Panther memories

This Saturday Pine Prairie High alumni will return to their alma mater for the one night out of the year that is dedicated to providing PPHS graduates with the feeling of being proud of the place they call home.
For Verna Chaney Campbell, a 1939 graduate of PPHS, the alumni banquet that takes place before the homecoming ceremony is an important event that she won’t miss.
Former Pine Prairie Elementary Principal Noelie McDaniel said, “Mrs. Verna Campbell never missed one [alumni banquet].” McDaniel was a part of making sure that the homecoming banquet was held years ago and she recalled, “I remember holding an office and the officers all sat facing the alumni during the banquet. She [Campbell] was always there sitting with her sisters.”
After so many years, what has made Campbell continue to come home, though?
Campbell said, “I always went to the banquet because I enjoyed getting to see my classmates.”
Although Campbell has remained living in the Pine Prairie area for the entirety of her life, not all of her classmates stayed around. “I was always able to catch up with people that I hadn’t seen in a while and people that had moved away at the banquet.”
Today however, Campbell is one of the only two graduates from PPHS’s 1939 graduating class still living. Getting to see her classmates is no longer what brings Campbell to the banquet. “Now, when I go to homecoming I just think about how different things are.” Campbell then pointed at a picture of the old Pine Prairie High building that is no longer standing and said, “The auditorium that I graduated in was in the back of this building. It sure has changed a lot.”
Campbell’s eyes then gazed down at the picture of the old gym that homecoming use to be held in at PPHS. Campbell then shared a story about the PPHS men’s basketball team that she remembered.
Campbell said, “I can remember when T-Bone Glaze, Bob McDaniel, Herbert McDaniel, SR Cole, and Wade Ardoin were on the basketball team. Because my family lived so far out, I didn’t get to go to that many basketball games but I do remember one time their basketball team went to play at the fair in Eunice. We got to go to that one and they were playing on a dirt court. There wasn’t any cement. I can still see that dust just a flying everywhere and them playing that ole basketball. They won that tournament anyway, even with the dirt court.”
Now that almost all of her classmates are gone, the alumni banquet has become something that Campbell is able to use to jog her memory. “My only classmate living is Ruby Welch Lotte but she doesn’t come to the banquet so now being at the banquet just reminds me of my time there. I think about my best friend Ruby Obanion Fontenot. She was two months older than me and we did everything together. We graduated together from Pine and stayed best friends even after school.”
She remembered funny moments she experienced with Fontenot on their bus rides as children from Beaver Creek to PPHS. While laughing, Campbell said, “We road this old old bus and the roads were dirt, not gravel. They were literally dirt and when it would rain our bus was always getting bogged down. We would have to sit out there and just wait for someone to come get the bus out. Every time it happened us kids on the bus would just laugh and laugh. When we would finally make it to school, we would have tell everyone the bus made us late again.”
Being reminded of her time as a young girl attending school in the red brick two story schoolhouse that once stood where PPHS’s newer school is located today, is enough to make Campbell continue to attend her alma mater’s alumni banquet and homecoming.
Campbell said, “My Lord has already blessed me with so much in these 94-years that I have lived, and as long as he allows me to attend the alumni banquet I will.”
The PPHS alumni banquet will begin with registration at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 21. Following registration, dinner will be served to all alumni before heading over to the gym where the homecoming ceremony and basketball game will be held beginning at 6:30.