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Writer's pictureCaitlin Lewis

The Laurel High Lunch Bunch


(Front row, from left): Sharon Watts, Susan Brady, Shirley Ross Christman, Pat Bolton Starliper, and Cheryl Maynard Linzey. (Back row): Linda Mitchell Manriquez, Jeanne Bond, Harriet Mayhugh Maginnis, Linda Garrison Shearer, Donna Miles Quill Helms, Janet Marton Willis, and Barbara Harrison. (Photo courtesy of Janet Willis)

Until two years ago, Janet Willis lived her entire life in Laurel. After moving to Florida, Willis now says that the one thing she misses the most are her childhood friends. Her friends, it seems, missed each other as well. On July 31, several of them gathered from all over the United States for a reunion in Sykesville, MD. All those in attendance graduated from Laurel High School during the 1960s.


This was not the first time these graduates from the old Laurel High School (what is now the Boys and Girls Club at 701 Montgomery Street) traveled long distances to see each other. At the 40-year reunion of the class of 1963, several alumni decided to gather regularly in various locations. The first group trip was in 2004 to Hawaii. Later trips included San Antonio, Santa Monica, and Connecticut. The rule was that if someone went on a trip, that person had a voice in deciding the destination of the next trip.


But trips to exciting locations were not the only way alumni reconnected. Willis organized a group of local alumni that met once a month for lunch. They called themselves “The Lunch Bunch.” After Willis moved to Florida, Judy Holter Pruitt organized the monthly gatherings for alumni still in the Laurel area. Holter Pruitt was also responsible for handling the details of the July gathering in Sykesville.


Willis was the last of her high school friends to move out of Laurel. After settling into central Florida, she decided to plan a reunion with her old friends from Laurel, so she set the date for the gathering and invited others from her high school class to attend.


After some difficulties in finding a suitable location in Laurel, Willis and Pruitt chose E. W. Becks in Sykesville. Alumni traveled from the west coast (Susan Brady came from Oregon and Darlene Chaney from California) to the southwest (Linda Garrison Shearer came from Texas) to the southeast (Margie Johnson Broughton, along with Willis, traveled from Florida, and Shirley Ross Christmas came from Georgia) to the northeast (Eileen Mobley Fitzgerald came from Pennsylvania). Willis and those that traveled longer distances stayed at a local hotel for the following three days after the lunch and continued visiting with each other.


Reflecting on the gift of her upbringing in Laurel, Willis said, “Those of us born and raised in Laurel went to school with the same people for twelve years. It’s a feeling that kids nowadays will never know.” She pointed out that her teachers were also her neighbors and that, although a few other children came and left the school district, a large core group of them stayed in the same schools together through elementary, middle, and high school—a reality less and less common in our modern, transient society.


Willis said that when they are all together, they mostly discuss their memories of life together in Laurel. Grandchildren, she added, also occasionally come up in conversation.


Despite all the careful preparation, five alumni who were planning on attending the lunch in Sykesville were at the last minute unable to come. Willis said that she was asked to arrange another lunch reunion next year. She stressed that it was important for them to gather because their ages range from 79 to 82. Such a gathering might be the last time some of them see each other and share memories of growing up together in Laurel. As Willis said, “It makes your heart swell when you get back together with people you’ve known your whole life.”


 

Caitlin Lewis holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Covenant College. She worked as a high school English teacher both in the U.S. and Greece, but currently works at home raising her four children and writing her column.

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