Beth Banes:  

Life Greetings fellow classmates, I grew up being jewish in a bible belt city. I was one of 3 jewish students in the entire graduating class of 1980 at Overton. I was zoned to go to Whitestation High School, which had a moderate number of jewish kids going there, but I was not very popular and had not grown out of that ugly duckling stage until the summer before I attended Overton. I had danced my entire life and decided to start fresh. So I auditioned at Overton, got accepted, and not only got involved in dance and gymnastics, but actually became a cheerleader! No one who had grown up with me from K-9th grade would have believed that, but I had no contact with those kids once I started at Overton. It was strange being a cheerleader because I didn't fit any particular mold, so I molded myself to whatever group I was involved with at that moment. I literally hung with nerds, freaks, heads, and cheerleaders. I never really bonded with the cheerleaders and found it conflicted with my dance rehearsals and performances outside of Overton, I quit in the middle of the 11th grade. Dancing and performing from 6 years old definately brought me out of a shell. I really have one lifelong friend I still keep up with and talk to several times a week. She still lives in Memphis. She and I met when we were 8 through a jewish youth group. Like everything else growing up, I seemed to be a rebel and my best friend and I would sneak out of the jewish social activities to date non-jewish boys! However we both married jewish men and we both had a girl and a boy. We also divorced our husbands. I am now happily re-married and my children...Expand for more