Walton gym, East Cobb volleyball — *The new Walton fine arts performing center and gym sits on land that once housed the original classroom building.*

I’m old enough to remember how things were in East Cobb before some of the landmarks of the community we all know today came into being.

Next weekend, there will be an extravaganza at Walton High School to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school.

An open house from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 will include food, music and plenty of shared memories, as alumni revisit and reconnect with one another. The entire community is invited, and the event is free to the public.

It was in the fall of 1975 that Walton opened, on land across from a subdivision on Bill Murdock Road and near Pine Road.

The school was meant to relieve overcrowding at Wheeler High School, where I had just finished my freshman year, and remember that well.

We were on split sessions during that time, and like Walton would soon come to know, we had vastly outgrown a small, single-story campus building.

In those days, school buildings were constructed with money derived from bond issues. In other words, you built the school you could with the money you had at that time, and not necessarily the one that you needed for the long term.

Not long after Walton opened, it too became overcrowded, and in 1981 Lassiter opened, followed by Pope in late 1980s.

This was the second major “boom” period of growth in East Cobb.

As a result, so much has changed, as we now live in a community with nearly 200,000 residents, many drawn here to the public schools.

Both Wheeler and Walton have been rebuilt with sales tax revenues and house state-of-the-art space for classrooms and other activities. Sprayberry High School is undergoing the same process.

Pope and Lassiter have received sparkling performing arts and gymnasium space to accompany their main facilities.

These are more than buildings for education and extracurriculars; they’re community hubs that have helped create a sense of place.

So are our many faith communities. When I was a kid, it was basically Protestant churches. As I entered high school, Holy Family and Transfiguration were being planned to cater to Roman Catholics.

And in that same year of 1975, the Jewish community in Cobb finally had a place of worship they could call their own. Congregation Etz Chaim came into being that year, and moved to its current location on Indian Hills in 1980.

It’s one of three synagogues in East Cobb, and later this month will be observing its Golden Anniversary.

As our Jewish friends and neighbors observe Passover and as Christians prepare for Holy Week, it’s a reminder of how far East Cobb has evolved as a welcoming community for people of all faiths and creeds.

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Not long ago I received a note from a reader who had unsubscribed from our weekly newsletter, saying that she “hated” the format.

I e-mailed her to find out what she didn’t like about it, and she replied that “I struggled with the different font sizes and so many different sections, multiple bullet points.”

It was hard for her to read this on her phone—which is how three-quarters of you read the newsletter and all East Cobb News content.

She said she still follows what we post on Facebook, and “realize what you’re doing is a thankless job. I do love being informed and know what’s going on in our community—so thank you.”

Again, this is all very helpful for me, and I apologize if any of you have a negative or unsatisfying experience. I want to know if you’re unhappy or disappointed with what we do here at East Cobb News—it’s how we get better—so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Whether it’s about technology or content or anything else, I do keep these things in mind as I contemplate changes.

For the time being, I will experiment with giving you the newsletter in a condensed fashion, with non-featured items listed under either “This Week’s News” or “Living” tabs, to see how that goes.

Let me know what you think—I’m always open to suggestions that would improve your experience. Get in touch via e-mail: wendy@eastcobbnews.com. Our aim is to make it more relevant and useful for you, because that’s what we’re all about.

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