Forty-six years ago me and my senior classmates gathered on the visitor’s side of E.L. Morgan Field on Hwy. 80 in Newton and marched across that field one by one to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance. That was a long time ago, but I remember that day like it was yesterday. We had a lot of fun in the Class of ‘79.
The majority of us started elementary school together and finished high school together. A bunch of us attended Miss Anna and Miss Lois Nichols’ kindergarten together in the little house behind the sisters’ house on Church Street. Seems like there was a schoolroom full of kiddos packed into that small place.
I suppose we were ahead of our time since some of us, including me, got a jump on kindergarten starting with three-year-old Pre-K.
It wasn’t called Pre-k in the ‘60s, something more like babysitting, I think, for moms and dads who worked and didn’t have their own moms and dads in the same town to take care of the grandchildren.
It worked well for us since we only lived a few houses up the street from the kindergarten and we could be walked down there and back on pretty days.
It seems to me, now that I think about it, my whole childhood was spent next to one school or the other. In 1970 we moved next door to the Newton High School Gymnasium and were right across the old football field from Newton Elementary School. I remember walking across the dew-laden field many a day until starting the seventh grade, which was located just down the hill from the gym next door.
Living beside the school wasn’t much fun once I got my drivers license because I couldn’t really go riding around, trying to get into trouble, before school. It didn’t take much time to find a long way to school and did both — rode around, and sometimes got into a little trouble.
Our house also made for an easy place to dash in and out of during the school day — some call that skipping, I call it dashing in and out — and I had to work really hard to be tardy unless I was out riding around trying to get into trouble. Those were great times, and then on May 18, 1979 our class, just shy of 100 members, graduated and went our own ways. That was the last time we were “all” together.
Now it is graduation week here in Scott County and throughout Mississippi. Caps are flying and gowns are flowing. What I wouldn’t give to be walking across E.L. Morgan Field all those years ago once again.
Gosh I’ve learned a lot in those 46 years. So many things I would do different. Might not dash in and out of our house quite as many times. Might not go riding around, trying to get into trouble, quite as much...but I can’t guarantee that one.
Having a January birthday, I was one of the first in my core friend group to get a drivers license, so that core group depended on me for a lot of riding around and looking for trouble in the second half of the 70s decade.
I suppose, truth be known, there really isn’t that much I would change. I’ve had a good life. I have a wonderful wife of near ’bout 44 years that I met at Mississippi State, and we have had a darling daughter for more than 32 years now. We are a close family of three — could be four before long if him and her stick together — and we pretty much have fairly good health to boot. Could probably drop a few pounds, and get up and move around a little more, but we’ll let that be a retirement goal.
So even though I wouldn’t change much, I will, as I do every year, offer some advice to the Class of 2025. Lessons learned, you might say. Do with it as you please.
To start with, enjoy your life and never forget how to laugh. Laughter truely is the best medicine.
Remember that college is very important. More so today than ever before. That first semester can be kind of tricky if you’re trying to keep up with your studies and with your social life. I think I did it backwards and tried to keep up with the social life a little too much and spent the rest of my college career playing catch up with those studies. I just made it harder on myself, but catch up I did.
Do socialize in college though. You’ll meet friends for life, maybe even a spouse as I did and she is still right here by my side and is my best friend. Fifty percent of the population — probably more — can’t say the same thing.
Get to know your professors and advisors. Don’t just sit in class, take notes, and listen. Get involved. Those people can be very influential when you start looking for a job post-graduation. My advisor put me on the trail of my first newspaper job and I’ve been in the same business, with the same company, for 41 years now. That retirement thing, though, is on the radar.
Go ahead and accept the fact that you are going to have to take some classes that you aren’t going to like very much. Like Philosophy for example. It used to be required for many different majors and I have no idea why. Hopefully that has changed.
When you finish college find a job you like and stick with it. More and more today we are seeing young people coming out of school with a poor work ethic. No one owes you a paycheck until you’ve done the work required to receive it. So work hard and you will reap the rewards. Job hopping and playing around won’t get you very far in my book, and entitlement is not an admirable quality!
If college is not your cup of tea, that is perfectly fine too. Learn a trade, we need skilled tradesmen and women now more than ever. Work hard at it and it will work for you.
Eventually get married and make a life together. Get to know each other and enjoy some time with each other before starting a family. It is perfectly fine for your child’s friends’ parents to be young enough to be your own children. Believe me, it is perfectly fine.
Have fun! Laugh some more!
Keep up with current events but don’t just watch television all the time and certainly don’t believe everything you see on the internet. There are beautiful real things outside to see, things to touch, and feel, and smell. Spend some time with nature.
Read the newspaper in your town. You never know when it might go away for good. Complain about it as much as you like, but read it. Write letters to the editor. Subscribe to that newspaper. If you end up living in Scott County that would be us, and we’ll be happy to start you up. I’ve always said a town without a newspaper is a town without a soul, and unfortunately a good many towns have lost their souls over the last several years. Let’s hope we are not next on that list.
And last, for now, but not least, don’t think you have to move out of Mississippi to make a name for yourself. There are plenty of us that were born here, reared here, and are still living here, that are proud to call this great state home. We would love to have you among our ranks.
For now though, for the summer of 2025, enjoy yourself. Pat yourself on the back. You deserve it. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, so live it to the fullest. Congrats!
Now run tell your momma and daddy thank you. They’ll know what you’re talking about!
