Tom Stargell

Of the kids that were going to be seniors that next year, I can think of four boys that just dropped out of school — just quit rather than go to Albemarle.  Now, four, that’s not a big number, but when you consider the fact that you’re talking about maybe, what, 18 students were going to be seniors?  And let’s say half of them were boys, so you’ve got nine, so now four becomes a pretty significant number.  Several of them dropped out to go in service or that sort of thing.  I mean, there’s a big difference between getting up in the morning and — well, one of my very good friends lived right up at the top of this hill.  She got up every morning 10 minutes before school started and made it to homeroom with time to spare.  Now you’re talking about riding a bus for an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Albemarle High School, maybe longer than that.  I don’t know how many buses they put out here and all that.  So it was a huge, huge upheaval for them, and I just thank the good Lord — not every day, but a significant number of days — that I didn’t have to do it because I don’t know whether I could have done that.  I’m not good with moving about and change, especially as a senior.  They were the ones that really caught it harder than anybody else.