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Mailing Team - June, 2013Reunion Committee Co-Chairs Wanda (Swansby) Jones and Diana (Stillwell) Carew and husbands Rick and Gary with 214 flyers ready to post. |
We all have different memories of high school and, for some, bringing back thoughts of that time--even a festive 50th celebration--is a worrisome thing. Google "high school reunions" and you'll find a fair number of articles on reunion "angst". High school years--the teen years--are difficult for everyone, they remind us. To willingly revisit those years and people, especially if we haven't stayed in touch, brings real fear. I still remember the sudden panic nearly 40 years ago, in wanting to return to the car and flee when I walked with my husband through the parking lot to the SeaTac Holiday Inn for our 10th reunion. But I'm glad I found the courage to go on in. It was like walking into a room of "familiar strangers" and an indescribable joy to see and talk with so many from the past.
The Google search turned up articles with reasons to attend reunions too. With nearly fifty years of growing up we've learned a few things about people and life and we aren't the same people we were back then. We've confronted more than a few fears. And, as we near seventy years of age, most of us are likely reflecting on our past, our childhood community and those people and events that influenced our lives. Like salmon swimming back upstream, our thoughts are drawn full circle to reconnect with those who helped shape our path--what better way than at a reunion of people our own age who shared our history and common experiences?
Most of us haven't kept in touch over the years so we will enjoy a true "reunion" of our class, defined as: "an instance of two or more people coming together again after separation". There are few things more joyful than seeing the remembered smile of a childhood friend after years of separation. Laughing together over long-ago events. Learning about their families and what they've done with their lives. Seeing the passing years reflected on their face. The hugs and exuberant hand shakes chase away the years. Reunions are that chance.
Hopefully the mailer was spared the "round file" and found its way onto bulletin boards, desks and calendars to mark Saturday, September 6, 2014, as a special date to save. As the faces from forty-nine years ago look back at us from the class photo on this masthead and the mailer, it feels good to have plans to be together again and remember the times we all shared as we walked the halls at Glacier. Living to mark this 50th reunion is an accomplishment to "Celebrate & Remember"! Save the date! A lot of our classmates are working to make it worthy of a "golden" reunion and it won't be the same if we aren't all there!
Partial 50th Reunion Committee - Kick-Off Planning Meeting
February 2013
Left to Right with maiden names.
Back Row: Diana Stillwell, Kathy Osborne, Valerie Magee, Vicki Hostetler, Judy Huntington, Anita Sollie, Ken Anderson, Wanda Swansby
Front Row: Lawrence Freeburn, Charlotte Larson, Gail Wynn, Barbara Roedell
And what were we doing fifty years past?
FIFTY YEARS PAST BLAST: HEADLINES -- MAY/JUNE 1963
Like a time capsule from fifty years ago, here’s a blast from our past. We were ending our junior year and beginning summer break. Seniors at last! Do you remember what you did that summer, the last summer break of our high school careers? If you were making any gas purchases, check out the prices below from 1963. Now that's hard proof of the passing of time. Yes, it really has been nearly 50 years...
- Cost of a new house: $12,650.
- Average income per year: $5,807.00
- Gas per gallon: 29 cents
- Average cost of a new car: $3,233.00
- Loaf of bread: 22 cents
News Headlines you might have seen:
Were we aware that we were living in a time of transformative change?
- Birmingham, Alabama police turn dogs and fire hoses on Civil Rights protestors.
- President Kennedy called for an end to discrimination against black people serving in the U. S. military stating the segregation is "morally wrong" and it is "time to act..."
- Alabama Governor George Wallace blocks entrance of state university to African-American students; later backing down when confronted by National Guard called in by President Kennedy.
- Civil Rights leader, Medgar Evers, is assassinated in Mississippi.edy
Martin Luther King and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP declined President Kennedy's request to call off the massive demonstrations in cities nationwide "until the problems that brought the demonstrations into being are resolved".
- Astronaut Gordon Cooper completes 22.5 orbits of the earth aboard Faith-7, the last mission of NASA's Project Mercury.
- Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space aboard Vostok 6.
- Pope John XXIII dies at the Vatican and Paul VI succeeds him.
- 66 year old monk, Thich Quang Due, shocks the world by immolating himself on the streets of Saigon in protest of South Vietnamese President Diem's oppression of Buddhists in that country.
- U. S. military presence in Vietnam had grown from a few hundred to 10,000 by 1963 yet LIFE Magazine reports that "for millions of Americans, Vietnam was a mystery, a riddle that no doubt would be resolved and forgotten in time: a little place far away where inscrutable strangers were fighting over...something." (Ben Cosgrove, editor of LIFE.com)
- U. S. Supreme Court rules that no locality may require recitation of The Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools.
- JFK makes his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech at the Berlin Wall.
- Harvard Professor Timothy Leary loses post after providing students with LSD.
Movies you might have gone to see:
- "Dr. No"
- "Hud"
- "The Nutty Professor"
- "Cleopatra"
- "Donovan's Reef"
Books on the NY Times Best Seller List:
- "The Glass Blowers" by Daphne du Maurier (Doubleday) May
- "The Shoes of the Fisherman" by Morris West (Morrow) June
TV shows you might have watched:
- "The Jetsons"
- "The Lucy Show"
- "Match Game"
- "Professional Bowlers Tour"
- "Petticoat Junction"
Music you would have heard (on your transistor radio?):
- "If You Wanna Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul
- "It's My Party" by Leslie Gore
- "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto
Around Glacier as reported in the spring Avalanche:
- New STUDENT BODY OFFICERS for school year 1963-64 were elected:
- President: Al Starcevich
- Vice-President: Barry Hay
- Secretary: Linda Putman
- Treasurer: Beth Strauss
- Senior Toni Mhyre presided as Prom Queen at the annual JUNIOR-SENIOR PROM, traditionally planned by the junior class in honor of the seniors. The theme was "Drifting and Dreaming" and the gym was decorated with clouds suspended from the ceiling and a fountain as centerpiece.
- The MOTHER-DAUGHTER TEA was held with students modeling clothes from Hy-Lo Fashions in Burien.
- Just under 100 people attended the third annual LATIN CLUB BANQUET where Caesar and club officers presided at a table bedecked with laurel. The theme of the banquet was "Caesar's Palace", transforming the cafeteria into an ornate garden with a statue of Venus de Milo. Student slaves served the lengthy feast including a cake depicting the Roman Colosseum donated by Mrs. Emmy Lou Oakes.
- Three members of our class attended the WASHINGTON STATE YOUTH IN LEGISLATURE PROGRAM in Olympia, an event sponsored by the Washington YMCA. Dan Reif and Barbara Billings represented Glacier Hi-Y, presenting two of the 100 bills introduced by Hi-Y delegates across the state. Maureen Young was sponsored by the Highline Branch of the YMCA and served as Chairman of the Legislative Committee on Education-Personnel and Curricula.
- The GIRLS' FASHION column declared that "shifts" were in and available in stores all over the city with prices beginning at $2.98.
- Trial weight control low calorie SALAD LUNCHES were being tested on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Glacier and Mt. Rainier cafeterias in response to requests from several Moms wanting to help teenagers with weight control. The Avalanche reports, "This new type of lunch is being carefully watched to see if it should be further expanded to more secondary schools." (Editor: The low-cal lunches were "carefully watched" while the hamburgers, mashed potatoes and gravy flowed freely in the '60's.)
- GRIZZLIES BASEBALL season ended with Glacier winning two of seven games, its first against Evergreen at 3-1 and a suspenseful 5-4 win over Renton, scoring four runs in the fourth inning off four Renton errors, two fielder choices and two Glacier stolen bases. The winning pitcher, Ed Sponaugle, threw the first no-hitter ever recorded at Glacier striking out 9 batters in 7 innings.
- J.V. TENNIS played and won two matches, beating Highline 3-1 and Evergreen 4-1.
- Coach Jack Jensen gave his TRACK TEAM kudos for establishing more school records naming some outstanding point getters and performers including three (Rod Malone, Frank Wick and Garth Steedman) from our class.
- And the last summer break of our high school years began. We looked forward to fun, sun and being seniors when we returned in the fall. Welcome Summer 1963!!!
