.
"We won 31 games straight and Dierks was the team that beat us finally," she said. "And one night we had a basketball game in Jessieville and it snowed during the ballgame. We couldn't get out so we had to stay the night in the church. Coach and his wife had taught us all how to polka and after the ballgames on Friday night, if they were home games, we'd go to their house and polka and they'd have refreshments for us."
But it was a senior trip to New Orleans that made for numerous memories despite hiccups like a broken down bus and a classmate's broken arm.
"Bourbon Street was something that we had never seen or done before," Sligh said.
"Harris' mother (Mary Ellen Humphreys) was one of the sponsors that went with us, and we made sure that she got good and tired during the day so she'd sleep sound at night so we could go have fun. She's going to come over and talk to us about it, tell us the stories," Sligh said Friday.
"We went to Lake Pontchartrain ... it was kind of like Magic Springs, they had all kinds of rides and things."
Sligh said her class has lost many members, but the memories continue to bind the group, adding everyone "are just like brothers and sisters."
Local on 06/10/2018