Shared by Jim Ellars, ACS Class of 1970, for the ACS Athens All Class Reunion on June 20, 2026, these treasured black-and-white photos take us back to the front steps of the main ACS Athens building and to the friendships that shaped senior year.

Jim recalls that the photos feature him and Emily, both members of the ACS Athens Class of ’70, during a moment whose exact purpose has faded with time. “Don’t remember why or who took them,” he shared, but the memories surrounding them remain vivid.

During their senior year, Jim and Emily served as lab assistants in Mr. Gerber’s biology class, along with their good friend Smiljka Isakovic. The trio shared more than classroom responsibilities; they created the kind of unforgettable school-day moments that become lifelong stories. Jim fondly remembers cooking pizzas in the sterilizing oven and making coffee in a beaker over a Bunsen burner. Their creativity did not go unnoticed, and they were warned a couple of times about the smell drifting through the classroom.

After graduation, Jim lost touch with Emily, while he and Smiljka stayed connected on and off for some time. He remembers Smiljka often saying that she practiced piano every day. She later became, as Jim recalls, a well-known international harpsichord player—proof, perhaps, that practice really can make perfect.

“These pictures,” Jim writes, “bring back a lot of wonderful memories from ACS and Athens.”