By T. Scott Boatright
There is an age-old saying that goes — a moment lasts for seconds, but memories last forever.
The recent successes Ruston High School has celebrated, in both athletics and academics, has rekindled, or even ignited, a sense of nostalgia for much of the RHS alumni base.
And to that end the RHS Classes of 1963 and 1979 have teamed up to make that nostalgia and sense of history even more impactful in strengthening all the memories that have created those feelings, past and present.
So those two classes have started a push to reorganize and revitalize the current teacher’s lounge at RHS that was the school library when the Class of 1963 were Bearcats and the Resume’ yearbook from when the Class of 1979 was still in school.
The current RHS library was built in the early ‘70s when the new gym was built.
There is quite a bit of memorabilia that has been collected and resides in the room but hasn’t been organized, which is why the RHS Classes 1963 and 1979 have decided it’s time for a positive change in the teacher’s lounge.
Jack Thigpen graduated with the RHS Class of 1963 and is part of the team working to make that happen.
“We don’t really have a plan of what we want or need to do,” Thigpen said. “We just thought it needed to be done. It started back with the Ruston Alumni Association back a number of years ago. They had the idea of collecting memorabilia and that kind of thing.
“Willie Green was the first president of the Ruston Alumni Association and kind of got it started. Then when I got involved with the Ruston Alumni Association getting close to 20 years ago now, this was already sort of kicked off. The thought and plans had been started. So we made a big push to get memorabilia again. We didn’t try to get any money, just memorabilia.”
And memorabilia was collected, but remains somewhat haphazardly scattered throughout the room.
“There were several people that said they would undertake the job of organizing the memorabilia and labeling it and all, but they never got it done,” Thigpen said. “It just went on like that with stuff just piling in, but no organizing getting done. It was just stuck in (the room). It wasn’t labeled, or organized or anything.
“So when my class had its reunion in September, several of us toured the school and we came up here and it was even worse than it is now. Somebody’s done a little work since we came up here in September, but as a committee we decided and recently told ({RHS President) Dan Gressett that was what we’d like to do. And he told us his wife Jamie, who isn’t a Ruston High graduate but is very involved with everything around here, would like to get involved and do it.”
Thigpen envisions a room that shows the history of Ruston High, including facts that those younger than the Class of 1963 might not realize, such as Ruston’s original school colors being maroon and white.
“It changed from maroon to red I think in 1961,” said Allen Tuten, another member of the RHS Class of 1963. “It was between our sophomore and junior year. The cheerleaders used to wrap the goalposts with maroon crepe paper football games but got to a point where they couldn’t find maroon crepe paper, so the color was changed to red so they could continue the tradition of wrapping the goalposts.”
To help tell that tale, two of Thigpen’s letterman’s jackets now reside in the RHS teacher’s lounge.
“That’s my old letter jacket in maroon and that one’s my old letter jacket in red,” Thigpen said, pointing to a pair of jackets hanging near each other on the old library bookcases.
Marybelle Tuten, a 1963 RHS graduate, said upgrading the current purpose for the teacher’s lounge was also part of the desire to upgrade the room.
“What we want to do is update the teacher’s lounge,” she said. “We came up here last fall and realized that yes, it needs some attention. To me, this is just not a good enough representation of all the good stuff that’s going on at Ruston High School right now,
“So we sent an email out to our classmates trying to get donations coming in.”
And as the Class of 1963 was working toward making that happen, the Class of 1979 by chance became involved, paving the way for the team-up to upgrade the room.
“It wasn’t too long ago that (RHS Principal Dan Gressett) called me and said there was another group (the RHS Class of ‘79 and gave me (1079 RHS graduate Daphne Taylor’s) name and number and we ended up getting in contact with each other,” Thigpen said.
“So the Class of ‘63 wants to turn it over to them and let them do the work, we just want to give them his donation from our class.”
And last Thursday, members of the two classes met in the RHS teacher’s lounge where the Class of 1963 presented that donation raised from leftover reunion funds and donations received.
Taylor echoed Marybelle Tuten’s feelings that making a more comfortable lounge for RHS teachers was another key reason for wanting to fix up the room.
“It’s more about organizing it and getting it looking in a nice manor — getting new tables and furniture, and a refrigerator and getting the kitchen in better shape as well,” Taylor said. “We need to reframe pictures and that kind of thing.”
Allen Tuten said that hopes are that if the existing memorabilia gets organized and the room looks better, more memorabilia will come in, something Class of 1961 classmate John Richmond agreed with.
“There’s probably a lot of people like me who have stuff like a letterman’s jacket or a trophy or other memorabilia like that and they really don’t know what to do with it,” John Richmond said.
Thigpen stressed that the combined group doesn’t want the room to only be themed around RHS athletics.
“We don’t want this to be only an athletic memorabilia room,” Thigpen said. “We want to be about Ruston High — academic medals, awards and pictures of things like projects student councils have done during their years here.
“Athletics would naturally be a part of it, but there’s a lot of good people who did a lot of good things as students here and were not athletes. They deserve to be represented here, too. So we want to celebrate all the successes involving RHS.”
Jamie Gressett, who teaches English at RHS, said linking past and present is part of her desire to join in on the efforts.
“I just love the history of this school,” Jamie Gressett said. “I love this room and all the memorabilia here, so I’d love to be involved in helping clean it up and trying to modernize things, adding some of the things the high school has done recently as well as in the past.
“The relationships between the teachers, students and alumni here reminds me of where I grew up in Doyline. It’s about all relationships —- letting people know how it used to be and the way we’re moving forward toward the future.”
Anyone wishing to donate money or memorabilia for the project can contact Taylor at dtaylor@origin.bank.
