At a certain age, after spending thousands of hours in classrooms, I reached the conclusion that many teachers are in the wrong line of work. Not Kathy Remenar. She has the rare ability to be both interesting and entertaining while keeping order in the classroom. She fosters spirited debate, while maintaining standards of decorum with humor and the occasional flash of the eyes. After nearly four decades of doing just that at the Eureka Springs High School, she is, as she says, ready to graduate.

Mrs. Remenar’s teaching career started in 1968 in suburban Chicago after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and English from Illinois State University. After moving here and while working on her Master’s degree, she became acquainted with the Eureka Springs School District and served on the local school board.

Looking back, I asked how things had changed over the years at the school:

“Obviously the advances in technology have changed everything in education to a certain degree. However, some things never change: the power of the written word; the pain involved in learning; the pride in doing something for the first time; the ‘aha’ moments. I get a kick out of the fact that each class felt like they had discovered Emerson and Thoreau for the first time and that Shakespeare really did have something powerful to say.”

I’ve forgotten the names of many of my teachers, yet I still remember the first essay that I wrote for Mrs. Remenar in 1984 and her red ink comments. While a high school student, I found her forthright and positive outlook to be contagious. Speaking of teenagers, she recently told me:

“Their optimism, sense of wonder, daring, and humor is what defines them. So many people say to them, ‘Wait until you get into the real world’ as if what they are experiencing is pretend…It is not!

“You have no idea how lucky I feel to have been a teacher all my life; I have had an ‘extraordinary’ life and that is what I wish for all of my students. They kept me young as I grew older…teenagers are the best anti- aging drug on the market.”

I don’t travel much, unless you count sitting at a computer looking at aerial photography. Amazing what one can see without even leaving home. I’ve always considered Eureka Springs a unique town in most every way, including name, but I’ve run across some places that call the name part into question.

First up is the community of Eureka Springs, North Carolina. Located in Cumberland County, it is now a suburb of the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina, best known as the home of Fort Bragg. The US Special Forces and the 82nd Airborne are both based there. I know a guy from the army who was stationed at Fort Bragg, but he doesn’t recall there being a place called Eureka Springs, North Carolina. He had an interesting job. He was airborne artillery, which means not only did he jump out of airplanes, but he jumped from airplanes also dropping giant cannons called howitzers.

The second Eureka Springs I have run across is in Mississippi. It is just a small community, located in Panola County, not far from Batesville, Mississippi. It is home to the Eureka Springs Methodist Church and a cemetery.

Third up is the Eureka Springs area of Tampa Bay, Florida. Located in Hillsborough County, it is now a 31-acre public park located on Eureka Springs Road. It was originally a privately owned tropical botanical garden founded in 1938 around a group of springs called the Eureka Springs. Nearby is the Eureka Springs First Baptist Church.

Fourth, there is a Eureka Springs area in the city of Escondido near San Diego, California. Now it appears to be a housing addition of $500,000 homes.

In Fort Worth, Texas, there is a street called Eureka Springs Court, while Lexington, Kentucky and Surprise, Arizona both have streets called Eureka Springs Drive.

I will assert that our Eureka Springs is the most famous of all these places, but I can’t prove it. While in the US Army, I can only think of five people I met who’d heard of Eureka Springs. But then again, I met several who claimed to have never even heard of Arkansas.

The Eureka Springs High School Alumni Association is the oldest high school alumni association in the State of Arkansas. It held its 124th annual banquet and meeting at the Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center over the weekend.

Celebrating their 50th anniversary, the class of 1964 had the most members present at the banquet. Nancy Clark, the 1964 senior class sponsor, and Alice Barker, the 1964 class “room mother” for grades one through twelve, also attended. This year’s association president, Mary McCall-Weems was in the class of 1964 and she and others of the class presented much of the night’s program.

Randy Wolfinbarger (Class of 1973) welcomed the newly graduated Class of 2014 as members of the Eureka Springs Alumni Association and admonished them to not forget from where they come. Randy’s son Langley Wolfinbarger  (Class of 2014) responded by accepting the invitation on behalf of the graduating class. A slideshow of the members of the class of 2014 was shown while the class song, Freebird, played.

Genes Bland (Class of 1964) presented the Alumnus of the Year Award to Jeff Reynerson (Class of 1974), an attorney in Springdale, for his years of service to the association, the Eureka Springs schools and the Northwest Arkansas community.

Allen Huffman (Class of 2003) presented Pauline Crawford (Class of 2014) with this year’s Alumni Scholarship.

Ben Rivett (Class of 1964) called the roll of the members present. The two oldest members at this year’s banquet were Tommy Crews and Mary Janice Thomas-Morris, both of the Class of 1942.

Genes Bland (Class of 1964) read the names of alumni who had died in the previous year.

Bobby Dale Thurman (Class of 1964) asked trivia questions and handed out door prizes. It was determined that the Crews family was the family with the most alumni members present at the banquet.

Association Treasurer Tammy Sherman-Bullock (Class of 1991) presented the financial report and Association Secretary Gayla Goff-Wolfinbarger (Class of 1981) read the minutes of the 2013 meeting.

Eureka Springs School District Superintendent David Kellogg was thanked for attending the banquet, and the crowd sang the Alma Mater.