Terrebonne High School Aerial Views

1968

2016

     Where once stood tall stalks of sugar cane gently swaying in the southerly winds of summer and autumn there now stand modest homes, a crisscross network of concrete streets and the expanse of a shopping center that has replaced the once familiar neighborhood country store.   Where once stood open land there now runs a four lane thoroughfare that spans the city that was once a town not so long ago.   Industry has all but replaced the once agricultural centered economy and people have prospered.

      Terrebonne High School once stood on the edge of  the town of Houma it now occupies a central place in the ever expanding city that seemed a bit daunting to view after being away for so many years.  I remember a time when Hollywood road was a sparsely traveled street on the outskirts of town.  Now it's practically a main thoroughfare linking the subdivisions that grew in the cane fields to the city.  

      When I came back to see old friends and acquaintances for the 50th reunion of the Class of 1966, I decided not to visit the old haunts or walk the old streets.  I preferred instead to rely on the vision in my mind's eye of how they once were.  A simple comparison of the aerial views from 1968 and now was sufficient to convince me that it was better that way. 

      Even THS had changed.  The picture of now revealed tennis courts, a new library and an athletic field house that had not existed in our day.  Even the marble tiger that once stood in the center of the traffic circle had been moved indoors to keep it away from vandals.  The passage of time was slow and gradual for those who stayed to witness these changes as they occurred.  But, for those of us who migrated to other areas, the changes were quite stark and dramatic.  It was best to keep the experience confined to a small area, even though we knew many other changes had occurred. 

     Yet, even though places have changed the classmates we knew were still the same.  Oh, they may have put on a little weight, lost a little hair and walked a little slower, perhaps; but it was no more than a slight interruption of time to be caught up with in the exchange of pictures and family tales.   The gathering is now over and each has parted to return to the lives since built.  Still, a part of the mind lingers on the gathering where old times were remembered, old songs were played and new memories were created.