The annual Wade-Albany Reunion was July 20 at the Wade-Albany Senior Center with many attending the event.
Jim Dunegan is the president of the Wade-Albany Reunion.
“We meet once a year, the third Saturday in July, and this is our 42nd year to meet,” Dunegan said. “It started out just being a school reunion. Actually, Wade and Albany at one time both came to this school house here and then at different times, split off and went different directions but we’ve always worked close together. My mother and daddy in fact are from Wade and we’re all kind of one family, so we have our reunions together.
“Anyway, it’s just a thing to get all the people that once lived here and the new people that live in the area and it’s a great day. As you can see, we probably got 100plus people today and we serve some great food and anybody’s welcome.”
Dunegan is a 1958 graduate of Albany High School which was the last senior class for Albany School that continued to have grades 1-8 until sometime in the 1960s. Dunegan was one of three graduates of the Albany High School Class of 1958, the others being Larry L. Henderson and Joe Lee Tigner.
“Small schools have shut down over the years,” Dunegan said. “I still support small schools. I think they’re good for communities, to keep it alive. What happens when you lose a school, you lose the the community, the businesses, and that’s just exactly what happened here. We still have the post office here.”
Dunegan spoke of the Wade-Albany Senior Citizen Center that operates five days a week.
“They have great food here, so it serves a good cause for the community as well and they’ve kept us when we want to have this reunion and use their building,” Dunegan said. “Lots of people stop. Farmers eat here, ranchers and just people working the area, highway workers. I come in here quite a bit, great food. They have their menu on Facebook, so you can always tell what they’re going to have. They always have good people in charge of making the food and serving the food and it’s just a good place to eat.”
The senior center has many old pictures on the walls, including ones of graduating classes.
“A lot of these families have been here before statehood,” Dunegan said. “I know that my mother’s family .. My great-grandfather came to Kemp, Oklahoma, in 1881 so it goes way back.”
Dunegan said senior citizen centers really help communities.
“These communities, and several of them have got senior centers that work really well and it kind of keeps the community alive and it gives those that really don’t have the advantage to go somewhere else,” he said.
“They also serve meals to those that need service at home and that’s great for the elderly and the community. It keeps it alive.”
