The Merger Added to website June 5, 2015   Background:  When my class graduated from Richwood High School in the spring of 1965, it was the end of an era in more ways than one.  Though the building would remain in use, the Richwood Tigers would roar no more. We had called RHS home for the past four years.  However, as of that fall, our school was scheduled to combine with neighboring Byhalia, forming a single consolidated school district for the entire northern third of Union County.  Our building would henceforth be known as North Union High School, and our teams would be known as the Wildcats. Before they lost their separate identities, the Richwood and Byhalia newspaper staffs got together to publish a joint review called The Merger in May of 1965. My classmate Roxye Carter (Cieply), seen here in yearbook pictures as a freshman and as a senior, contributed the following article.   Good-bye, Tigertown!  We really hate to leave, but the time is drawing near when we will walk through your hallways no more. We shall never forget the treasured moments of our high school days. When we were freshmen, we wandered through your halls with a class schedule in one hand and a student handbook in the other.  We tried so hard to do everything right, because we knew that the upper classmen were watching us with amusement in their eyes.

There seemed to be an endless number of rooms, and scores of things for us to do:  football, basketball, and track for the boys; cheerleading, queens, courts, and boys for the girls. And, in the process, we were to gain more knowledge than we could imagine.  The opportunities of high school became challenges to us. In spite of the confusion, our freshman year was over soon, and we were sophomores at last. We knew which room was where, and you, Tigertown, didn’t seem so big anymore.  Latin Club, F.H.A., F.F.A., Varsity “R”, band, musicals, athletics, window cleaner, and homework made our sophomore year a busy one.

Juniors!  We were upper classmen at last. Our long-awaited prestige brought with it more homework, more window cleaner, a painted water tower, class rings, and a Junior-Senior Banquet.  We worked hard to make our Prom the best.  When the big night finally came, we were almost too tired to enjoy our evening under the “Mississippi Moon.” The month of May went quickly, and we truly hated to see those “good ole” seniors leave.  It was then that we realized that we were next in line.

Something which has been only a dream is come true.  We are seniors at last.  The endless number of rooms is now few and very familiar, and all those things “to do” have become things “done.” All our joys —  the sports victories  the cheerleaders  the class plays  the royalty  the senior Health II class  the scholarship team and all our sorrows —  the sports defeats  the loss of the Conference crown  the Macbeth test and the grade card days — all have passed. For the first time we are doing these things for the last time. These are the memories that fill our eyes with tears as we leave you behind us, Tigertown, and we go forward into the world.