By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
If Viola Maness hadn’t called me I would have missed the Cross Roads School Reunion. I sure am glad she called me. It was a really small group, 21 in all I believe, mostly made up as folks older than me, which is pretty old. I understand attendance is up from last year. Two of the biggest promoters of these meetings have been Viola and Margaret Smith. I particularly love getting to see them as they were life-long friends of my sister Mary, who they call Mary Elizabeth. Their faces light up when they talk about her.
I didn’t graduate from Cross Roads, as the school burned after my freshman high school year, and the next year I was bussed to the big town of Malakoff where I finished my last three years. Most of my class came with me, but a few went to Athens.
There was nobody from my class at the reunion. June Baggett Farmer was one year behind me. Fred Carter, who chairs the meetings is a whopping five years younger than me. I think Lynn Casey is about the same age. These three comprise the board, and do the work of pulling things together and keeping records. I knew a few of the others who were there; I think some of them are nearly kin to me. These are some very lovely people. I wish I had got there earlier and stayed later and talked to them, but I had to get back and show my face at the Cornbread Festival.
I liked the reunion so much I thought I could easily fill up a whole column, but I pretty soon ran out of details. I started to name everybody I knew there, but I’m afraid I would leave somebody out that I was supposed to know or be kin to.
So I called Viola Maness to see what she could tell me. She is a delight to talk to, and she told me what it was like when she and Margaret and my sister Mary were young. She remembers having contests to see who could swing the highest. She says it was a wonder they didn’t tip those swings over. (I remember swinging high on those very same swings 12 years later.) Viola remembers they were big volleyball players. She said they used to spend the night together a lot, giggling about their latest crushes. I heard something else about one of those crushes Saturday. Viola told J.C. Rogers she had had a crush on him back then. He told her he wished she had let him know. She said girls just didn’t do that then.
And she said they used to have parties all the time. Mr. Claude Crabtree was their bus driver, and he still was driving when I came along. His daughter was Ester Mae, and they had lots of parties at their house.
Margaret Smith was a preacher’s daughter. Her father started Lockland Church for which Lockland Road (CR 1307) off the Cross Roads highway is named for, I guess. Or maybe there was a whole community there then. I know Mr. Claude’s house was right down the road from the church.
Viola says Margaret’s dad was a great man, and many souls were saved in that church.
Viola lives in Texas City now, but for the last 16 years she has made it here to every reunion, and she always stays at the Best Western. On her first stay there she met Lisa, who was expecting her first baby. Sixteen years later they greet one another with big hugs and she gets to hear all about that now teenage boy. She used to come with her husband, and now her children bring her. One couple this year, but two families plan to bring her next year. They love to watch Mama laugh and cut up with her old friends.
I wish I had come earlier and stayed longer. I could have heard stories like this from a lot of the people there.
I did have a nice visit with Evelyn Cliver Turlington, who is really a beautiful person, inside and out, and is almost nearly kin to me I think. She took pictures and helped me identify some folks before I realized Fred Carter had identified them for me already and I just hadn’t seen it. It was a great excuse to visit with her again. Too bad I had already filled all my space telling you about my talk with Viola.
