GRAVETTE — I felt honored when my sister Helen and her husband wanted to spend their 60th wedding anniversary with us. We took them out to the Red Lobster and had a nice few days together before they headed back to their home in Mississippi.

It’s interesting that the only years Helen and I attended Gravette public high school was in our 11th grades (not the same year). We were each 15 the year we went to the old school; it’s been torn down for many years.

When we make a trip back to Gravette, which we often have done since moving to Rogers nearly 45 years ago, we pass by the new Gravette stateof-the-art high school, with its impressive landscaping. How times have changed!

The old building was two-storied; the younger grades had met downstairs and the higher grades were upstairs, until new buildings opened for elementary grades. The steps we climbed were wooden and worn. I remember being in Mrs. Hicks’ typing and shorthand classes downstairs, first door on the left. Mrs. Lee taught me English and Speech upstairs.

Back when I attended high school I seldom did homework in the evenings. Not much was given, as kids still might have to do chores in rural areas. Any studying I did when I had study hall. It was like a library and we had to be quiet so it was quite conducive to doing lessons. Those were the days! Few codes or rules. Just respect teachers, no gum chewing and be quiet in study hall. Needless to say there was little pressure.

There was a small library in a room about the size ofa walk-in closet upstairs at the north end of the old high school. It had a large window and I remember sitting on the window ledge and watching or talking to those on the sidewalk below. I loved watching boys and girls “find each other”. A lot of romances were born there and some of those students are married to each other even today.

While Helen was here we reminisced about attending Gravette. Being a small school, we knew all of our classmates and most of the other students. Unlike Heritage High in Rogers, where my granddaughter will graduate this year, with hundreds of seniors. But peer pressure was still real, even in that small school. High school is so defining.

Growing up in Gravette is so defining. Like one senior said, in a recent Gravette News Herald, as he describes growing up in a small farming community, “.....what defines a small community. Building character, hard work and discipline.....this is what makes this town (Gravette) unique.”

I married Jerry after completing 11th grade. Helen lived with our maternal grandparents and finished 12th grade in Shelton, Washington. She married Bob Spears on February 25, 1950, 60 years ago. They are parents of two sons, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Pictured below on the right, Marie Wiggin Putman and husband, Jerry, enjoyed a 60th wedding anniversary meal at Red Lobster to honor Marie’s sister, Helen Wiggin Spears and husband Bob who came from Mississippi to celebrate their anniversary with us.

Marie Putman, one-time Gravette resident, shares her thoughts with our readers twice every month.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 03/17/2010