Olympus High Class of 1967

The Olympus High School Class of 1967 met at Little America on Friday, August 24, 2012, for our 45th year reunion.   I told Dave I was afraid it would be a big mismatch--I wouldn't remember the people who knew me, and the people I knew would look back blankly.  Not to worry.  As I walked into the dining hall, my old friend, Kathy Goodman Reynolds, immediately welcomed me, and childhood pals, Kathy Lynott English and Judy Work Christiansen, were handing out nametags.  The tables of my friends were full, though, so Dave and sat with two couples I didn't know.  It turned out to be a highlight of the event, reliving high school from two very different viewpoints, as well as my own.

I reported, for our table, on a "table question."  Ours was, "What is a favorite memory from high school?" Kent Spencer, who became a truck driver, remembers his art teacher recognizing that he had special talent.  He also remembers the counselors breaking up his fistfights in the halls!  David Vierig, who became a chemical engineer, remembers playing in the school orchestra and developing his talent with the violin.  Playing the violin has been a lifelong pleasure, although he ruefully turned to making his living another way.  I related being a member of Pep Club the year that our dresses (see photo above) consisted of a very low-cut green dress with a separate, gray "dickie" fastened around our necks and tucked into the dress.  All season we struggled to keep our dickies in place.  Our fantasy was, at the last game of the season, to rip off the dickies and throw them to the audience!

When I was in high school, I had two sets of friends--the "good girls" from my neighborhood (good students, good Church-goers, very conscientious) and the writers, artists, and "intellectuals"who seemed more sophisticated at the time.  I was interested (but not really surprised) to see that it was the "good girls" who ran the reunion.  My old friend, Karen Thatcher, the moderator for the awards session (see photo above), gave out awards for all sorts of achievements, from longest married to most granchildren to best golf score to most operations and spouses.  Each award included a gift certificate to a shop that was in business in 1967 but isn't now.  I won a "pig's dinner" for two at Snelgrove's for having the most post-high school certificates and degrees (operating room technician certificate, bachelor's degree, teaching certificate, and law degree). 

 

 

On Saturday morning, I joined other members of my class in wandering the halls of Olympus High School.  The old building is slated for demolition in a few months, and a new, much bigger school is already being built in the parking lot.

 

 

 

I noted wryly that the elderly looking man at the check-in booth by the front door of Olympus High was not a former teacher, but the husband of one of my classmates, Wendy Wheat!

I paused on the front lawn to talk with several old friends.  Jill Whittaker Healy, on the left, was the organizer of the reunion.  She lives four minutes drive from where she grew up, and all five of her children live within seven minutes drive from her!  Diana Wiley, in the middle, was our student body secretary.  She was so beautiful, as a teenager, that a modeling company approached her on the streets of New York City, as she vacationed, and asked her to come work for them.  Diana now lives in Houston.  The closest friend of Diana and her husband is L.E. Simmons, a mission companion of Dave's who became a Texas multimillionaire, and Diana wore very sparkly rings and earrings.  Cece Foxley, on the right, was my beloved high school English teacher.  Her husband was killed in a car accident the year after she taught us, and a group of us attended the funeral.  It was one of my first brushes with tragedy.  Cece went on to spend 10 years as the Commissioner of Higher Education for Utah.  She outlived two husbands and, in her retirement, is setting up a university system for the United Arab Emirates!

Inside the school, I looked for Jenny Leatham Spendlove's photo among the shots of student body officers dating back to the 1950s.  I also talked with three old friends gathered around the awards cabinets--Kathy Goodman Reynolds, Judy Work Christiansen, and Pat Renzetti.  We talked about how high school was a somewhat painful time, partly because we didn't realize how many others in our class felt as awkward as we did.  Judy remembered decorating for every dance but not being invited to any of them (I didn't get invited, either, but I didn't subject myself to the misery of decorating for dances I knew I wouldn't go to).  I remembered my mom, just trying to be helpful and speaking out of her own experience, telling me that I should concentrate on being smart, because I would probably never be popular.  And Kathy, who is Jewish, remembered being told, in a science class, that 90% of the inhabitants of the world are dark haired and dark-eyed.  She raised her hand and asked, "You mean blond and blue-eyed, don't you?"  as she looked around at the Aryan members of the class.  "No," the teacher affirmed, and that changed Kathy's perception of herself.

I checked out the class website, Olympushigh1967.com, and found both sad and happy things. I found a photo of my present neighbor, Robin Edwards Petty, attending the senior prom with our student body president, Larry Jensen.  Camille and Steve lived for several years in Larry's old home in Holladay.  Robin and I both thought the sun rose and set on Larry Jensen.  A story I laugh about now is Larry losing a bet with me and having to take me on a dinner date.  After he took me home, I offered to show him around our house, hoping to spend some pleasant time on the sofa in the family room.  When we arrived in the family room, the sofa was covered with a line of my brothers' underpants, set out to dry by my mother.  The date ended abruptly!

I found two copies of the school newspaper, the Thunderbolt, which I edited.  One copy featured Larry Jensen winning as student body president.  The other copy included a photo of me, just chosen as a graduation speaker, along with two sophisticates and two of the "good girls". 

And I found a picture of Janet Wheeler Evans in the "Forever Young" section of the website.  Janet was the friend I grew up with, whose house bordered my dad's raspberry patch.  I sent Janet a Christmas letter last December, and I wondered why I didn't get a card from her. She was already gone.  She died in November 2011.  Janet moved to St. George several years ago, and I always meant to get together.