Mickey Jo Combs Smith

I will always treasure the friendships and memories I made while at Jenkins High School. I am retired and feel fortunate I had a wonderful nursing carreer of 41 years. Prior to my retirement, I was the Director of Pediatrics for the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Although I am retired I still keep up to date and remain involved in nursing issues. My interests are golf, bridge, oil painting and taking classes as a Donovan Scholar at the University of Kentucky. Through the Donovan Program at Uk, I had my first book published in 2008. It is about growing up in Eastern Kentucky. I have always been proud to say "I graduated from Jenkins High School".

There were several mischevious boys from McRoberts including Tom Wright, Jim Scott, Nicky Dann, Gary Harrison, Burt Brashear, Jim Cannon, Neal Yonts and Jim Spears. Sometimes they would tell us "don't get up early in the morning the bus is gonna be late". They would then drain the gas tank or do something so the bus wouldn't start. Once they put a potato in the tail pipe. I remember when the bus would stop at the Neon traffic light--the boys would ask us to stand up and then they would open the back door and jump out so they would be late for school. Sometimes a neighbor would come along and pick them up and they would get to school before the bus arrived (when this happened they were teased all day). I remember having seat assignments on the school bus (three to a seat and if your name was in the middle you had to sit in the middle of the seat). I remember riding the bus home in the afternoon and the boys opeining the emergency door on the back of the bus.

I remember the hot dogs and cherry cokes from the Cavalier Drug Store.