For four days I felt like, and we treated others like we were 16, except that we had the poise and confidence gained over another 50 years of being an adult. We did not just talk to our own group. It was my 49th school reunion and Marilyn's 51st and we would also see our friends from the classes of 50 and 52. Jeanne, my older sister, and I both flew to Denver (Marilyn bought my ticket and found one for only $200 which was so nice of her, then we drove to Billings.
Wednesday night we stayed at the former Pat's home. She was a close friend of Jeanne's growing up and I had played with her little sister Donna. They were neighbors when we moved to Glendive in 1934 and then also lived on the Heights near them from 1939 on. I had not seen Billings since I taught there in 55-56 when I came up there for one last chance to see if Harry and I could work out our differences and get married. He was working in Glendive at the time. I lived with George's girlfriend Suzy and another lovely Catholic girl named Pat. She had just broken up with a Mormon boy so it was ironic. Anyway Pat drove us around Billings and took us to the new Temple. It is a little whiter and has much more garden and land around it but sits up against a hill, just like Reno Temple. Pat said the neighbors did not like the lights on at night. It was very lovely.
We stayed at my sister Carole's and Len's home owned by Mary, my sister-in-law. There were plenty of beds for all but Len and Carole slept downstairs. We arrived on Thursday around noon and had a delicious salad for lunch. In the afternoon we stopped in a few stores down town and I saw Al from my class. He was not going to the reunion and told me he had dropped out in 9th grade, which I did not remember. He appeared very old and was having some medical problems, obviously, but still had his cute smile and sweet way about him. His wife runs the furniture store.
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| Bernie |
The first event was separate parties at classmates homes. Mine was at Bernie's home on Kendrick. It is a beautiful, older home restored perfectly and furnished with lovely antiques which Bernie was an expert at refinishing. Bernie's wife Bev is a jewel--a school teacher he married in 1964. I had to go to the party alone as Myrna (childhood friend) was getting a ride over with Eddie according to Maureen. She has to take medication and needed help walking, possibly. I was a little nervous about it but rang the bell and walked on in--I thought I was the first one but then heard noises from below and descended a circular staircase.
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| Myrna with Bandido |
Myrna called out, "Who's coming down? and I said "Janet Anderson Hardy". She said, "I heard you were beautiful." and then as I reached the floor, "and you are." I said, "Who told you that?" and she said, "I'll never tell." And we were talking as if we had just seen each other yesterday instead of 40 some years ago. I shook hands with Flossie who had worked so hard on making this all happen and she still looks much the same. Norm, Lorraine's husband, came up and gave me a hug and Bernie came from behind the bar and gave me a hug. He has slimmed down and is quite good looking with his white hair. He always was around my locker because his friend Lee's was right next to mine, so I always considered him a choice friend. Bill came up and gave me a hug. He earns money being Santa Claus so was easily recognizable with his white beard and mustache. You can see his beautiful blue eyes now. He is always fun to talk to and was always around making us laugh. He and Berta Mae (Carla) double dated with George and I on our first date in Junior High. He kept telling me how beautiful I was--probably tells that to everyone or else the improvement from High school was dramatic.
Maria had told me to get pictures of all my old boyfriends so I kept that in mind as I started this journey with high school friends from the years 1947-1951.
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| Bill |
Lorraine came up and we immediately began chatting. She looks so much the same and has hardly aged! Mona (divorced from ) came up and Poot, her now husband. I told Poot the last time I had seen him was when we went out and he said, " I never went out with you, you were way out of my class!" Actually, we were sitting next to each other when a lot of us had gathered at the Montana Inn during the holidays when we were all home from college! Harry came in with a date (he and I were broken up at the time) and his chair collapsed and it was very awkward with everyone watching us. Anyway Poot asked me to dance which I thought was so nice of him as it changed the moment. Poot was a very fast runner and made a lot of touchdowns for us! Anyway I explained it to him and he did remember. I never knew he thought I was out of his class. I was just dating boys I had met through my sister's group in an upper class.
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| Poot |
Shirley, our neighbor through all the years on the heights, came with her husband Lou and was very interesting to talk to, as always. She was one of the brightest students and I had known her from second grade on, I used to color books at her house and tried so hard to stay in the lines as well as she did. Shirley has been great to keep up with the Christmas cards and they always do such interesting things. She caught me up on where our friend Ellen is now so maybe I can write her. She was one of the Japanese who was sent inland to live during WWII. Shirley's hair is still brown naturally, something she inherited from her father, she said.
Lou and Shirley
Joyce still looks very young and she is a great talker, too. I think she was the one who had a son in Reno. I did not get her picture. Myrna and I were sitting at the bar, facing out and watching the crowd assemble. Kayand husband Al soon arrived. She was one of my best friends' also and I had seen her two summers ago when I visited Marilyn. Kay looks just as young and beautiful as she always did, she colors her hair a little and exercises a lot and is very slim and trim. They are a very good looking couple.
Kay and Al
A very striking couple, who none of us knew, came down and she immediately came over and talked to us. She was Carole's friend Patty and had married Harold from our class. Hal was a nerdy looking, skinny boy in high school but was now very handsome and charming. They had worked with her father building malls in Montana and then went to California where he worked for Ernst and Young for awhile. He has also done bit parts in movies and appeared in the Star Trek series and "Father of the Bride". He is very fun to talk to and I doubt I said a word to he him in high school. She is a striking platinum hair beauty.
There were delicious snacks so Myrna and I filled our trays and sat back down. Soon Myrna, Kay, Lorraine and I were in the corner and talked and talked and talked. Myrna's medication began to wear off so I offered to drive her home (Marilyn's car). The car was fogged up so when we got out on the highway we had a hard time seeing and Myrna was directing from her open window. We were laughing like a couple of teenagers. I wore my white jeans, teddies and Mickey Mouse shirt. At each event, some were dressed up and some were casual.
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| Myrna, Myself, Lorraine, Kay |
Note from 2021...Myrna, I have stayed with several times in Manhattan Beach as I came to and from San Diego, she passed a few years ago. She has a granddaughter who is in Tanner's Med Classes. Her daughter always reminded me of Linda. Her daughter is a friend on Facebook. I was Maid of Honor at Lorraine's wedding in the Methodist Church and had a beautiful yellow formal. They had a ranch in Big Timber which I have only been to once. We do Christmas cards but she is not on social media. Kay and I still communicate on social media and occasional calls.
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| Myself, Myrna, and Jackie Braswell Schlict |
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| Lorraine and Norm |
Then Dick Carney, Harry's best friend, came up and started talking to me and so I stood up. We had a nice chat and he was consoling me about the death of my husband. I said, "Well, Dick, we always called you 'Pockets'--tell me did you end up the richest of all these guys?" He said, "no, there is another here and he is the only one wearing a Rolex watch, name of Harry Becker!" I thought it was cute the way he said it. I said, "Good for him, how did he do it?" "Just being at the right place at the right time and with the special talents he has."
Shortly thereafter as I was standing and talking to a group Harry came over and we moved to the left and he put his arm around me and said, "Janet" as if surprised to see me. I had not been to any of the other reunions. We filled each other in briefly about our lives presently. He consoled me about the death of my husband and hugged me again. He told me about his business that his son is now running and he just checks in and counsels with him. I asked him how George and Suzy got back together and he told me that story. Just then Myrna came up and said something about us not having seen each for 44 years and "as many pounds" I added, and he agreed and touched his waistline. I said, "You look good, you really do." And he gave me another hug, which Myrna said later was so endearing and that all our friends were watching in interest. I said, "It felt good, he was always so caring and protective." When he left, I said he owed me a dance tomorrow and Myrna said, "Yes, you can dance with all us widows." (That never happened, evidently his wife had given him strict orders to no more than 10 minutes with me.)
It is interesting how we all put ourselves out to go up and talk to everyone and we all said very generous things to each other. Too bad we were not always that way in high school but managed often to stay within our groups. We finally left around 10:30. I could not believe it was so late already.
Saturday there was a luncheon at the Jordan but first we went to look at the house Len and Carole are buying. Counting the basement there is about 1450 square feet. I think it will be a very workable situation but they are going to miss their sun porch at Mary's. Anyway I was wearing my matching jeans and shirt and tennis shoes which I then wore to the luncheon which was probably not the best choice. Myrna was there as I came in and Marilyn had saved a table for us. Adele and Frances sat at our table and we had fun chatting.
Frances had written down all the deaths in the class of 49 and I was surprised at how many there were. Claude, Marilyn's boyfriend, was the first. He was killed just a year after graduation when he crashed his car. I remember how sad it was when they lowered him in the grave and I had just began to sob. Marilyn's friend Shirley was also on the list and she had died of cancer.
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| Class of 49--Marilyn 2nd from left |
it was interesting that Frances was impressed that Harry had come up and spoke to her, that he was always friendly and that each reunion everyone was talking to more people and in fact that she had spoken to more people last night than she had in all of high school. This just shows you how people fall in to groups and its hard to move from one to the other in high school.
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| Eddy and Myrna at 50th Reunion--the Jitterbuggers |
I was lucky because I made friends early on with Phyllis and so got to know the sophomores and then, of course, Marilyn was a junior and so I got to know her friends. Those three classes had a lot of parties and fun times together, which is why we got to know the older boys and dated them for the proms and such. The only boy I every dated in my class was Lee and that was when Harry was away at college.
Marilyn Kelly's daughter came up to the table to talk to Myrna and Frances said, "Is that Marilyn Kelly?' and Adel said, "Yes," and I said, "No, that is her daughter!" Marilyn does look so young and her husband later told me that when they took a trip recently to Europe, the people were always confused about which was which. "She works at it." he said. Adele told us how she and Warren Carlson ( no relation) always pretended to be brother and sister. Myrna told us she had married a few years after her first husband died and then he had passed away after only six months!
Saturday night was still cool and rainy so I wore my Zoo dress and white jacket and sandals. We had to be there for pictures in the late afternoon and I brought my camera to do the "boyfriend pictures". First one in the door was Curt and I told him I had had a crush on him in the 6th grade (or 5th) so Myrna took our picture. He married Iris and lives in Glendive.
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| Curt |
Also Dale came up and I wouldn't have recognized him. He has had a hard time health wise--said that Dick and Harry had picked him up in Billings but that his wife could not attend. We reminisced at how we got in trouble in study hall because we were always talking and that Moody had called me up and told me that I must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle and to please be quiet. Dale reminded me of when he and Bill had visited me in San Diego and I couldn't remember where I was living at the time and neither could he.
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| Jackie and Bob |
At picture taking Myrna and I wanted to be in the 2nd row so we wouldn't have to show our legs sitting down in the first row. Shirley and another short girl came up behind us and so I told them to come down in my place and I would move up with the boys. I ended up between Hal and Bill and they were fun to talk to. I kidded I would tell my daughter I was standing between two movie stars. Both do bit parts. Bill is a Santa Claus and was in the beginning of "Basic Instincts". Hal was in the Star Trek series and also "Father of the Bride".
After picture taking I talked to Bernie and Bill for a long time and they told me about Bill being in the air force and Bernie would not join with him and then ended up drafted and both were in Germany at the same time but Bernie got to go home sooner because he only had 2 years and Bill had 4. I told them about the boyfriend picture thing and that even though they weren't my boyfriends I was going to take their picture because they were always around. Bill said, "Yeah, how come we were always your brothers and not your boy friends." Bernie said he was always afraid to ask me out. My locker was next to his friend Lee and he was around it a lot and then I did date his brother Mike in my freshman or sophomore year. Then Hal came up and began telling us some very funny stores. He is so charming. I was impressed that he even held my arm as I got down off the riser from having the pictures.
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| Norm Anderson |
Marilyn came up and said she had a place saved for me. Lo and behold it was the next table to Harry and his wife and it was hard to look anywhere without looking at them. I decided to talk to Kay and Lorraine for awhile as they were not serving yet and then I saw Norm Anderson sitting there so I told him I needed his picture as "one of my old boyfriends." He said, "Yeah, 47 years ago, (I think it was longer than that though???)
We began to talk about his family and especially his older son and then Harry walked by and I said, "Oh, I haven't your picture yet, my daughter wanted pictures of all my old boyfriends. "All your old boyfriends" he mimicked. (He is right, there was really not that many). I said, "Your wife won't mind, will she?" And he mimicked "My wife won't mind?" Anyway Andy took our picture but Harry moved too soon to ask me a question and so he had to take it again. The camera does a lot of noise before the flash goes off and people are always thinking it is done. I later learned he was not supposed to talk to me Saturday night at all so it is good I didn't know that or I would not have gotten his picture. The only pictures I could not get were George Samuelson, my grade school friend as he and Suzy were tending their grandchildren; Mike who had passed away, and Dean, who I dated once, and he has also passed away, and Lee, who was not there.
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| Harry |
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| Harry |
The dinner was buffet style and they started at our end and we were the second table so we got plenty of food but I could hardly eat anything at all so I just talked and laughed with Myrna. The speakers finally began and were good. Lowell spoke for the year 49, Harry for the year 50, Emory for the year 51 and Don for the year 52.
Each speaker got progressively funnier. Harry spoke well and I told Myrna he talked like Johnny Carson and she said she had never heard him speak that way and I said I hadn't either but neither of has had heard him talk for a long time. He spoke about how he did not reminisce about the past but moved forward into the future!
Emory did a lot of reminiscing about our wonderful class and made us feel that we were the smartest, the brightest and the best. He flattered me by adding my name to the homecoming queens as the "cuties" in the class. It was a good talk and brought back a lot of memories so I asked for a copy of he talk and he said he would email it to me. Don had us all laughing with some very fumy jokes.
Emory was one of those late bloomers, not noticed in high school by me and is now very handsome and has a great command of speaking. He was a pastor for 35 years but told me how hard it was for him to learn to speak. He supplements his retirement as a painting contractor. His wife is really beautiful. Lovely couple.
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| Hubert Huebl and Maureen H Skillestead |
They handed out T-shirts to the winners of the golf tournament and then said that they had all tied and so gave them all one. Some of the rest of us requested one also and they will order some more. It had "Red Devils" on it. I made sure that I got pictures of all my girlfriends and their husbands. I talked to Hubert and he took our picture to send to Berta Mae( Carla) and said he would give her our email addresses as he did not have hers.
I even had enough nerve to go up to Warren and his wife "Oh, yes", he said, "we did have a date." His wife is very pretty and they were interesting to talk to about Washington.
On Sunday morning Maureen asked me if I had accomplished my mission and I said I had except for the ones that were not there!
Continuing on Saturday night, we were sitting and talking at the tables furthest from the dancing and at one moment I looked up and caught the eye of Norm "Andy", who was was sitting alone. I smiled and he came over and we had a long talk about our lives which I do not need to go into here. But we had a nice camaraderie and I enjoyed talking to him.
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| Betty Barkema Seiler |
Sunday we went to a breakfast buffet at 8:30 and sat with Myrna, Maureen, Eddie , Hal and his wife. I got pictures of them all and then we said our goodbyes. I also took Shirley and Louis picture and Betty . Myrna said she would call when she got home. There was a huge line by now so glad we were there early and on our way to Church. Deloris, Audree, and George were just coming in so was able to get their picture, too. It was a great reunion and it was fun being 17 again--now back to 67.
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| Deloris and George, Audree, Judy |
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| Deloris (Sieve), Audree and George |
Sunday afternoon we drove out to Makoshika Park and they have really made a big deal out of it now with a Visitor Center and a new stadium. Monday morning we started for Denver. It was a great trip. The flight home was a little scary--huge dust storm plus rain coming into Phoenix. Found out later one plane had been hit by lightening and another had slid in and landed on a wing. I was imagining I was going down for sure. The plane was 2 1/2 hrs late so I stayed in Susanville and picked up up my monitor the next day--yea!
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| Suzi and George 2008 Not at Reunion |
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| Carla and Aaron. Not at reunion |
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