SHAWNEE, Okla.
— Turning 60
can’t be all that bad — not
with a few hundred of your classmates to
commiserate and celebrate with you. The
Shawnee High School Class of 1966
is
holding its 42nd reunion this weekend, but the more notable
number has
to do with age. This year,
the classmates have turned 60 or will hit the
landmark soon. That’s reason enough to
throw a party. “Our theme is
‘Get
Your Kicks with the Class of ’66,’” said Thurston
Munn, one of the reunion
organizers. “We missed our 40th reunion,
but since everyone is turning 60, we
thought this year would be a lot of
fun.” Reunion activities begin
Friday night with a mixer, birthday
cake
and party at the Elks Lodge. The fun spills over into Saturday
with a
teacher’s reunion at the SHS
Alumni Museum, a tour of the old high school,
then evening activities back at the Elks
Lodge. The class has heard from
16 of
its former teachers, and several plan to attend. Among them
are
Christine Reynolds
of California, who was tennis coach
and
PE teacher; Bob Williams of Seminole, who was
a
coach; and Shawnee residents
Dr. Robert Barnard (world
history teacher turned superintendent)
and Dr. Ramona
Farthing
(whose early career was a French teacher at SHS).
Sharon Mitchell
Robinson, another
reunion
organizer, said planning has been under way since last June,
and
she’s not quite sure what they’ll
have to talk about by the time this
weekend is over. At least 150 of the
class’s nearly 400 members are
expected
to attend, including one who gets the honor for traveling the
farthest (Panama) and a few who haven’t
heard from their alma mater in the
four
decades since they left it. “We get excited when an old
classmate is found. It’s like finding a
treasure,” she said. “I get
goosebumps.” This weekend is
especially meaningful for Robinson: she
turns 60 on Saturday. “I won’t need to
feel bad about it — everyone is the
same
age,” she said. “But it’s also exciting getting to be a part
of the
reunion. My family moved around
with the oilfield a lot, and I never went
to school in one place very long except
high school. In sixth grade, I
went to
six different schools. So from grades eight to 12, for me to
stay
in one place is special.” The
class of ’66 also has done plenty of
reminiscing — from what was happening in
Shawnee in the mid-’60s to how
the
nation and world has changed since then. They remember the
places they
frequented — Linda Jane,
where they ordered Frito chili pies for a
quarter; Sandy’s, which had 15-cent
hamburgers; the Brown Derby; City Cafe
(fruit salad pie was a hit); Deem’s
Dairy Queen; Kimi’s Pizza; sock hops
at
the Roll-a-Way Rink and more. In February 1966, the
first soft
landing on the moon was made
by the Soviet Luna 9, and in June 1966,
Ronald Reagan won the Republican
nomination for governor of California.
Pampers introduced the first disposable
diaper that year, and “Star Trek”
began
its first season on NBC. The Green Bay Packers were
professional
football champions, and the
Baltimore Orioles won baseball’s World Series.
On the radio were tunes like “I’m a
Believer” by the Monkees and “Summer
in
the City” by The Lovin’ Spoonful. Postage stamps were 5
cents
each, and gasoline was 32 cents a
gallon. The average income was $6,899
per year. Fresh ground hamburger cost 45
cents a pound, and Vitamin D milk
was
$1.11 a gallon. And, of course, there was the Vietnam
War.
“Every guy was thinking about
that and registering for the draft,” Gerald
Montgomery said. “For the guys, every
month in the paper you’d read about
the
escalation of troops.” And it wouldn’t be a reunion
without
rehashing hairstyles and
fashions. Men were wearing Madras shirts and
wheat jeans. Girls were required to wear
dresses and skirts, even on the
coldest
of days. “And ratted hairdos were the big rage,”
Robinson
said. “But when we graduated,
we ironed our hair flat, using an actual
iron.” Lots of activities and fun
are planned for the reunion: a
booklet
of memories, a CD of the group’s 100 favorite ’60s songs, a
7-foot
pineapple tree, a chocolate
fountain and a candy “bar” filled with
homemade candies. Rosemary
Silvey Ocana, who has
already
arrived in Shawnee from Panama, said there was no question
that
she would return for the fun and
camaraderie. “We were such good,
good friends,” she said. “Our high
school was healthy and active. We had
good mid-America values. I wouldn’t have
traded it for
anything.”
Source:
Shawnee News-Star July 23, 2008 |
Shown in picture
holding up
reunion banner (L-R) Thurston
Mann, Doug Miller, Sharon Mitchell Robinson,
Bill Torbett, Ann Johnson Sires, Dana
Levisay, Patsy Goode, Cleo Abel
Crothers, and Carol Parish
Souders.
Pictured L-R are Patsy GOode,
Cleo Abel Crothers and
Judith Lowry
Hartley. |