Classmates of ’74: Memoirs
Thanks, Sheila, for sharing! We are all so glad you're, in your words, "still kicking"! Your classmates will show you a great deal of love, I promise. God bless! :)
Class of '74 Memoirs: Chapter 6
Shelia Pye Saunders
LaGrange HS Reunion
Like a fine wine, 1974, was a very good year and getting better and better as the years have gone on. (At least the part before I had to move to Cordele, Georgia). We moved several times before landing in LaGrange in 1963. I met new friends and began to love the small town.
All of you Grangers know that we were robbed of all four high school years when they split us up into boy/girl schools for 9th grade. We survived and made more friends. Girls even got a big surprise when they said we could wear pants to school. My dad still checked my hemline each morning. The students now don’t know the hardships we endured!
Yes, Sherry Parker, our mothers were such an inspiration and gave so much guidance during those high school years. Every time I hear “Ventura Highway,” I am taken back to our many rounds to McCurley’s to add 50-cents-worth of gas to the car so we could ride some more from Callaway to the Burger Chef.
So many “firsts”— such as that first date in a car without the parents being a chauffeur, the dances at the “Y,” and big ol’ white football mums that we wore to the homecoming games.
Then, there was the cold, dreary senior trip to Panama City. We were just glad to be there. We were invincible!!!!
Our 1974 year started another huge chapter in our lives. Sherry and I could not wait to get to Georgia Southwestern so we could be foot-loose and fancy-free. We made our dorm room match up just right, and we both joined the same sorority. What made it even more fun was the fact that many of our friends chose to go there as well. I can remember Scott Weir, Steve Sauter, Sandy Lindsey, Sam Rainey, and Mark Huckstep. If I left anyone out, chalk it up to age. Little did I know that in the Spring of 1975 I met the man who would become my husband – Rodney Saunders – and we are now into year forty-six! Those college years were the best part of life.
Fast forward to June 17, 1978: Rodney and I married two weeks after I graduated from college. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, even in junior high at Westside. After two degrees and thirty-one years of teaching – including kindergarten, second grade, fourth grade, and the last six years of EIP – I was able to retire in 2009 at the age of fifty-three.
Rodney and I have two children, Holly and Kyle. Holly is a nurse and married Clint Croyle. They have made their home in Newnan.
Kyle is a pharmacist in Flowery Branch and married Suzanne Hendricks. They have made
their home in Cumming and have blessed us with two grandchildren, Henry is seven, and Everly Ann is five.
Rodney and I decided to move our family from Americus to Peachtree City in 1987 and have been here ever since. It is a fabulous place to live, especially since we have moved into an adult community called Cresswind and have met so many interesting people. We have been traveling a good bit with friends and enjoying retirement!
Fifty years, where did the time go? I am so glad that after five decades those of us still kicking can get together and celebrate.
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