By JENNIFER MILLER STROBEL

FOUR YEARS MIGHT seem like forever to high school freshmen, but the years to graduation fly by, and the years after graduation fly even faster.

Take it from members of the Falmouth High School Class of 1952, who recently celebrated their 60th reunion.

Steve Dempsey, class president, shared these photos. He and his classmates were the last to graduate from the high school. Starting in September, 1952, students attended the new consolidated Stafford High School on U.S. 1--the county's sole high school for years.

The old Falmouth High was turned over to younger students, first as Gari Melchers Elementary, then as T. Benton Gayle Junior High, then as Gayle Middle School.

Barbara Timmons Dempsey, a member of the Falmouth High Class of 1952, spent many years teaching fifth grade in the building where she went to high school--and where she met her husband, Steve. (That's her standing on the far right of the second row, and him, far left on the back row.) They married in 1956.

He retired after 40 years with Virginia Electric and Power Co. (The building, on Sophia Street in Fredericksburg, now houses Brock's Riverside Grill.) She retired after a 29-year teaching career, with two years in King George County and the rest in Stafford County at Gari Melchers Elementary, Hartwood Elementary and Gayle Middle.

The Dempseys are happy to celebrate the longstanding reunion tradition.

Steve Dempsey said that as he was leaving this year's 60th reunion, a classmate told him, "It's time to start planning for the 70th."

Dempsey's photos include one of the class as it was in 1952, and the other of classmates who made it to the reunion at Cannon Ridge Golf Club.

From 1952, left to right, front row: Dolan Patton, June Newton Eackles, Bertie Kreiger Wimmer, Doris Sullivan Singleton, Margaret Brooks Estes, Joyce Hicks Osbourne, Marie Dobson Seay, Vivian Bell Wilson, Alene Payne Burton, Mabel V. King (senior class sponsor), Glenna Cutright Combs, Christine Corbin Hunter, Jean Newton Thompson, Daisy Smith Gallent, Shirley Chaplin Tullos, Ruth Ann McWhirt Balderson, Jewel Patton Weaver, Barbara Bowie Crowe and Ben Hall.