While watching eleven of my private students going through commencement exercises, it was not lost on me that forty years ago this afternoon, my Elwood Community High School classmates and I changed our tassels to the other side of our mortarboards and graduated.

There were twenty-two of us fellow graduates that had been together since our kindergarten year began at Washington Elementary School in September 1970. Many of us are still in contact via social media or in person.

I will always believe that I had the best education backed by the best teachers, supplementary staff, and administrators. Forty years after leaving the hallways of Elwood’s school system, I am still grateful and indebted to everyone that played a role in my educational development.

.Happy 40th anniversary to all my fellow classmates from the Class of 1983, and THANK YOU to all my wonderful teachers!

Make it a great day!

PHOTOS:

1. Myself with band director, Paula Simmons, and the best co-drum major, Sandy Wilburn.

2. Conducting the Marching Panther Band, 1982.

3. Senior night with Mother.

4. Graduation with my great-grandfather, John William Garrett Clary, and his daughter, my grandmother, Donna Clary Barmes.

5. Graduation with my great-great uncle and aunt, Raymond and Betty Daugherty. Raymond was the younger brother of my great grandmother, Thelma Daugherty Barmes and the three-month-older uncle to my grandfather, Leroy Barmes. Aunt Betty was best friends with my grandmother, Donna Clary Barmes. Raymond and Betty had one son, Steve, who became a special cousin and friend.