Five men of the Northeast Crenshaw Volunteer Fire Department (NECVFD) responded to a call on January 10 at 7:15 p.m.

A car on Shady Grove Road one-half mile south of East Helicon Road had a mechanical failure and caught on fire.

Darion Whatley and David Cargill were in the vehicle.

Cargill was unharmed, and Whatley experienced a minor injury while escaping the vehicle.

The car was a total loss.

Goshen V.F.D. also responded to the call.

This was the first call of the year for the NECVFD.

The emergency was handled quickly and successfully, and the fire truck was back in service at 8:52 p.m., as reported by Fire Chief Tommy Petrey.

The Fire Department had their monthly meeting on January 13 at the Petrey Community Center.

Twenty people were in attendance.

Chief Tommy Petrey reviewed the department's response to the first fire of the year.

He was pleased with the number of volunteers and the job they did.

It was reported that the V.F.D. would receive new radios paid for by the grant on January 17.

The Men's Club of the Camp Ground United Methodist church met on Sunday morning, January 9, for breakfast.

There were nine men in attendance.

The church is delighted that their members, Donna and Bubba Stewart and children, have moved into the Patsburg community, which is closer to the church than their previous home.

The Stewarts had been making a 30-mile trip to attend church each Sunday.

Now they can save gasoline and time.

Recently the church has learned that Rev. Reba Wiley is scheduled to be the preacher for the annual July Homecoming service and the revival to follow.

Rev. Wiley was once the pastor of the Camp Ground/ Petrey charge.

She is well loved by all the churches she has pastored, and Camp Ground UMC is looking forward to having her back this coming July.

Special thanks goes to Mrs. Billie Jones for this news from Camp Ground.

Don and Peggy Hermeling attended the wedding of their son Steven to Melissa Parentoni at West Palm Beach, Florida, last Saturday.

The ceremony was held by the pool of the Catalina Holiday Inn.

The Hermelings' son Danny, daughter Donna Bryan, and her children also attended the wedding.

Don and Peggy visited family members the week prior to the wedding.

Curtis and Nancy Petrey had dinner at the home of Mack and Mary Gibson in Troy on January 10.

Curtis, Nancy, and Mack finalized the plans for "The Gathering" (48th year)of their class, the Luverne High School Class of '57, which took place last Saturday night at the Country Club in Luverne.

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As they discussed plans for the event, they especially enjoyed looking at old photos and past issues of the school paper, the Tiger Rag.

This brought much laughter!

After "The Gathering," the Petreys hosted one of their classmates overnight, Nelda Ann Moore Bell from Brewton.

Curtis and Nancy were really praising the Lord for answering all their prayers for a great reunion with their former classmates.

Those from Petrey attending the 80th birthday celebration of Colleen Bodiford at the Harrison Cultural Center in Luverne on Sunday afternoon were Margaret Petrey, her daughter, Patsy Jeffcoat and husband Kline from Montgomery, Valeta Petrey, and Curtis & Nancy Petrey.

Faye Trotter will be having surgery in Dothan on January 26.

Everyone is urged to pray for Faye, that she will have a successful surgery and a speedy recovery.

She has already begun to plan her daughter Elizabeth's wedding, so "every cloud has a silver lining."

Story of Petrey School continued from last week:

According to an article in the August, 1957 edition, page 5, of the Alabama Rural Electric News, South Alabama Electric Co-op Section, the Petrey School closed the next fall after the 1953 yearbook was published:

"Petrey once boasted of a Junior High School, second to none.

It was housed in an eight-classroom building with a large assembly hall.

At one time, almost three hundred students were enrolled.

However, shifting population and the realignment of school bus routes began to cut the attendance down.

The teaching staff was eventually reduced to two grammar grade instructors.

Finally, on opening day in 1953, only twenty-six students showed up for classes, and the school was closed.

Parents had their choice of sending their children to Luverne or Highland Home."

The same article in the Alabama Rural Electric News also revealed that the Petrey Civic Club was at that time the oldest active ladies' club in the county.

It was these ladies who saved the building from the wrecking crews after the property reverted to the State Board of Education, which was going to remove the building and sell the land.

The ladies met with the Town Council in 1956 to start the process of buying the building from the state.

Through the efforts of the Petrey Civic Club, the Petrey Community Center came into being at a cost of $5,380.87, and the building was dedicated on June 1, 1957.

Surviving members of that club who still live in Petrey are Valeta Spradley, Iris Wilkerson, and Margaret Petrey.

Good job, ladies!

They still take good care of the facilities, along with other ladies in Petrey.