CANNONSBURG — Standing on the still-unvarnished floor of the gymnasium, his voice echoing off the freshly painted walls, Howard K. Osborne repeats a quip he has tossed off a hundred times before: “It’s not a road to nowhere anymore, it’s a bridge to the future.”

The 30 people in front of him laugh out loud and a few of them clap their hands. The joke is new to them and after what they’ve just seen they know exactly what Osborne means.

They are members of the Boyd County High School class of 1962, gathered this weekend for their 50th reunion, and Osborne, the district superintendent, is showing them the new high school that is nearing completion on a hill across Ky. 180 from their alma mater.

They already are giddy with the excitement of seeing old friends, catching up on family news, swapping pictures of their grandchildren and gabbing about their school days.

And now they are gaping open-mouthed at the $40 million school some of their grandchildren will be attending when it opens in January.

“They told us we would be impressed, and we are,” said Ed Preston, who now lives in Shelby County. “This is excellence taken to the next step.”

An obviously proud Osborne rattles off some of the school’s design features: the media center that is the “heart of the school,” the academy-based floorplan that accommodates curricula in science, math and other disciplines as well as a freshman academy, the laboratories that rival those at the college level.

“This is beyond amazing,” said Pat Gibbs, looking out the two-story arched windows that frame a view of the valley below. Gibbs, a member of the class of 1963 attending the reunion with a friend, said the academy concept and opportunities for dual college and high school credit will make the school excellent.

Moving on to the theater, Osborne tells the classmates plans are already in motion to stage plays there. “We are going to give plays here we could not do before in what was an elementary auditorium built in a high school,” he said.

Junior and senior plays packed them in during their school days, said Shirley Young, and in a near-professional theater can do it again. Young paused to reflect on the existing school, which was brand-new when they were students.

“We loved our new school. That’s memories. This is awesome. I am so thankful we have a school like this in the community,” she said. Her four grandsons will attend, she added.

“It’s a fabulous theater,” said Anita Brewer, whose granddaughter will be a freshman next year.

Memories of their alma mater are sweet but sweeter still is knowing a new generation will have the same pleasure of breaking in a new school. “We thought it was beautiful then. And it was, for the time,” said Kay Baden. “But now we want to start back in school,” she said, looking around a newly-tiled classroom.

Class of 1963 member Carolyn Wheeler, whose niece is a freshman and will move up the hill to the new school in January, said her niece is excited but nervous about finding her way around. “She shouldn’t be. She’s going to love every second of it,” she said.

“The labs are better than some colleges I’ve been in,” said Randy Marcum, who is in the construction business himself and is impressed by the quality.

“It’s good to see the smiles on their faces,” Osborne said. “It’s important because that’s our past. To see them smile tells us we’re doing something right. And they’re the people to spread the word through the community.”

  Several of the classmates joined in an impromptu rendition of their old fight song before leaving the school and boarding the yellow bus that brought them up the dusty road.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.