Our 50th high school reunion

I was invited to attend the 50th high school reunion by my cousin, Jack Brummett, a fellow Air Force retiree. During my short time at Jenkins High School, I did not know Jack was my cousin.

I was one of the three reunion members to come from California. I would have been in the 1948 graduating class.

I had left Jenkins during Christmas break in 1945, was sworn into the Army Air Corps on Jan. 1, 1946 at Fort Meade, Md.

I received my GED from the military. There were six young boys who wanted to fly, and I was the only one who ended up flying.

I read about all the happy memories the students had. I felt somewhat sad for missing out on all those good times. I met some of those students while they were in the military.

Rodney Gallion, my best friend from Joe’s Branch, was a military policeman at Parks Air Force Base in California, and did not like his job. He asked me to get him in the education field. I did as he asked, where he worked for the next 22 years. Bethaleen Bowers, our classmate he married, played a lot of Bingo at the NCO Club with my wife, Estelle.

Donn Croley worked for me a couple of days at Sampson Air Base in New York. I asked him to let me get him the school or a job he wanted in the Air Force. He wanted to stay with his flight, and was killed in Korea a short time later.

Donn was with George Hay Cline and me when we were caught in Jenkins Lake naked by the cops after football practice. Scared me half to death.

I ran into Red Mullins of Burdine in Europe.

Burdine and Jenkins had some beautiful ladies, but I was so darn shy I could not talk to them. That was my loss.

Contributing writer Everett Vanover lives in Fairfield, Calif.