They were invited, the classes Pike County High School classes of 1959, 60, 61 and 62.

And they came with gray hair, no hair, wrinkles, potbellies and all.

But none of that mattered because hearts never grow old.

Rayvon Graham, Class of 59, and Steve Carter, Class of 62, hosted the “mega lunch” Tuesday at Lake Simmie and invited other classes of  “our era” as well.

Joe Senn described the 1950s and early 1960s as “the best of times.”

“We lived in the Glory Days of America,” he said. “Life will never again be as good as it was then.”

Sara Bowden was the only teacher in attendance and, laughingly, said she is about the only one still living. She agreed with Senn that those days were the best of times.

“That was a different era,” Bowden said. “It was easier to teach. The discipline was easier because all teachers had to do was tell the parents and they took care of the discipline.

“Back then, children enjoyed being together. They bonded. Times were safe. Every boy in school had a knife in his pocket because that’s what boys did.

“Every morning, we had the Pledge of Allegiance to our country’s flag. We read the Bible and sang songs. We bonded.”

Bowden said back then few students had access to a vehicle and most of them had after-school jobs.

“There weren’t many temptations to lead students down the wrong path,” she said. “It was easier to be a teenager during that era. It’s sad to me that children today will never experience those fun and leisure times.”

Although it’s impossible to turn back the clock, Steve Carter said it is possible to look back and enjoy the memories of the good ol’ days.

“These four classes meet for lunch on a regular basis and Rayvon and I thought it would be fun for all of us to get together,” Carter said. “We are proud that members of other classes came. It was just good to get together because we’re all from the same era.”

The schoolmates went from table to table sharing stories of their school days. Discipline and the need for it topped many conversations.

And, the teacher who swung the “meanest” paddle was “Mr. Kyle” Roberson.

“When you watched Mr. Kyle give a paddling, you knew you didn’t want one,” Carter said, laughing. “He would hit you so hard your feet would come up off the floor.”

Sanford Hussey said Principal Vanderford came in a close second to Roberson.

“Several of us, David Richardson, Jimmy Helms and J.D. Calhoun, skipped school and went up to Banks,” Hussey said. “What was funny about that is that we were all from Banks so we hadn’t gone anywhere but home.”

The hooky players got a licking with a paddle with three holes in it, “blister holes,” Hussey said laughing.

Broshie Galloway, Class of 1951, remembered the day Bobby Johnson brought moonshine to school in a medicine bottle.

“We were just in the ninth grade and were new to high school,” he said. “We were in the library and sitting at a big, long table. Bobby was passing the ‘medicine’ bottle around and each one us would stick our tongue to it. Some way some of the moonshine got spilled on the table and Mrs. Steele, the principal’s wife and the librarian, got to sniffing around. She walked around the library with her nose to the ceiling. We were scared little boys but I guess Mrs. Steele had never smelled moonshine and didn’t know what she was sniffing. We were thankful the windows were open and the smell could drift out and we could live a little longer.”

Gail Copeland remembered girls, “not me,” drag racing in a blue Cadillac convertible from the Brundidge City Cemetery to the Pronto road.

“The same crew, not me, skipped school and went to Montgomery to WBAM Radio and requested a song for ‘Bulldog Wilkes,’ the school principal. When the crew got back to the ‘hotel,’ Bulldog Wilkes was there waiting for them.”

Judy Harden said the girls in her class had a spend-the-night party at Preacher Lyon’s house in downtown Brundidge. “We slipped out during the night and had to slip back in because we had nowhere to go,” she said, laughing.

There were stories of slipping in the unfenced city swimming pool at night and riding bicycles off the diving, of climbing the water tank on the hill and standing around the Shell station pulling Coca-Bottles from the empties’ rack and taking bets on which bottle came from the longest distance.

Senn said back then, the name of the town where the bottles were made was stamped on the bottom of the bottles, thus a reason to bet.

Skeeter Outlaw remembered double-dog daring the boys to steal wieners out of the refrigerator at the home economics building, just to make them do it.

An anonymous memory was of a six-pack of short County Clubs from Sam’s Place. The passion pit (drive-in movie) and two speed cars (wide open and stop) with glass-packs, fender skirts, fuzzy mirror dice and highway patrolmen were hot topics of conversation.

Rayvon Graham said skipping school was a daring thing to do.

“When we were going to skip school, we just never checked in and the teachers thought we were absent. We made sure to be back in time to catch the three o’clock school bus home.”

Graham and several other daredevils skipped school one day and went to Central High School in Phenix City to check out the female population.

“On the way home, we got stopped by the highway patrol and got a ticket,” he said. “So, then we had to skip school again and go back to Phenix City to pay the ticket so our parents wouldn’t know.”

Kenneth “Snake” Flowers said muscle car boys kept Kemper Johnston’s motor repair shop in business.

“We’d get glass packs put on our cars one week, get a ticket on the weekend and have to get the glass pack taken off the next week,” he said, laughing.

All of the schoolmates and Mrs. Bowden agreed that glass packs, drag racing and six-packs of Country Club were about all the “meanness” kids got into back during the Glory Day of Youth.

“It really was the best of times and they all had a good time today remembering the good times with their good friends,” Bowden said. “Lawrence (Class of 1945) and I were honored to share this time with them.”

No one asked and Bowden didn’t say to which “Class of” she belonged. There are just some things students don’t ask teachers. They learned well.