Spring’s Celebration at Billingsley High School

At Billingsley High, in the ninth grade, the girls took two hours of Home Economics shortened to Homemake and the boys put in an equivalent time everyday in agricultural studies, shortened to Ag.

My favorite courses were the sciences and maths, but by far the most useful in day to day has proven to be – homemake.Â We cooked, sewed refinished and reupholstered furniture,Â made slipcovers, arranged flowers, learned proper table manners, how a lady was introduced, on what side of her escort she walked, proper attire for different events and how to dress and act on the first and future dates.

When spring arrived the Ag boys and homemake girls gave their annual banquet to showoff all their skills to parents and friends.

About a week before the event, the guys prepared a huge barbeque pit and secured about a cord of green hickory wood. Getting that green hickory to fire-up then burn low and maintaining it at a steady low burn, I am told, is an art form, and the only way to achieve expert pit barbeque.

Early on the morning thereof, the guys lite their hickory fire, the girls prepared several gross of chickens for barbequing, cooked side dishes, decorated the lunch room, and made sure the drinks and ice were ready.

The girls sported dresses and aprons they had made and the guys stood around their fire-pit (Neanderthals!) flexing their muscles and boasting.

It was a jolly-ole-time.

Below are pictures of my classmates and I at our spring bar-b-que in 1959.Â We were in charge of the ice and drinks, and of course we were clowning.