GHS School Days: 1962-63, Part 12 Our Last Semester in Greenville High School, Spring, 1963
BY CARTER E. ANTHONY
As we approached the end of the school year, the end of our formal education in Greenville High School, a lot of year-end activities began to bubble up although we had to continue to concentrate on our school work.
First up was the Junior/Senior Banquet at which we were to be honored. Once again, there was the question of the band and if the new dance, the Twist, would be allowed.
For years, a local dance band had been engaged but we had broken the mold the previous year when we juniors were sponsoring.
This class of juniors also won out and secured a somewhat rock-n-roll band. Once again, the Twist was banned. This was not unusual as most schools were banning the new popular dance.
There was a whole lot of modified bop and jitter-bug dancing with some twisting moves included. As always, the banquet and the dance were a lot of fun for all three grades participating.
Next, we rolled into graduation exercises with Class Night in the gym. Cholly Snow and Jo Elyn Jones, Class Musicians, modified to fit our class the song “Moments to Remember.”
I wanted it to be the Statler Brothers, “Class of 57”, but that song might have hit too close to home for some of us.
Sharon Green, Class Poet, wrote a poem and a prayer for us that brought tears to our eyes. Great job Sharon.
As expected, Richie was our class lawyer and he read our class’s last will and testament. Richie wrote it himself and it was highly entertaining.
In a laugher, Richie left his football scholarship to his best friend, Sterling Hamilton, because Sterling was a better football player than Richie. Neither played football past the hedges on Hamilton Street.
The Class Prophecy was read by Eddie Newton, Kay Shirley and Nancy Butler. Eddie was expected to win a large lawsuit from Nabisco because they used his nickname “Fig” on one of their cookie products.
Nancy, a highly talented young lady was expected to write a successful self-help book on how to hide your many talents and Kay was predicted to become “Miss Moon” because she had won everything else on earth.
The Baccalaureate Service followed in the First Baptist Church with Reverend Robert Vaughn of First Methodist delivering the sermon. Finally, State Representative Lamont Glass delivered our graduation speech and we were “outta there”.
As an encore to the graduation exercises some parents sponsored a dance at the Greenville Country Club. Having graduated, all limits had been removed. The Twist was the dance! Bring it on, Chubby Checker.
Coming up: Classmate Accomplishments
