1930 New Albany High School class members get together, reminisce

By CHRIS MORRIS
Chris.Morris@newsandtribune.com

July 08, 2008 09:37 am

— Tucked away at a table at Sam’s Food and Spirits last month sat four women in their mid-90s — all full of life and stories. The four represent a past that few can relate to, but one that should never be forgotten.
Three of the four were members of the New Albany High School class of 1930. Of the 140 graduates in the class, only six are still alive. And each year, some still get together to relive a past and events of their school days.
This year, three of the six made it to Sam’s. A fourth lady who attended the reunion, Mary Mason Kron, is actually a 1931 graduate, but started out in the class of 1930 before an illness forced her back a year.
“It was a happy time,” said Margaret Murphy. “It seems like every time we get together now, one of us is gone. We lost a lot of our boys in the war. But we always have a grand time, telling old stories.”
Sylvia Pamplin, 96, said she has not missed one reunion and still looks forward to getting together with her friends.
“We remind each other of the teachers we had and our principal,” said Pamplin as she looked through her 1930 yearbook. “We always laughed and made fun of him,” she said pointing to the principal’s picture. “We talk about him every time we get together.”
Pamplin remembers living in Greenville and having to ride a bus to New Albany. In her early school days, she drove a horse and buggy three miles to school in Hardinsburg. The horse’s name was Rex.
Pamplin said she loved English and Latin. She said she liked her teacher, Naomi Kirk.
“I don’t remember any of the Latin, but I liked the subject,” she said.
But other members of the class did not.
“I didn’t like history or English,” Murphy said. “I definitely didn’t like Latin.”
But, she loved her class.
“We all walked to school together. It was such a congenial bunch,” Murphy said.
Susan Adams’ mother, Dorothy, who died in 2005, was a member of the class. Adams helps bring the classmates together each year. She said for the last 20 years the group has reunited, though the numbers have dwindled.
“I’ve known these people a long time,” Adams said. “If they were not friends in high school, they have become so and they really enjoy seeing each other.”
Jean Cartwright lived in California for 29 years before she moved back to the area. She said she still has “a lot of California in my system.” She returned to New Albany 10 years ago.
“I’m still holding together pretty well,” she said with a laugh. She said she came to New Albany High School her junior year.
Pamplin, Murphy and Cartwright said today’s school, and its students, look nothing like they did in 1930.
“We still had to wear dresses to school,” Murphy said.
“The school doesn’t look like it did back then,” Pamplin said. “The young people today get to do things we didn’t get to do back then.”
Cartwright said today’s youth are so high-tech and don’t get enough physical activity.
“I don’t envy them,” she said. “We were so active. We were always climbing trees and doing things. We just didn’t sit and look at a screen.”
Murphy said she remembers as a student attending an afternoon tea at Rasmussen’s (former florist).
“We thought we were something,” she said.
The prom, she recalls, was in the school gymnasium.
Pamplin said she enjoyed sports, writing stories and was in the school’s booster club. She also remembers telling ghost stories in the graveyard at Halloween.
Cartwright says she still tries to stay active, performing in church events. She also said she plans on attending the class’ 79th class reunion next year.
“Anyway you subtract it, 1930 from 2008, it’s a lot of years,” she said. “It was a long time ago.”

SO YOU KNOW
The New Albany High School Class of 1930 had 140 graduates, but only six are still alive. Those six include Jane Graham Confer, Bernadine Deis, Marion Conner Hillen, Margaret Murphy, Sylvia Pamplin and Jean Cartwright. Murphy, Pamplin and Cartwright recently got together for their 78th class reunion.

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