This site currently is a backup site for CHS54.COM.
Remember that IF in the future…..you can’t access this site at the CHS54.COM url……..it can be found HERE

CHS54.NET

-Management

Those of us who graduated in 1954 have so much to be thankful for. Not the least of which is that body piercings and tattoos were unheard of back then.

Well, some of the men returning from WW2 battlefronts did have them, but as a professor of mine once said, “A tattoo simply means that you’ve been drunk at least once in your life.”

Now, 55 years later, 24% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 50 have at least one tattoo.

According to what I read on the internet, Charlotte has 61 tattoo parlors!

Make sure you don’t accidentally wander into one of them or you might come out looking like this…….

That’s the way it’s shaping up. As we mentioned, Ellouise will be one of the storytelling artists at the National Storytellers Festival and more and more of our folks are planning on attending. So far Don and Letty Nance will attend and Betsy (Villas) White and a friend are going (As she mentions in her note below, Betsy’s husband Hank will be performing elsewhere that weekend.) I’m sure there will be more of us making the trip up to the scenic and cool Tennessee mountains for a “laugh a minute” good time.

If you’d like to attend, make plans now for the 37th National Storytelling Festival, October 2-4, 2009 in Jonesborough, Tennessee!

Oh, and to put “icing on the cake,” this years Festival is being sponsored by:

I got this nice note today from Betsy:

“Thank you for the web site! I love hearing about folks and what is going on in their lives. I, too, (along with a friend) am going to Jonesborough for the Storytelling Festival. I have been once before, and certainly have no intention of missing this year when Ellouise will “debut”. Looking forward to seeing Don Nance and his wife there. Any more classmates interested in having a mini-reunion in Jonesborough? The weekend is fabulous and gives me so much to chew on for months afterward.

The fun news in our family is the inauguration of my daughter-in-law, Janet Morgan Riggs, as the President of Gettysburg College on September 12th. She is the wife of my oldest son, Ed. Jan is an outstanding person in so many ways and we are all so excited and pleased that the College has recognized her abilities and her wisdom and her talents.

On that same weekend my husband, Hank, will be performing at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in a play called “Pills”. The play was written by a woman in my (very small) writing group and the music was written by another woman who lives in our area and teaches music at Moravian College.

It is a play about a nursing home and is funny and poignant. Hank will be on the road between Gettysburg and Philadelphia a lot that weekend. As always, things seem to come in bunches but I’m just happy that things keep rolling on!“

-Betsy

One of my favorite storytellers is our own Ellouise (Diggle) Schoeteller. She’s so good that the she does it professionally. She was recently interviewed by an internet radio station called Storyteller.net Amphitheater about what Ellouise calls, “The New Front Porch.”

Her interview is in 3 parts….and can be found at the bottom of THIS PAGE

If you haven’t heard, Ellouise has hit the big time. She’ll be performing at the National Storyteller’s Festival in Jonesborough, TN this Fall.

That National Festival is considered the Super Bowl of storytelling.

Just think, we knew her WHEN.

Again.

Rumor has it that Jimmies of Mint Hill, the Stork Club of Highway 51, is considering naming one of the dining rooms the “CHS54 LDL ROOM.”
This site will let you know if, and when it becomes official.

Meanwhile Jerry Gaudet continues to earn his exorbitant salary from this website by not only taking the usual still pictures of the event, but capturing the excitement on VIDEO!

Here is his report:

“We have persevered through the summer and held our 11th CHS’54 “LDL” today, and will continue on the second Tuesday of each month at Jimmies Restaurant in Mint Hill. 24 attended today and overall we have had 70 different people attend. There’s room for plenty more. Come when you can.

It was good that Shirley Maynor was able to attend and Peggy and Buck Anderson came down from (the cool mountains) Fletcher, NC to be with us.

As we tried to do a brief VIDEO clip for the web site, Karol Broadwell Welch’s husband, Bob, was picked to anchor our grouping and was asked to “go stand in the corner”. That’s just what Bob did.

Watch the video at the bottom of the page!

(Videography by Sylvia Brawley …Vic’s wife)

Congratulations to our friend and former principal, Dr. John Otts.

Jerry Gaudet reports:

Jennie Meador Forehand tells us of word from Betty Cunningham that our Central High School Principal, Dr. John Otts, will celebrate his 100th birthday on Friday, August 14.

Imagine having dealt with the likes of our class and still surviving to the age of 100! We heard from Betty at our 55th Anniversary Reunion that Dr. Otts was in “pretty good shape for his age”.

Want to send him a card? Send a card. Come on, send a card. Today.
Dr. John Otts
Azalea Hall – Highlands Farms
200 Tabernacle Rd
Black Mountain, NC 28711

Our President (of the Reunion Committee) Obie Oakley held a closed door meeting last week and declared that Grandmas Lye Soap was now the official soap of the CHS54 website. I’m happy to announce that the vote was unanimous!

Grandma’s Lye Soap holds a special place in our memories. Our parents and grandparents were very familiar with it. And I’m not sure, but I think my Mom used it occasionally on hard to clean items. My hands and ears come to mind. I’m sure my grandma in South Carolina (Pelzer) used it. I think she also made it.

We even SANG it. At least Johnny Stanley’s version of it.

There’s an old expression that goes, “You don’t want to know how they make sausage.”
Well, I think the same thing applies to Grandma’s Lye Soap.

But here’s the recipe anyway…in case you don’t have anything else to do this weekend:

“Before the mid 1800’s most Americans made their own soap. It was made from hog fat in the fall or from saved drippings from either beef or pork.
Though there is no medical evidence that old fashioned lye soap cures poison ivy, it is sometimes called poison ivy soap. It has also been claimed to cure dandruff, psoriasis, itchy skin, acne, eczema, bed bugs, poison oak, mosquito bites, mites and head lice.“

Thanks Obie. Keep up the good work. -Ed

Bob Ellis reports that Benny Cofer’s wife Xylda passed away.

This is from the Charlotte Observer of August 9, 2009

Xylda Cofer

TUCSON, AZ — Mrs. Cofer passed away August 4, 2009, at her home in Tucson, AZ. She was born August 23, 1938, in Kinston, NC to the late John Bryan and Ruth Bland. She attended Central High School in Charlotte, NC, where she was very active, well known and voted as Homecoming Queen and Most Popular for the class of ‘56. She married her junior high school sweetheart Benny C. Cofer July 13, 1958, in Raleigh, NC, and enjoyed 51 years of loving happiness

She enjoyed singing in a barbershop chorus in Raleigh, NC, and living and boating on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC. She retired as an Administrative Assistant, from Corning Glass Works in Raleigh, NC, and Stauffer Chemical Company in Anderson, SC. She retired early due to poor circulation, the beginnings of her struggle with strokes and dementia.

To the end she remained joyful and sunny, never losing one of the most beautiful smiles ever. She and her husband lived in the Carolinas before moving to live with daughter Lori in Tucson, AZ. Xylda is survived by Brothers Wilbur (Iris), and Jerry (Judy) Bland, daughters Lisa Belue and Lori Cofer, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Our deepest sympathy to Benny. -Ed

AGAIN!

The President of our reunion committee, Obie Oakley is the recipient of yet ANOTHER National award.

No, make that a GLOBAL award.

In addition to his full time job with our reunion committee, Obie is also the executive director of the Carolinas Freedom Foundation, which is a patriotic organization that honors our veterans, supports the troops and promotes patriotism. Obie received the Global Citizen Award at the World Affairs Council’s awards dinner where they honored the Carolinas Freedom Foundation.

Obie is shown here accepting the award and later posed with three star general, Lloyd Thomas who was one of the presenters.

Past recipients of the award include Dr. Billy Graham, Dean Rusk, Senator Dole, Hugh McColl, John Belk and General Hugh Shelton.

Congratulations Obie! You’re in good company!

1954

2009

Don and Letty Nance are enjoying cool (cold?) Alaska!

Incidentally, Don told me that he’s going to Jonesborough, TN again this year. The big Storyteller festival is held there each Fall. This festival is considered the “BIG TIME” for storytellers. And this year, our own Ellouise (Diggle) Shotteller has been invited to perform!
Don says we all ought to arrange for a bus and all go together to the Festival. He says it’s a laugh a minute!

Mitzi Minor Roper has escaped to the mountains; but not really to escape the heat. She has been doing what she loves best and that is taking care of the future Miss Charlotte of 2026; a beauty named Loren Jane who happens to be the grandchild of Miss Charlotte of 1958.