In the Fifties with a rockin' piano Fats Domino came out of New Orleans to become one of rock-and-roll's earliest and best stars. With 110 million record sales to his credit, Fats out sold every Fifties rock and and roll pioneer except Elvis Presley.

The Class of '59

Looking through the yearbook
Seeing all the sweet faces there
Our futures lay before us then
Like slates all clean and bare

Dreaming of long and happy lives
As young folks so often do
Making plans that we'd fulfill
Assuming they would all come true

Saddle shoes, poodle skirts and pony tails
Cute boys with sideburns and ducktail hair
Jitterbugging at the local hangout
Ordering cheeseburgers and milkshakes there



Riding the bus to basketball games
At John's Creek and other schools around
Cheerleaders cheering as we sang along
My mind still rings at that happy sound

The senior prom and graduation day
Happy times from a long-ago past
Taking a lot of things for granted then
Not knowing we'd grow old so fast

Some of us stayed in our birthplaces
While many of us moved away
Trying to carve out a better life
Far from a poor Appalachian state



When jobs were plentiful up North
Detroit and Akron were the places to go
But we always missed our Kentucky homes
And all the ones we used to know

There are some I'm still in touch with
And others who sadly died young
How I'd love to see them all again
And reminisce about old-time fun

Yesteryear drifts through my heart
Days when we were young and fine
Replaying my fondest memories of
The class of fifty-nine


Kathleen McCoy Eldridge
©November 17, 2007
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