Saturday, July 9 – a rainy day – found 32 Andover High School (AHS) classmates at the Andover Elementary/Middle School (AE/MS), the scene of many past fun-filled events for alumni. There was a lot of memorabilia to jog our memories of friends, plays, dances, sports, and other school activities.
Ellie George had a list of items that were required for Freshman Initiation Day. As I recall, it included (for girls) shorts, one boot, one man’s shoe, and a bucket. Freshman were required to bow to upperclassmen. What we thought of as fun would probably be called harassment today and not allowed.
We started the meeting with our spirited Andover Cheer. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and God Bless America, led by Gay Ellen Rayno. We sang a couple of our school songs, which are pretty familiar as we sing them every year.
A poem entitled I’m Free was read, and a moment of silence was observed for our departed classmates who died since the last reunion: Betty Phelps Cook ’54, Pauline Richardson Richards ’46, Lily Ordway ’53, Chester Martin ’48, Barbara Ford Holden ’45, Richard Clapper (in 2014) ’59, John R. McAuliffe ’41, David Monroe Jewett ’63, Carol Hill Gallagher ’62, Kenneth Heath ’54, Louise Gallup ’53, and Alice Perkins Burnham ’42.
Class pictures were taken, and we had representatives from classes ’41, ’42, ’49, ’50 ,’52, ’53, ’54, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’60, ’61, and ’62. The class with the most attendees was ’58.
Margery Walker Piper won the door prize, and Nelson Aldrich came the closest to guessing the number of beans in the jar.
Frank Haley was recognized for his fundraising efforts on behalf of the blind.
Harold Crane (California) and Jerry Alley (Texas) came the farthest to attend the reunion.
At the meeting, it was decided that all future reunions would be held at AE/MS. The reasons were that it is handicap accessible, there are no weather concerns, and as one of our classmates commented, it is where it all began.
We adjourned to a delicious pot luck lunch with a variety of wonderful desserts.
Hope to see you all next year on the Saturday after the Fourth of July, at the School!