It began 60 years ago, and unlike other friendships, time has served only to strengthen the ties that bound these five childhood friends.

Through the years, the five former school girls have kept in touch while still going their individual ways. They call themselves “The Big Five,” and they gathered in Orangeburg recently for, as they called it, a reunion of “sisters.”

“This is the first time since 1955 that all five of us have been in the same room,” Carolyn Harris Brown said.

“There’s been four of us together since then,” said Miriam DeCosta-Willis. “But not all five.”

And the time four of “The Big Five” got together, Brown said she had to leave her honeymoon to be at another one’s wedding.

They were childhood friends and classmates at Felton Training School on the campus of State A&M College (today’s South Carolina State University).

Each lived only a block away from one another on the campus grounds, and three of the girls’ families even shared what some may remember as a “party” line, a single telephone line that was used in multiple residences. Their number — 1111.

“We could of gone into the yard and talked,” Brown said, “but the telephone was a new thing.”

In addition to Brown and Willis, The Big Five is made up of Barbara Thompson Townsend, Carolyn Webber Thomson and Barbara Williams Jenkins.

Of the five, only Townsend has remained in Orangeburg. The rest were carried on life’s wings to Columbia, Manning, Tennessee and New York.

Thomson is a medical pathologist while the others have retired from similarly successful careers. Brown retired as music superintendent of Richland School District I, Jenkins retired as head librarian at SCSU, the author of eight books, Willis retired as a college professor, and Townsend retired as an art teacher.

It was 1946 Orangeburg when the girls were growing up as the children of college faculty. In addition to the usual classes, there were operettas to attend, piano recitals, tennis and swimming lessons. Such was the benefit of growing up on the campus.

Looking back, however, the women say they see themselves as living in a “cocoon,” a life sheltered from the world segregated outside of the campus.

“When we went outside the campus, we had to sit upstairs at the movie theater,” Willis said, “or we wouldn’t be allowed to try on the ladies’ hats at Belk’s.”

They eventually went on to Wilkinson High School where they became gray and maroon “Wolverines.” There was the “Dawn Dance,” junior and senior proms, and what the girls consider the high point of high school, the “Hi-Light Social Society Dance.”

It was during this time that the girls served as counselors at State’s Elloree youth facility, Camp Daniels, where they were paid $5 a week in salary.

“We had a good time,” Jenkins said.

In an atmosphere unique to such gatherings — laughter, recollection, knowing looks — it wasn’t hard to realize the ladies have led colorful lives.

“Now, we’re not going to tell about the time Barbara wrecked the tractor?” Brown said.

“And we’re not going to tell about the purple Jesus, either!” Willis said, referring to an alcoholic concoction popular on campuses in their day.

After high school, however, like the individual threads of a rope, the girls’ paths began to separate.

South Carolina State College, Benedict College and Wellesley College parted the childhood friends, at least physically.

The segregated United States of the 1950s assured further separation when the girls weren’t allowed enrollment at in-state schools. Local schools, including the University of South Carolina, paid for black students to attend out-of-state schools, the women said.

But that didn’t stop the young women from making the most of themselves. Of the group, two obtained doctorate degrees, two obtained masters degrees, and one received a medical degree.

“All of them were high achievers after college, very representative of the community,” said former Wilkinson assistant principal Robert E. Howard, namesake of Howard Middle School.

About 30 acquaintances of The Big Five from Felton, State and Camp Daniels joined in for their reunion celebration Thursday, a time for laughter, a time for reminiscing, a time for friends.

“I think it’s a Southern thing, it’s the culture,” Townsend said. “It’s ties that bind.”

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