Thirty Years!

Class of 1981 will gather for its 30th reunion at the Saturday.

But some of the alumni say they don't need Homecoming weekend to remind them of how special it was to be the first graduates of the school.

South Lakes opened its doors in the fall of 1978, and students in grades 7-10 all studied there, albeit in split shifts in order to accomodate so many grades.

Patty Fuenzalida Craver, a 1981 alum and one of the reunion organizers, said her class, which entered South Lakes as 10th graders in 1978, had a special bond.

"It was very exciting to go to the new school," says Craver, who moved to Reston with her family in 1969. "It was so neat because so many of us were back together. We had gone to elementary school together, and then were all at different schools - Oakton, Herndon - for junior high and ninth grade."

Brian Booker, another 1981 graduate, said Reston opening its own high school gave Reston its own identity.

"Before South Lakes was built, we had to travel to Herndon for middle school and our freshman year of high school," says Booker. "We made a lot of Herndon friends at those schools, but of course when South Lakes was completed over the summer of '78, we parted ways with those friends. We continued to see them over the next few years, but usually it was from the opposite stands at the football stadium or the opposite bleachers at basketball games.

"I think one of the benefits of South Lakes opening was it gave Reston more of a sense of community. There was a lot of school spirit."

Members of the Class of 1981 have toured the newly remodeled school, marched in Friday's Homecoming game and attended the football game - some of them in their vintage letter jackets - in the last few days.

Many have remarked at how much Reston has changed in 30 years.

"When we were kids, there was a bowling alley, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Fritzbees at Hunters Woods, and the movie theatre at the Reston International Center," says Craver, who now lives in Great Falls. "That's it. That was the whole world of what you could do in Reston. Now Town Center is such a mecca for shopping, eating, business. It really went from famine to feast."

Were you a member of SLHS Class of 1981? Feel free to post some of your memories, as well as old pictures.