As children, we all make the assumption our parents are just plain old. It's a relative thing, of course, but when you're eight, well, 32 is old. Real old.

When those children become adults themselves, though, it's sometimes hard to see our parents as old.

As I drove east on U.S. 64 Saturday to attend my father's 50-year high school class reunion, I began to realize, Daddy has some miles on him. Fortunately for my brother, sisters and I, Daddy doesn't act old. He's still active. He's recently picked up a new hobby that brings to mind the cliché about the difference between men and boys: the price of their toys.

On the way home I asked Daddy if it made him feel old when he thought about the fact that five decades had passed since he finished high school.

Interestingly, it was a question he had already pondered.

His classmates have changed in appearance, Daddy said, but as soon as he saw them, they all fell readily back into the familiar relationships they'd had all those years ago.

The Robersonville High School Class of 1959 was 51 strong. Of that number, 15 have already passed away. Of the remaining 36, all but two were in attendance Saturday night.

They were a tight group then. Based on the way the class members flitted from one group to another, they are still close, even if the miles that separate them are greater today.

I visited with Jimmy Bellflower, who worked in the Robersonville theater from the time he was 11 until he left Robersonville for the Navy. He's now retired after a long career in sales and living near Tampa. He was Daddy's fraternity brother when they were in school together a few years later at N.C. State.

Jimmy Barnhill was my father's boating buddy. They spent weekends together as teenagers on the Pamlico River riding Daddy's boat up and down the river.

He owns a landscaping business in New Bern. Fate Everette was the star athlete. He went on to a successful career in the fence-building business without ever leaving Robersonville.

Sharon Keel Sumner was there. She now lives in Greensboro and operates homeless shelters through her church. George Roberson got into estate planning in northern Virginia.

The stories are as diverse as any you'd find in any big city.

But they all have an important common tie. That little high school in Robersonville.

When I was a student at East Wake High School some 25 years after my father had graduated, I had a similar experience, although our class numbered slightly less than 200.

And it's the experience I long for today's East Wake High School students to have, as they continue their small-schools effort for the next few years.

Close friendships breed pride and a sense of responsibility for one another.

And in 50 years, today's East Wake seniors may gather and notice that appearances have changed, but personalities haven't.

Their classmates, they will find, are still the same small-town folks they grew up with.