For nearly 70 years, McCallum has sent its students into the world with experiences, successes, traditions and memories. For some, high school is just the unavoidable transition between childhood and adulthood, but for others, it is a home. A place of common ground. And memories made there will be carried with them for the rest of their lives.

For Walter Talley, a 1975 McCallum graduate, the school was much more than just a typical high school. The walls of McCallum exuded spirit and fostered lifelong friendships. He’ll never forget that special McCallum mood. 

“It just had a great feel,” Talley said. “The spirit was good, we had a great tradition already and I love knowing that the fight song is still being played and that tradition is still going on.”

For Talley, going to McCallum was part of a family legacy.

“It was a natural progression,” Talley said. “My brothers went there, I wanted to go there; all my friends had brothers and sisters that went to McCallum. So we all knew that we were going to McCallum. We knew that it was one of the best, if not the best school in Austin.”

Although the school today resembles what it looked like while Talley was there, there were several significant differences. One major change over the years has been the addition of more creative classes and programs to accommodate McCallum’s artistic culture.

“We did have orchestra, band and dance but as for the other arts-related classes, we just didn’t have that option,” Talley said. “The campus has grown. They’ve added the Arts Center, which we never had. That is definitely a plus and an advantage for those programs, just to have a place where you can present those productions in a really nice venue.” 

While McCallum may not have had an extensive Fine Arts program like it does today, Talley’s musical talent still began to blossom while he was in high school. Talley was a member of several student bands at McCallum, and nearly 50 years later, he’s still making music.

“Austin was one of the better cities to play music in the state and around the country,” Talley said. “We played for about 10 years after we graduated. I’m still playing music with one of the guys. We’re recording a new record right now.”

Born and raised in Austin, Talley lived close to the McCallum campus and was familiar with the neighborhood before he ever set foot inside the school. He also went to Brentwood Elementary and Lamar Middle School, both of which still feed into McCallum today.

“I took with me all these friends that I knew ever since elementary school and knew through high school,” Talley said. “I have these lifelong friends that I still see to this day.”

Talley plans to share his stories and cherished memories with his daughter as she goes through her own four years at McCallum. But even though his own child isn’t a student yet, Talley takes every opportunity to attend school events like sports games and music concerts.

“It’s always fun just to walk around the halls I used to walk,” Talley said.

Sylvia Rushing, class of ‘67,  is also grateful to have experienced such a pivotal time in her life at a school like McCallum. 

“I think [high school] is just a different time,” Rushing said. “It’s something all kids go through. You have your group of friends and everybody else has their group of friends. And you do what interests you, whether it’s music, sports or theater, or whatever. And that’s pretty much what we did too.”

Given the era that Rushing went to school in, her experience was naturally a bit different. She reflects on how technology has had such a major impact on this generation, something her own high school years lacked.

“They were just more clean-cut years of high school,” Rushing said. “We just had a different kind of fun, probably. We didn’t have the internet and all that stuff to get into. We made our own fun. It was high school.”

Like many kids at the time, Rushing also went to Brentwood and Lamar before McCallum. Rushing moved to the area in 1955 and currently lives in Crestview, just a stone’s throw from her alma mater. Although much has changed about Austin and McCallum since Rushing first moved here, some things have stayed the same.

“Believe it or not, I’m still friends with some of these kids,” Rushing said. “We went to Brentwood and we went to Lamar and McCallum.” 

Even after graduating from McCallum, Rushing stayed put in her Austin home and watched the city rapidly grow and change. 

“Back then, it was kind of a small town,” Rushing said. “It was a different town that had a whole different feel to it, and it’s just a big city now.” 

Rushing’s 50-year class reunion back in 2017 allowed her to once again explore the halls she spent so much time in. And while the city around her has grown over the years, Rushing feels as though McCallum shrank. 

“I remember it feeling so small,” Rushing said. “Because when you’re a kid going to school, it all looks so big. When you go back 50 years later, it all looks really tiny.” 

But McCallum hasn’t shrunk. It’s been in the same place, in the same building, for 70 years. Austin locals like Talley and Rushing are living proof that no matter how different its surroundings and even its inner working become, McCallum has the same heart that it has had since 1953.

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