Former Woodleaf School students reminisced as they gathered in the school’s auditorium Saturday ó some for the first time in half a century.
They met to celebrate the history of their alma mater, now a K-5 elementary school, and to share the way life was when they were children.
It was a day about memories, and emcee Charlie Gibbons led the program as people shared tidbits of history. Patricia Swicegood was co-host.
The bricks in the school were made in a field not too far away, Gibbons said. Woodleaf supposedly had the first rural library in Rowan County, Dave Waller said.
The school colors were black and gold. The year 12th grade was added, the school graduated three students.
The alumni laughed as they talked about how Mrs. White played the piano, bouncing along on the piano stool.
They remembered how important the contents of their lunch bags were. “The light bread eaters made fun of us biscuit eaters,” Nan Atwell said.
She talked about chapel programs, going to school half-days during cotton-picking time in October and attending a banquet at the Yadkin Hotel in Salisbury.
“It was the first hotel I had even seen,” Atwell said.
Her class ring was a Christmas present, she said ó her mother made payments for it at Norman’s Jewelry.
Many remembered Principal Claude Harrell. “When he gave a whipping, he really gave a whipping,” said Atwell. “He pulled off his belt and went to it.”
Margie Harley said Saturday was the first time she’d been in the auditorium in 52 years.
“The last time I was here,” she said, “I walked across this stage at graduation.”