On W.I.’s 50^th Reunion ---- By Carolyn Ash Gillespie

When Bill Thomas wrote and asked me if I’d have a few words to say,

I didn’t hesitate at all.  I agreed to right away.

Because I knew I’d look around and see my friends from high school days.

The friends who shared my teenage dreams and helped me in so many ways.

We were all proud to be a part of our grand old WI

Proud to wear the gold and blue and to join in that Hilltopper cry.

We gathered in the mornings on the steps in front of school

Then made our way to classes--separate stairways were the rule.

We walked out to the stadium to support our football teams;

And Carmichael auditorium rocked with our basketball screams.

We memorized Shakespeare and sometimes wondered why

And the dates and places of history almost made us cry.

We all remember teachers who helped us along the way.

Sometimes we didn’t know their worth until many a later day.

We had no computers and no internet,

No TV’s or cell phones; and yet --,

We had Victrolas with records, and radios,

And streetcars and buses where we needed to go.

 We walked a lot more, up the hills and down,

Getting to school, to games and to town.

We had Dailey’s for cream pie and Bland’s for ice cream

There was Friend’s for our dancing and days and nights for our dreams.

We saw lots of movies at the Ritz and the Grand

And satisfied our sweet tooth at Candyland.

There was Parson Souder’s and Watts-Sartor-Lear

And Woolworth’s and Murphy’s were very near.

Our city has changed, our school has too,

But I see no changes in me and you.

We’re now in our sixties, fifty years have passed;

But I still see my friends and good friendships always last.