More than 50 years have passed since 11 classmates walked the halls of Wrightsville Beach School together, but during a Sept. 19 reunion, they all giggled and gushed like kids again.
Jean Thompson Pearce, who organized the reunion through Facebook, said the group enjoys a special bond from the close-knit community they shared while growing up at Wrightsville Beach.
“We spent six years together in elementary school, and we all walked to school and spent the night with one another. We all played together, and I guess we just stuck like glue,” Pearce said.
Many of the classmates had only seen one another a few times since sixth grade, if at all. When Pearce created the Facebook group in April and invited every classmate she could find to see if anyone wanted to meet for a reunion, she was surprised by the response.
“They jumped on it like flies,” Pearce said.
Sixteen people responded. The group first met at Oceanic Restaurant in July. A third get-together around Christmas is in the works. Pearce said she would like to get permission from New Hanover County Schools to hold the next meeting at Wrightsville Beach School, where the group could try to recreate old classroom photographs.
“I would love to see how many of us could still squeeze into those desks,” Pearce said.
For Pat Robinson Higgins, the reunions offer a chance to reconnect with long-lost friends. Higgins felt isolated from the people and place of her childhood after her family moved off the island when she was 12 years old.
“I lost a lot when I left the beach. I lost my friends and the home I grew up in and the lifestyle I was used to. But now I feel like I got a little of it back. I got some of my childhood back,” Higgins said.
Some, like Jay Foreman and Wayne Sutton, said they instantly recognized classmates after more than 50 years apart.
“I knew who everybody was. We were 10, 11 years old last time I saw them, but still, I guess we haven’t changed that much,” Sutton said.
For John Sawyer and Bern Coulter, it took a moment to recognize old friends.
“Because I hadn’t seen a lot of them for such a long time, I might not have recognized their faces, but as soon as I saw their mannerisms or heard their voice, I knew,” Coulter said.
Seeing familiar faces for the first time in years brought up old memories of school days on the island. John Sawyer, whose father Bob Sawyer served as mayor of Wrightsville Beach from 1975 to 1981, remembers racing the school bus home with Larry Wessell.
“Larry and I would leave our book bags on the bus, and then we would run from the school to our houses and try to beat the bus. We would wait at the bus stop to get our bags off the bus,” Sawyer said. “Larry lived farther away, so he deserves all the credit.”
Sawyer’s family lived on Oceanic Street; Wessell’s family lived on Atlanta Street.
Linda Balk Skipper lived on Water Street. The bus headed to the north end after school before looping around to drop off kids who lived on the south end. Every day on the way to the north end, the bus driver dropped off Skipper at Newell’s (now Wings), where Ms. Newell had candy waiting. The bus picked up Skipper again on its way to the south end.
Many people doubted whether the group would have reassembled without Facebook.
“Social media made this possible. It’s made it really easy to find people,” Pearce said.
Beyond setting up times and locations for meetings, the old classmates also share pictures and life updates through the private Facebook group. Donna Plunkett Waggett said she is grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the lives of old friends.
“Facebook opened a world to us. We can share our grandchildren. I love to get up in the morning and see who’s got the grandchildren today, who’s celebrating a birthday or going on vacation,” Waggett said.
While the group is meeting every few months now, Pearce said reunions will likely taper off into annual or biannual gatherings. But for now, everyone is still riding on a wave of excitement.
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