Celebration of the 60th anniversary of our high school graduation was a veritable ring-dang-doo. Just as Mary Jo said we would, June 29 we reunited for dinner amongst the 1940's nostalgia of the Machine Shed and again June 30 for brunch, generously provided and graciously served by some of the finest of our own. In 1955, we were good for a two-day event; we still are, but now we enjoy a little rest at half time. This was the eighth time that we have reunited during the sixty years since High School graduation.
Of our 32 graduates 24 survive and sixteen attended. Here we are in the latter half of our seventies.
Back row L to R: Bob Travis, Dick Hoover, Clarence Milburn, Carl Hays, Roger Peterson, Joan Rhinehart Koehler Center row L to R: Fred Messamer, Tom Castles, Joyce Bennett McGlothlen, Edith Berner Moore, Martha Millen Froseth, Glenna Hawbaker Wampler, Iris Harms Martin Front row L to R: Kay Fox Gruis, Rose Zimmerman Travis, Joyce Dye Button, Coleen McKelvey Milburn, Glennadean VanZee Betterton, Joan Dinsmore Hays, Mary Jo Peitzman Bennet
With apologies to Mason Williams, ""Life is never logical, the faces change the lines all stay the same. I know the places I come in, the exits, but I can't recall your name." Sure, the subjects shift, it used to be weddings, children, houses, cars and careers. Now it's 60th wedding anniversaries, great grandchildren, downsizing, forgetfulness, reconstructive surgeries, naps and earlier bed times. There's a cane or two, a few extra pounds and, with a couple of admirable exceptions, our hair has turned color or disappeared; we celebrated a couple of birthdays, learning who but not how many. We remembered the life of Gaylord Ellerman our one departed class mate since we last met. We welcomed Glennadean's great grand child, "born at 8:00 this very morning." The gender 'balance' we went to high school with, twice as many girls as boys, survives. We learned that at least three of us remember hearing FDR's live broadcast of his, "…a day that shall live in infamy…" speech reporting the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 which anchors the conscious beginnings of our charmed lives squarely with end of the Great Depression and the advent of the spoils of WWII. As you can see in these pages, nestled between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers, ours was and is a special class.
DALLAS CENTER HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1955
FELLOW TRAVELERS FROM DALLAS CENTER HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1955
With Gaylord's recent passing, September 24, 2014, this web address, to which he generously subscribed, generated, and maintained from 2004 has come to my care. Mrs. Ellerman, Donna, has graciously given enough support and encouragement so that I can preserve and maintain the site during preparation for our 60th anniversary reunion, this summer of 2015, and, beyond.
The site's hosting has changed considerably since 2004. Consequently, I have created this HOME page and, a page for each of the 33 persons in the DCHS Class 0f 1955 at graduation plus three transfers who have maintained communication with us over the years. Add to it as you will. Whatever is posted on your page when you leave us is what will remain in perpetuity. So, have another look at dchs1955.org.
I have also brought here the current CLASS ROSTER. Please keep it current by sending updates.
No content posted before January 1, 2015 has been removed from the site. The "Archives" link in the right column of this page leads to all content posted before 2015.
You can visit any page by clicking on any of the links in the right column of this page.
You are encouraged to make your visit to the site, your comments and your news known at the Guestbook Page.
If you have suggestions for dchs1955.org, updates for the class roster or new content, please forward that either on the Guestbook or by email to me at: Gopah@msn.com
Grandpa Carl
OUR PEOPLE
OUR PLACE
OUR TIMES
Nurturing dchs1955.org has been for me a many-hour inspiration and a challenge, trying to move the message to a little more after-May-of-1955, and beyond-the-schoolhouse-walls. Reminiscing among ourselves, over and again I hear, "we were a special class"; our demographics bear that out. But we are also the product of a special place and specialtimes, our story less told. The primary reason for this site is for us to be remembered, among ourselves surely, but also among our survivors. Only we can write our own story/ies of why our "specialness" stands out for remembering.
I want dchs1955.org to record life in our small town in the Midwest hinterlands during/immediately after WWII and how DC/DCHS did or didn't prepare us for what was to come, after the work horse was gone and the pill, Elvis, Salk Vaccine, Betty Friedan, Interstate Highways, Sputnik, AIDS, Viet Nam, the smart phone were upon us. Having started to school during WW II and heading out into the world before the triumphant, post-war economy came to full fruition, we represent a narrow window between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers. As adults, we have welcomed, endured, been challenged with and benefitted from 60 years of unprecedented change. Our home town/school experience surely prepared or failed us in unique ways as strange now to our children and their children as the Music Man's were to us.
To make this worthwhile, we must write our story together, before the colors fade, the parts that our picture album does not in itself tell others.
To encourage you, I have created a list of titles for short essays (maybe one typed page), ideas that I know have stories behind them, and the classmates who have volunteered to write about them or something similar. Change or add your title as you will. You have other stories too, add those as you will.
Whatever you send to me by June 15 is planned to be posted by the time we meet on June 29. Please write, if we all contribute as remarkably as we've done everything else these past 70-plus years, dchs1955.org can be a lasting memoir of one "special" class; we're worth it!
English and Other Languages: Four Years of the Ten Missed—Glenna
Glorious, Glorious, only one school for the four of us--Edith
Athletics: wins and losses for what it was worth— Rose and Bob
Agriculture: memories of a farmer's wife—Joan (Hays)
A Coat of Many Colors: from a fruit roll to a prom dress—Kay
Demographics: the numbers that stand us apart—Carl
The law: one one-armed man, one red light, a watermelon patch and other stories--
Agriculture: one farmer and a whole lot of "other"--
After hours: Dancin' and Drivin'--
The DC business community: what you see (In the "biennial yearbook") is what there was--
Keying is a ten-fingered skill: What, you want big thumbs or somethin'?—
Religion and religious tolerance: 964 citizens, seven churches and scoffers too, --
Your title here--Your name here
Grandpa Carl
*When we met in 1990, social events coordinator Mo at the podium, the group agreed, henceforth, to meet every five years; I volunteered to be the scribe, not the sole author. https://youtu.be/zoQbIFLBrM0
**We were generally successful in accomplishing the tasks given to us when we were school kids, successful, maybe not elegant. Here we are in our early/mid fifties, still successful, still maybe not elegant. Click https://youtu.be/rcuJE2dkvDE to see how we got here
