When the reunion organizers proposed a tour of the “new” Central High School, there was a clamor for a tour of the “old” Central High School, because that’s where we built our memories. The Class of 66 scheduled a breakfast in the cafeteria at 9 Saturday morning. They and the other classes got to prowl the school later.
Table-dancing skills prove useful
Vicky Seabaugh asked me to shoot a photo of the Class of 66 after breakfast.
Some of the students are partially hidden because they didn’t heed my admonition, “If you can’t see ME, my camera can’t see YOU.” Some of the folks with apparent prior table dancing experience used their skills to become more visible. (No hips were broken in the making of this photograph.)
That’s my locker
Bill Stone said he was lucky enough to share a locker with a small-time local hoodlum. “Nobody messed with MY locker,” he said. Our old tan lockers have been replaced by spiffy orange ones.
Auditorium seats have been recovered
I don’t know if these folks are looking for their initials or what. The auditorium looked as serviceable as ever.
Terry Hopkins shows his prowess
I kept telling Terry Hopkins that I needed him to do one more rep to make sure I got a good picture, but he finally wised up.
We got to walk across the gym floor
Walking across the gym floor was taboo when we were in school. You just didn’t do it. Not more than once, at least.
Standards must have been relaxed, because Terry Kitchen led us right on to it. (Go here to here Terry’s account of the Ghosts of the Trophy Case.) He’s the fellow in the orange and white shoes at left.
The ADA brings elevators to CHS
Janet Zickfield had to depend on other students to carry her up and down the many stairs at Central High School when we were there. Today’s students can use an elevator.
Photo Gallery of CHS tour
Here’s a photo gallery of our tour. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left of right side of the photo to move through the gallery. We’re not done yet. More photos are coming.
Fantastic job as usual.
Thanks, Bill. It just goes to prove the old adage that if a photographer takes an infinite number of photographs, at least a few of them will turn out good.
Hi Bill,
How are you doing? Wow it is hard to believe that it will be 29 years this year that I have been out of school:) My son will be 28 in Sept this year. He graduated with honors in Elementary Education at UCF in Orlando. My daughter will be 26 on March 3rd she is studying to be a vet tech, and is currently a Manager at Petco in Cape. My husband and I spend 6 months in Missouri and 6 months in Florida.
My husband is retired from the military of 24 yrs. So we are able to spend time with our youngest son here in FL and then up in Missouri with our youngest daughter . Then we have 3 other kids 1 in Ill, 1 in WI, and 1 in NJ. And 6 grandchildren.We are like the Brady Bunch Lol:) I keep in touch with Carol and Gary Monteith a lot.We go up and visit stay all night occasionally and go to church with them. We own our own place in Missouri and down here in Florida. Would love to get to gether to have lunch with you and Nancy and Carol and Gary. Will Call you when we get back up to Missouri in June. Thank you for always being there for me during my teen years when I needed support and guidance. And even today I consider you, Carol, and Jeannie, and my Grandmother my Gardian Angels. I have told my husband all about you and he can’t wait to meet you. And I think you will really like him. Caol really likes him. He and I will be married 23 yrs this year. Talk to you soon. Tell Nancy hi. See you this summer. Leigh-Ann
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Hi Leigh Ann
I have been trying to locate Gary Monteith, who I believe is my cousin from Cutler, Il. You email came up in a Google search I was doing. I found a phone number but it is no longer in service in Burfordville, Mo.
If you can help my email address is donmonteith.indy@gmail.com
Thanks so much.
Don
Hey there stranger, how are you doing:) My hubby Jim and I are currently in Florida until June 1st. Then we head back up to Missouri until Dec. We usually try to spend 6 months up in Missouri and 6 months here in Florida. My son Joe lives in Orlando, he’s married graduated from UCF with Honors in Elementary Education. Teaching positions are really hard to find down here right now due to consolidation of schools. A lot being closed and classes ratio of 50+ students to 1 teacher. Hopefully it will get better. He is keeping up his CEU’s and is going back to finish his original major which was an Mechinical Engineer. He only has 3 semesters to go to finish that. Then he will have a double major with a minor in Math.He is working as a manager at a UPS Store right now. He has grants, and scholarships, but he has been working there for 5 years and going to school and he will continue until until he gets a good steady job. He is hoping with finishing his engineering degree he can get on at NASA. He has some friends working there. My youngest kid Sarah moved to Missouri after she graduated from high school from down here. She lived wih her Grandma, she is married will be 26 in 3 days. She is going rto school tro be a Vet Tech.She is a manager at Petco in Cape. She has been there 5 years. Her husband is a farmer they live in Portageville and own their own home. She works with an animal rescue too. Then I have a stepdaughter who lives in Ill she is a Resp Therapist. She is 35 and has 4 of our grandchildren. Then our next one is my step son lives in WI , he is married and 38. And our oldest one is my stepdaughter is 43 she has our last 2 granddaughters. She lives in NJ. I talk and see Carol and Gary Monteith. We go and visit and she makes my favorite lunch:)We have spent the night gone to church, I will always feel apart of their family. You, Carol, and Jeannie were my grardian angels in high school. I would have never made it without you guys. I sure made that my kids were raised right, and they turned out pretty darn good. I can’t wait for you to meet my husband. He is wornderful. We will be married 23 yrs this year. He retired from from the Navy after 24 yrs. Carol really likes him a lot. And you know if she likes him he has to bee good. Tell Nancy I said hi. When we get back up in June, we can all meet up for lunch. Jim hears me talking about you but never has met you. Take care, can’t wait to see ya! Leigh-Ann
Ken, The tour and breakfast photos are fantastic. I dont think you missed anyone. We really appreciate your documenting our great weekend. We will be talking about this until the next one rolls around. Again a big thanks.
Thanks Ken, it was great seeing you again after all these years. We were practically neighbors when the Stones lived on Grandview Dr. The photos were great!
The photo you took at my sophomore locker #19 near the old chemistry room, had yours truly in the bottom of the shared locker. My locker mate was in trouble and as I recall did not attend school after the first few weeks, having been sent to the Boonville Reformatory School. As noted, nobody bothered my locker that year. Although these are the kind of stories legends are made of, I can not recall another locker number that I had during my four years at Central.
Well if I knew you were going to use that weight lifting picture I would have sucked in my double or is it triple chin…
Nice job as usual…very good work.
I just shoot ’em as I see ’em.
I quit trying to suck it in a long time ago. I just consider my ab to be a counterweight.
Kenny–One word-WOW-The pics really add to the memories of Central and the reunion–Thanx
The “old” school still looks really good. My class was the first class to graduate from that “new” school in ’54, R.L. Sheets was the principal. You ’60-ers are looking good too!
We were in one of the first homes to be built on Themis. My mother remembers when Central was nothing but an empty field with a dead horse in it.
It is astounding how well the old school has been kept up. The maintenance staff has done a great job.
(I wonder if that’s what kept some of the members of our class looking so good, too. Heavy maintenance.)
Do u remember Gordon Brumley??
How did Rita Robertson Slinkard get the nickname ‘Ticket’? There has to be an story there, right?
Or am I misunderstanding her name tag…
http://www.capecentralhigh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Tour-of-Central-High-School-06-26-2010_5652.jpg
Cheers,
Matt
I’ll have to ask your mother. She used the nickname right away, but I don’t remember anything about her background.
Wow! I know I requested a tour of the OLD or former CHS, but I did not realized the tour changed from the New CHS to the Old CHS or we would have attended!
Lila (and I suspect others) contacted Mark Stuart to argue that most of us have no interest in the new building, so a tour of our Alma Mater was arranged.
I suspect that’ll be what happens in the future. Some things were instantly familiar; others were as strange as when we walked into the joint as confused freshmen.
WE ARE STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS! THANKS, KEN, FOR BEING AN ABLE AND ARTICULATE ARTIST IN OUR AGING MIDST! SEE YOU IN 5 YEARS? HOPE SO! PEP
Pep,
We’re like road construction going through Atlanta: it’s a work in progress; you can’t judge when it’s gonna be finished; it starts and stops without warning, it’s broken before it’s done and it backs up frequently.
I don’t know if I’ll be there in five years, but it won’t be for lack of trying.
Ken, there should be some kind of Tiger Award for all the enthusiasm you generated for this event for those of us far and near with your photo journalism. It is great … it is fantastic …. thank you so very much.
I tried to save some of these photos and to copy others. Do you have some kind of code to prevent this … or is it me and or/my computer?
Again thank you. So happy you all had a good time. I had a good time with you through Ken’s photo len.
Does any one feel energetic to go through the photos and label them for those of us who weren’t there? Just asking… I know it would take time out of busy schedules. Thanks for considering.
Hats off and a written ovation to our own photo journalist! And to Lila too.
Prudy,
I don’t have anything that I went out of my way to keep people from downloading the photos, but I think the gallery program I use may keep you from doing a right-click, save-as.
Once I get back to Florida, I’ll post all of the photos at another site we control that WILL allow you to view the photos and download them in high resolution.
Give me about a week to get home, unpack, set up all of my equipment and upload everything. Better yet, give me two weeks.
I’ll post links to the site when I get it up.
I wish I had some way to let you tag photos like you can on Facebook, but I’m limited there. In the interest of speed, I opted for generic titles on the photos.
Thinking out loud, I might set up a CHS Class Reunion Fan Page to upload the pix to. That was they COULD be tagged.
Let me think on it.
You did a wonderful job of capturing memories, as usual, Ken!
Sheila
Are there any graduates of 1982 still around? Would love to hear from you.Wow it is hard to believe we have been out of school for 32 years now.Also was friends with graduates of 1980-1981.would love to tour the old CHS as well as the new one.Currently in Mo,11 months of the year now, between here and Nashville.Curently working with Martina McBride and Team Martina a volunteer team that raises money for grants for Cancer Research and Children overseas in orphanges.Team Martina Mo division I have formed works with St. Francis Cancer Floor & Chemo floor where we do Thanksgiving Baskets and Christmas Stocking Program.Would love to hear from former classmates and have a get together. If anyone wants to help out with holiday festivies at St. Francis please contact me
Are there any graduates of 1982 still around? Would love to hear from you.Wow it is hard to believe we have been out of school for 32 years now.Also was friends with graduates of 1980-1981.would love to tour the old CHS as well as the new one.Currently in Mo,11 months of the year now, between here and Nashville.Curently working with Martina McBride and Team Martina a volunteer team that raises money for grants for Cancer Research and Children overseas in orphanges.Team Martina Mo division I have formed works with St. Francis Cancer Floor & Chemo floor where we do Thanksgiving Baskets and Christmas Stocking Program.Would love to hear from former classmates and have a get together. If anyone wants to help out with holiday festivies at St. Francis please contact me