I don’t remember when I first met Betsy. We were in homeroom together because it was alphabetical. And we sat together in a few classes for the same reason. Betsy and I probably didn’t begin hanging out with each other until sometime around our junior year when we discovered we had shared interests. In our senior year, we still had homeroom together. We also both had study hall for first period. Back then, the school was so overcrowded there was no place for a study hall classroom. We were expected to just wander around. I thought that was normal for the local schools. Until I went to Enloe High School for whatever reason one day and was immediately asked to leave when I was roaming the halls during class. They had study hall classrooms. I volunteered to raise and lower the flag in front of the school every day. You didn’t have to stay in homeroom and you left the last class of the day fifteen minutes early. Win, win. Boy Scouts taught me well when it came to flag etiquette and since it took two, I asked Betsy if she’d like to help me in the mornings. Every morning of our senior year, Betsy and I would go to the office and retrieve the flag. We would raise the flag and then head straight to the parking lot and her little, red, VW Beetle until it was time for second period. Early on, we stopped going to homeroom completely. We told the homeroom teacher that if one of us was absent the other would let her know and if the flag was flying we were both “present.” We’d sit in her car and talk about everything and nothing. It was the best part of my school day. After high school, she went to Carolina and I dabbled in other schools before I left for Watauga County. Cindy mentioned at one of the recent luncheons that she and Betsy hung out together when they were at UNC. Those are the stories I want to hear. Because imagining those two free and on their own on a college campus, in a college town, in the 70s…I know what I would have done if I was a couple of hot girls. I hope they had a strong enough moral compass—either way, I want to hear about it. I spent a lot of time with her sister Patty and her husband Jim, but Betsy wasn’t part of Mandell Lane and didn’t come around. I was shocked and saddened when I read that she had passed away so suddenly and so young. Such a sweet girl. Such a shame.
Derrick Boissiere
I don’t remember when I first met Betsy. We were in homeroom together because it was alphabetical. And we sat together in a few classes for the same reason.Betsy and I probably didn’t begin hanging out with each other until sometime around our junior year when we discovered we had shared interests.
In our senior year, we still had homeroom together. We also both had study hall for first period. Back then, the school was so overcrowded there was no place for a study hall classroom. We were expected to just wander around.
I thought that was normal for the local schools. Until I went to Enloe High School for whatever reason one day and was immediately asked to leave when I was roaming the halls during class. They had study hall classrooms.
I volunteered to raise and lower the flag in front of the school every day. You didn’t have to stay in homeroom and you left the last class of the day fifteen minutes early. Win, win.
Boy Scouts taught me well when it came to flag etiquette and since it took two, I asked Betsy if she’d like to help me in the mornings.
Every morning of our senior year, Betsy and I would go to the office and retrieve the flag. We would raise the flag and then head straight to the parking lot and her little, red, VW Beetle until it was time for second period.
Early on, we stopped going to homeroom completely. We told the homeroom teacher that if one of us was absent the other would let her know and if the flag was flying we were both “present.”
We’d sit in her car and talk about everything and nothing. It was the best part of my school day.
After high school, she went to Carolina and I dabbled in other schools before I left for Watauga County. Cindy mentioned at one of the recent luncheons that she and Betsy hung out together when they were at UNC. Those are the stories I want to hear. Because imagining those two free and on their own on a college campus, in a college town, in the 70s…I know what I would have done if I was a couple of hot girls. I hope they had a strong enough moral compass—either way, I want to hear about it.
I spent a lot of time with her sister Patty and her husband Jim, but Betsy wasn’t part of Mandell Lane and didn’t come around. I was shocked and saddened when I read that she had passed away so suddenly and so young. Such a sweet girl. Such a shame.