Local Video
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| 50th reunion book is a treasure |
By: MAGGIE LEE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Friday, November 6, 2009 10:33 pm
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Maybe it has been done for several years, but the 50th reunion book of the Northfield High School class of 1959 is the first one I’ve seen. It’s a wonderful idea.
With nearly 100 pages, the paperback book features a picture of NHS on the cover. The initial printed matter is a piece written for the class’s 25th reunion by the late Allan Drentlaw, tracing the development of the group from “we are born and the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor” to “now we meet again, not to discuss the changes in us and the world, but to rediscover the things that made us what we are today.”
There is a cute essay hailing those born before 1945 which includes such lines as “In our day, grass was mowed, Coke was a cold drink, pot was something you cooked in.” A list of classmates who have died follows.
And then begins the major section of the book. For each member of the class there is a page that includes the classmate’s graduation picture, a brief history of the person since graduation, and perhaps some other pictures — children, grandchildren, for instance.
I didn’t expect to run into many pages that would obtain news of people I had known well, but before long I came across the page for Judith Closson Olson. When she was a little girl, her family lived across the street from me. Because she has spent much of her adult life in Washington, D.C., I have known her siblings better than Judy. And her mother, Martha, was long a good friend. So it was fun to catch up on Judy’s current life, retirement to Woman Lake near Longville, Minn., and winters in Florida.
Well, goodness, there is a page about Dr. David Garlie who as a veterinarian here in Northfield, has taken care of my pet cats.
Of course there is a page about Allene Shaver Moesler whose mother, Emma, was a dear friend of mine. I have occasionally seen Allene through the years as she and her husband, Guenther Moesler, live at Lake Byllesby and she for some time served as executive director of the Cannon River Watershed Partnership with the mission to clean up the river. What I didn’t know was that in recent years Allene and Guenther have visited his relatives in Europe and that they have enjoyed places like Bermuda, the Panama Canal, Alaska, Hawaii, Amsterdam and the Mediterranean.
At the back of the book are brief paragraphs about class members who failed to respond or who didn’t provide a full page of material. Virgil Wood is one of those and I especially enjoyed the sentence about his wife, the former Sue Johnson: “Visits to the Allina Clinic in Northfield are much less scary because Sue is the first person one sees upon entering and she always has a smile to put even the most miserable soul at ease.” Her father, Kenneth “Knute” Johnson was a co-worker of mine at this newspaper for many years.
Oh dear, it was stupid of me to start this as there are quite a number of people from the class of 1959 that I have known somewhat, or that everybody living in Northfield knows.
Please tell me whether such a book is a regular occurrence for a 50-year anniversary class.
I graduated from NHS 70 years ago in the spring of 1939. We didn’t even have a reunion this year. In years past I’ve had quite a bit to do with planning reunions, but recuperating from a rotator cuff injury, I somehow didn’t feel up to it this time. There aren’t a heck of lot of us left anyway. But I guess those of us living in the area should have at least had a picnic. Maybe next summer when I’m feeling better, we can have a 71st reunion! Or should we take a chance on waiting for the 75th?
— Reach Staff Writer Maggie Lee at 507-645-1119. |
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