As the saying goes, “All I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten.”
For one group of students attending Union Elementary School in the 1970s, the most important lesson they learned was friendship.
All grown up now, they’ve maintained contact over more than 50 years. Last weekend, about 20 of them came together to reminisce and catch up during a unique kind of reunion.
“It’s just a really caring group of kids. I don’t what it is, why we were special. But we were like family,” said Lisa Timson, a member of the class who now lives in Dallas, Texas.
Members of Mrs. Scott’s kindergarten class of 1971 have maintained contact after all these years, reconnecting through social media and staying friends through the highs and lows of life. Many of them still live in Johnson County; others live as far away as Texas and Florida.
After one of their classmates, Susan (Reynolds) Jarrett, died earlier this year, they felt it was time to have a physical reunion once again.
“We’ve all gone our own ways, but we’ve remained friends. We were just kids growing up in a farm community,” said Angie Wyrick, a member of the class.
Sitting inside Franklin’s Madison & Main Market Cafe, the happy chatter of reminiscing bounced around their long table. A small group of classmates, some of whom had traveled in early for the weekend reunion, shared their memories of their kindergarten year.
Time had blurred some of the details of those memories, yet other aspects remained crystal clear. They remembered going into their cubicles, grabbing their rolled-up mats and pillows and laying down for a nap each day. The cafeteria food was the best they’d ever had, nearly everyone agreed.
For Kelly Writt-Cooper, she recalled a traumatizing show-and-tell session.
“I remember one time, Susan, she brought a snake for show-and-tell. It terrified me — I remember that,” she said.
They still remembered their teacher, Emma Jean Scott, fondly. Thinking back, they remembered how gentle and caring she was, even if they unknowingly chased her away.
“Poor Mrs. Scott — that was the only year she taught kindergarten. We must have done her in,” Timson said with a laugh.
The connection the group and their other classmates share stems from the unique nature of Union Elementary School, they say. Situated out in the farmland of western Johnson County, with an address in Bargersville, it’s the only school in Franklin’s district so far out of the city.
Students at the school came from the surrounding farms in the 1970s.
“We were the country grade school. That’s what our common bond was — we all lived in the country, and rarely came to town,” Writt-Cooper said. “We didn’t know anything about city life.”
After kindergarten, most of the classmates followed each other through the ensuing grades. They went through elementary school together, then intermediate and middle school, before graduating high school in 1983.
As adults, many of them drifted apart. People went to different colleges, started different jobs and in some cases moved around the country.
Social media brought them back together.
“We mostly stayed in touch through Facebook,” Martindale said.
The more they caught up, the more they reignited the desire to gather as a group. In 2010, a small group came back to Franklin for a mini-reunion. They were even able to visit Union and walk the halls they remembered, finding themselves on class photos hanging on the wall and peeking into the classrooms.
“Union looks the same — little, though,” Writt-Cooper said. “It used to seem huge.”
As an added surprise, they found that Scott was still alive, and invited her to join.
“She said she remembered things about us and about our class, even though it was so long ago,” Timson said. “She was a very sweet lady.”
The impetus for this recent reunion was more somber. When the class learned of the death of Jarrett, who died in March of cancer, they were compelled to gather again in her honor.
“We started a message chain, and everyone kept joining in. We realized we needed to get in touch again,” Martindale said.
Over the weekend of July 28 to 30, the class once again got together for a fun weekend. Class member Tracy Mabry offered to host the group at his house for a cookout, bonfire and more. Earlier in the day, they planned a “Road Rules” style rally — a scavenger hunt taking them all over the county.
Most of the class members were able to make it —turning it into an incredibly special weekend.
“We got in touch with almost everybody, and then some of the other kids who were in the first and second grade, we tracked them down and they came too,” Timson said. “We’re really blessed to be able to have this relationship. I call them family, I call them friends. We’re blessed to have this.”
