History, Class of 1965


All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts.

     Shakespeare's quotation is most appropriate to the progress of the Class of 1965. We have spent six glorious years on the stage at Parrish High School.

     Dress rehearsal began for us one September morning in 1959 when we entered the seventh grade at Parrish Junior-Division. Our eyes mirrored the uneasiness of the stage, fright that grips every beginning actor. We had many adjustments to make. With daily rehearsals, changing classes every hour soon became routine. As we became less self-conscious, we began to perform together with more ease. There were our first football games, our first dances, the science fairs, and the first Junior-Division student directory, which was a wonderful success. For some very talented members of our cast an advanced math class was set up for the first time at Parrish High. Latin and algebra helped to prepare all of us for the big performance which awaited, for with great preparation, great expectation, and great excitement the Class of 1965 was finally ready for the "big time" - Parrish High Senior-Division.

     Act I of our play, our Sophomore year, went well. Under the leadership of Minta Robson, Judy Butler, and Judy Boswell we were able to have a most successful chicken barbecue, which was our class project for the year. All of us benefited from the chapel services which our class sponsored twice each week. A climax of our sophomore year was the presence of our first American Field Service student from the Far East, Yuri Adachi; though Yuri was a member of the Senior Class, we all learned to love her.

     Act II was an exciting year which held many memorable events. Using the money from our sophomore barbecue and the profits of a most successful light bulb sale held during our junior year, we gave the Junior-Senior Prom. With Mike Bailey, Ronnie Rosenberg. and Sherry Williams directing, we chose "Shangri-La" as our theme and carried it out beautifully. The same year the City of Selma bought the old U.S.O. and turned it into a Youth Center for teen-agers. Our junior year will always be marked by our first attempt at a term paper for English class and the long hours we spent on it. As the curtain fell on Act II, we prepared for the final and most lovingly remembered part of our performance - our senior year in high school.

     Having elected our capable leaders Larry Friday, Patsy Decker, and Cheryl Pearson, we were ready for the final act. Scene I involved our annual, magazine sales. We sold 13,700.00 dollars worth of subscriptions to help pay for the program of our play - the Sel-Ala.

     The spot light in Scene II fell on some of our outstanding players. The spot first found our National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist Leonard Jowers. Also in the spot light were four NROTC semi-finalists Ellis Johnson, Leonard Jowers, Butch Slone, and Bill Taylor. This was the largest number ever selected from
Parrish High School. Special recognition was given to our outstanding speakers, Jack Friday and Patsy Decker, who won the Civitan Oratorical Contest, and to Kitti Windham. who won first place in the state Drama Interpretation. Another first place winner in state competition was Bob Williams with his drums. The scenery in our last act was well represented by the spectacular production of the Beauty Walk. Two of our stars, Janice Henderson and Molly Holroyd, winners of the Rotary Language, Scholarship, will represent Parrish High this summer in Mexico and France.

     For our grand finale the cast was dressed in caps and gowns as we gave our final performance at Albert G. Parrish High School.

Historian
Ann Hendon


If you are interested in contributing to this website, please contact :    LJJowers@AGParrishHS.org