I love the sound of that. It sounds better to have a jubilee rather than a 50 year anniversary or worse a half century reunion.
Yes, I know my 50th high school reunion was in 2022, but my life wasn’t in a place where I could write. So several things occurred during my 8 year hiatus from writing, and I will gradually get to all the good ones, and maybe leave most of the yucky ones out.
I am still living life one chapter at a time, it is just that I am a bit behind in writing about it.
The first part of this chapter goes far back into history. Yes, this was me 50 years ago.
1972 was an interesting tumultuous year.
Watergate. To those of us who lived it, that is all we need to say. But for the younguns, President Richard Nixon had his cronies break into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate building. Of course they were caught. Then there was lots of drama which led to Nixon’s resignation. (Read All the Presidents Men or watch the movie of the same name.)
The Vietnam War was still going strong and it would stay that way until MARCH 1973. There were so many demonstrations against the war. But to be honest in tiny, quiet De Pere, we had no connection to the war. Yes, people were being drafted, but that didn’t start until after high school for my friends.
Apollo 17 went to the moon. Eugene Cernan and Harris Schmitt were the last two men to walk on the moon until now.
The FIRST SUCCESSFUL VIDEO GAME was Pong and released by Atari. This was the beginning of the video game craze, which is still going strong.
There were only 3 channels to watch anything on TV. If you didn’t see the news on CBS, with Walter Cronkite or NBC or ABC, you didn’t get any news if you didn’t read the paper. Like now, virtually no kids read the newspaper. Walter was the most trusted man in America. There were no conspiracy theories or weird things like that because if Walter said it, it was God’s honest truth.
There were no cell phones and absolutely no privacy with only one phone in the house. We had a yellow wall phone with a super long cord.
This table, these chairs and Walter would have been in our kitchen.
The girls wore jeans, bell bottoms and mini skirts. I think I grew a bit taller after I hemmed one of my dresses and I was afraid I was going to show the whole world my behind. Most of my clothes were hand sewn outfits. I really don’t remember going shopping for clothes, but we did a lot of fabric shopping. Most girls wore their hair long, straight and parted in the middle just like I had.
Boys wore jeans and if they had a Letterman’s Jacket, they wore the red and white jacket with leather sleeves.
Back to 2022
Yes, this is my face 50 years later. You can tell because of all the wrinkles on my neck. I do have blondish hair, but the style of the hair and dress are from 1972. Unfortunately I don’t have the body from 1972. Nor do I look like a 17 year old.
De Pere High School 2022
This was my high school. It is now the middle school.
The Class of 1972
Ok, we look a lot older than we did in 1972, but the memories are still fresh from our high school years. For me, high school was a wonderfully fun time.
And the reunion brought back such great memories, but the very best was seeing all my friends from that long ago time.
Yes, I am in both pictures
Never miss your Jubilee!
