Old Traditions Embraced in Small Community 100 Years Later

By Jacqueline Sit, NEWS 9

MIDDLEBERG, Oklahoma -- Several present and past residents gathered in Middleberg for a one of a kind celebration where old traditions were embraced.

"This is an exciting time for an anniversary of Middleberg for 100 years," said

Gaylon Richey was the president of his class and the basketball team's point guard, and he said he remembers the yester years of his high school days.

"We played 36 ball games and won 34, so we had a very successful year," Richey said.

His classmate Marie Bento said she remembers everything as if she just stepped into the Middleberg school gym yesterday.

"There were six of us in our family, and we all graduated from Middleberg," Bento said. "We always see all the changes in everyone, and we always tease and say, who are all these old people?"

Middleberg was a complete town with railroad, a cotton gin, hotels but a massive fire destroyed the town in the 1920s and since then, the town has been virtually non-existent.

"There's been a lot of changes here in the last 100 years, and the school was a very small school," Richey said.

The school still stands and is now filled with kindergarteners through eighth graders. And to this day, it's rich with long-time traditions.

"We had pies and box suppers and that filled the gymnasium, and that still happens today. It's been going on for 100 years," Richey said.

And as they embrace the past, the small town will move forward toward the future.

"The school itself hasn't change much, and they're talking about putting a new building, and I said, 'Oh it's so modern that it doesn't look the same,' but I know we have to go forward,' Bento said.

But some things will never change in the small town.

"It's a community that is tightly connected together, and they appreciate one another and do things for one another and that's what we need," Richey said.

Middleberg High School was rated in the top 10 schools in the state in test scores.