Published: July 12, 2008 11:43 pm      

Rams of all generations together

First year for mass reunion

RACELAND — There was a whole lot of shaking going on at Raceland-Worthington High School Saturday.

Hand shaking, that is, as old friends found each other, some of them for the first time in decades.

It was the first-ever Ram Jam, a sort of mega-reunion for anyone and everyone who ever attended or worked at one of the Raceland-Worthington schools.

The brainchild of 1968 graduate Terry Stevens, the Ram Jam also commemorates the 80th anniversary of the campus. Although an afternoon thunderstorm wrought havoc on outdoor games and craft booths, alumni retreated to the old gym to reminisce and tell tall tales.

“Sharing some memories, that’s what it’s all about,” Stevens said.

Phillip McCulley, for instance, came in from Seattle and drove down from Delaware, Ohio, with his sister, Helen Shumate, a 1957 graduate. McCulley, class of ’61, had just attended his own class reunion and stuck around for the big get-together.

He had just as much fun at the big bash, he said. “A lot of fun, a lot of laughs. You get to meet more people and see who’s still around.”

Part of the fun was trying to tell who is who after a few decades.

“I don’t know half of them when I see them,” said Connie (Davis) Stone, class of ’58.

“We should all have name tags. Who are all these old people?” asked Nancy Adkins, class of ’55.

Lynn Colegrove, who graduated in 1978, said some of the younger people she was seeing had been students of hers. She is a teacher at Worthington Elementary.

Colegrove and her husband Kevin — he is a Russell graduate — were at the event with her parents, Gary and Judy Burroughs. They also are Raceland alumni.

Stevens said he hoped the event would draw as many as 1,000 to hear music from the bluegrass band Bottomline, the rock band Youngblood and country music singer Rachel Hannah.

A $3 entrance donation was to help support a walk of fame at the high school, spotlighting Raceland grads who have contributed to their communities.