OLDS — Twenty-eight people were registered to attend the 65th anniversary reunion of the Olds High School (OHS) class of 1957.
The event, which consisted of a lengthy luncheon, was held July 13 in the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #105.
Attendees came from as far as Victoria, Edmonton, and High River as well as Calgary.
The class entered Grade 1 in 1945. Their teacher was Mrs. Halldane.
Four of those attendees were in school together all the way from Grade 1 to Grade 12: Duane (Chester) Dodd, Walter Schultz, Don Smith and Alex Ritchie.
A fifth, Tom Johnson, was unable to be present for a photo of that group.
Another student Doris (Descheneau) Neufeld, was in school from Grade 1 to about Grade 7 before moving to Calgary. She returned to Olds when she was about 18, and thus is included as part of the group and posed for a group photo.
Jim Wong also graduated with the class. His family was one of the early influential families in the community in the early days of Olds.
Also included in the class of '57 is Jeanne Miller, who didn’t start Grade 1 with the rest of the group but joined their Grade 2 class when the Grade 1s and 2s were amalgamated in 1946.
Those on the list to attend this year’s reunion were: David and Jeanne (Miller) Harrison, Vic Sullivan, Inez (Chaloner) Watkins, Carole (Wilkinson) and Morris Scriven, Ken and Patsy (Coates) Sirois, Duane (Chester) and Ruth (Remmy) Dodd, Don and Jean Smith, Phillip and Marilyn Sicotte, Darlene (Schielke) Phillips, Doris (Descheneau) and Jay Neufeld, Dale Holmes, Barbara Thomson, Josephine (Crouch) Kearney, Alex and Marilyn Ritchie, Lyle Bliss, as well as Walt and Barb Schultz.
Tom Johnson was also on that list, but as noted above, was said to have not been able to be there.
During an interview, Don Smith, a main organizer of the event, said in previous years, the reunions were more extensive. He could recall one in the late '80s when about 500 people attended and a big golf tournament was held.
But he said these days, at age 83, a luncheon is about all organizers and attendees can manage.
Smith said the number of people in the graduating class was at least in “the high 20s,” so a turnout of 28 people is pretty good.
Smith began organizing the reunion about four months ago.
They weren’t able to have a reunion for the past couple of years, due to COVID restrictions. As a result he said, seeing members of the group again is almost like catching up with relatives.
“We knew all of their parents, and in a lot of cases, we knew the grandparents. So we really are part of their family, almost.”
Smith said the quality of the education they received at OHS was as good as anywhere and that showed in the variety of careers that the '57 grads embarked on.
Jobs they obtained included working in oil and gas, merchandising, retail sales and various aspects of the vehicle business.
He said the class, while diverse, was very close-knit.
In addition to Wong, some were the children of very prominent residents. Smith noted that Miller’s dad was mayor of Olds for many years and did much to improve the community.
“We didn’t have running water. Everyone had outdoor toilets,” smith said, adding that all changed in about 1947 when a sewer and water system was installed.
Given their age, Smith was asked if the class will likely get together for a 70-year reunion.
Smith was skeptical about that. He noted a few class members have already passed away, including one who died just a few weeks ago.
"In some ways it’s amazing that we’re 83 years old and we’ve got all these people and they’re relatively healthy,” Smith said. “Some have a walker or a cane, but they’re here.”
He said although members of the class are retired, it takes a lot more time and effort than many can spare to organize reunions.
Smith admitted he’s a bit of an exception to that rule. He described himself as feeling like “a bit of a stalker” because when organizing reunions, he just keeps on classmates until he gets a response.
He recounted the enormous effort he went through to track down Descheneau to invite her to a reunion many years ago.
“You feel almost like you’re a stalker or something, except she was so thrilled when I got hold of her, because for years, she’d heard about this but didn’t know how to get involved in it,” he said.
He recalled Descheneau’s reaction at this year's reunion.
“It was like she found her big long lost family,” he said.
That kind of reaction is a big reason Smith likes to organize the reunions — the fun of meeting everyone again.
“The friendship and everything is still there,” Smith said. “Basically what we are is the same little kids in Grade 1 in these old bodies.”
