A “last pass-thru” at Salem

Alumni and others are getting their last chance this afternoon to walk the hallways of the one remaining public school in downtown Salem.  It’s only a matter of days before the Tamassee-Salem Middle/High School closes for good and looks to the future as a charter school.  Today’s event, arranged by the Oconee School District, is not just a chance to see the school but it’s also serving as a reunion of sorts of some of the many people who went to school there.  Among those sharing with us their memories of the school were Bruce Rogers, 1963 class of Salem High School, and Gary Bryan, 2007 class of Tamassee-Salem High School.  Bryan said he owes a debt to the principal and faculty for helping him over some academic tough times and he said this, “My time here at Tamassee-Salem was great….Sure, we were a small school but, hey, we didn’t let that stop us from being all we could be.”  The school was too small to field a football team, but that didn’t stop it from producing great athletes such as the basketball star Randy Talley and Ralph Palmer, who excelled at a couple of sports.  Palmer, an Atlanta resident, went to school in Salem, played sports there, and skipped across the county to play football at Seneca High.