School Story
Too many to list!!!! Stories began from the first days of my freshman year watching all of the students who came from Beckham Bates, Martha Jane Potter, Hemphill, and Fleming-Neon co-mingle and get to know each other, and continued all the way through the last day of our senior year when the final bell rang and everyone had that shell-shocked look in their eyes. It was as if we were slammed together one day, then in the blink of an eye, when we had fully formed as a unit, that final bell yanked us apart and sent us along our way. What we didn't understand then was how much of that "blink of an eye" shaped who we became.
We saw each other through victories, defeats, new relationships, tough break-ups, detentions, gossip, sleep-overs, practices, field trips, pranks, fights, study halls, birthdays, and overall just the common struggles of transitioning from being kids to facing the approaching "real world". Many will say you go to school to learn, and I agree 100% with that, but only a very small fraction of what we learned had to do with books, tests, and homework. I know each of us brought our own beliefs and parental guidance to school everyday, but we learned life lessons by all of those hours spent with classmates and teachers who thought and behaved differently than we did.
The cohesiveness and mixture of personalities at F-N was what I think set my high school experience apart from people graduating from other high schools. Whether you were a straight-laced member of the academic team, passionate athlete, teacher's pet, raucous band member, spunky cheerleader, or a proud hellion, we all knew each other so well that any socializing group you ran into in the hallway would likely be made up of several people from each group. Many people over the years have told me about their high schools being made up of cliques, and it made me realize what a unique experience I had at F-N. When you grow up with and get to know so much about the approximately 70 people you spend those four years with, the only clique you establish is your entire graduating class as one big clique. I think I can speak for my graduating class in saying we were a great example of "The whole being greater than the sum of the parts".
In no particular order, a quick list of my favorite stories (some of these, only those who were there will understand the reference): The Rock House Run, our class dominating the class vs. class competitions, 1991 Whitesburg and Evarts football games, 1990 Pikeville football game, all the J.V. football games, Robby Dale and the U-Haul trailer full of new lockers, basketball games at Mel's, Heather's, and Keith's, camping out, sneaking out, the band competition when the huge American Flag was jerked into the air and floated 50 yards dragging the flag guard members in tow, senior trip (especially Tim Hayes), junior year prom prince and princess, bleacher clearing fight with Phelps in 1990 football, practicing against the girls starting basketball team as freshmen (Ouch!!!), the threat of being thrown off the hill as a freshmen, the fight between the "heads" and the football players that thankfully never happened (tip my hat to Porky for negotiating a treaty there), and last, but not least, listening to and watching Josh's antics on a daily basis.
