Linda Tolbert:
CLASS OF 1971
Overbrook High SchoolClass of 1971
Philadelphia, PA
Pennsylvania State UniversityClass of 1974
State college, PA
Linda's Story
Life
I am single (divorced) and love to mingle. I have three adult children, one granddaughter and another on the way. I began a new job (November 2009) after almost two years of unemployment. That was a very difficult time, but I survived. Luckily, my new job is in my 25-year field of residential and commercial real estate property management and I also have a few small business ventures of my own. I love life, I love my children and their spouses. I love to meet new people, but there is nothing better than connecting with old friends. Old friends are very special. I love being with my family and friends. I count my blessings that I feel good mentally and physically, I can laugh and have fun and I am part of many circles of positive people. I look forward to our Class Reunions. Hope to see you there!!!
School
I loved my years at Overbrook! We had so much fun everyday. It seems like only yesterday that we were teenagers, excited about everything with our lives ahead of us. Although most of my entire immediate family has passed away, I am grateful to have good memories to help me through life. I don't live very far from Overbrook and I find myself smiling when I drive past our school every once in a while. I even stop at the water ice stand at least once every summer out of nostalgia. Sometime I just get a mustard pretzel...sit in my car...eat it and drive away. From the outside, our school has not changed much at all. When I think about high school today, the thing I think about the most is everybody having a date for the senior prom and hoping someone would ask me to go to the prom. Well, it didn't happen. So I asked my buddy, Walter Parham, to help me get a date. He told Ernie Faust to ask me and I was escorted to the prom by a real gentleman. Thank you, Walter. Thank you, Ernie. I always loved school and learning. Those high school years were some of the best years of my life. I feel lucky to have all those good memories! I also have fond memories of Shoemaker Jr. High and Brooks Elementary School. I can even remember my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Evans, Room #7; ...Expand for more
third grade, Ms. Watson; fifth grade, Ms. Drew; sixth grade, Ms. Jones, Room #21. I loved jumping rope everyday and I got in trouble for wearing out my shoes by October of every year. My feet were on the ground for the rest of the entire school year every year. We only got one pair of shoes a year back in those days. I ate lots of Nabisco Shreaded Wheat and used the cardboard that separated the big biscuits in the box to line my shoes every other day. Sneakers were only worn in the summer and they only lasted for two months before they wore out. We had painted wooden hoola hoops and red rubber balls at kindergarten recess. In the later grades we jumped rope, played tag and climbed on the only toy in the schoolyard, the metal monkey bars. Girls only wore dresses and little socks, but we climbed anyway...even in the cold weather with our leather shoes. There were many slips and falls as we fell and landed on the hard concrete. But we had fun because it was all we knew. Elementary school lasted seven years so I made friends that I still have today. It is amazing. George Brooks Elementary School is now a senior citizen apartment building. I am so glad that the facade was kept intact and the stones refurbished beautifully after years of vacant neglect and decay. Well, writing about my school memories has been uplifting. I will add more later.
College
My memories of Penn State are fond ones. My roommates were, first Jackie Harrell and then my best friend, Dayna Roberts. I lived in Lyons Hall and Schultz Hall in the dorms on campus. Then I moved into Beaver Terrace with Reymunda Hoxter and Marcia Rogers. We had lots of fun. Dayna and I visited Penn State a few years ago and attended the Penn State Black Alumni Reunion. I hadn't been there in years. We went to our old dorms in south hall, Mr. Charles dress shop, other stores in town...and Dayna stopped at the creamery to buy some ice cream. We stayed at the Nittany Lion Inn, the first time I had ever been at the hotel thanks to Dayna. It was hard to believe that it had been over thirty years since graduation in 1974! Wow!!
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