Con. 8 Reunion: 2005

Saturday Sept 17th, 2005 at the Roosevelt Sr. Citizens Center

More than 100 persons attended the 2005 Con. 8 reunion at the Roosevelt, OK, Senior Citizens Center which started up at noon, and continued into the evening after a delightful buffet meal catered at about 6:00 pm. Packed around, and continuing through our enjoyment of dinner, was a busy time of renewing old bonds of friendship, sharing news of old friends and memories of those community experiences that have molded us all.

The 2005 Reunion Committee

This reunion was magnificently arranged by an efficient and hardworking set of Co-Chairs. These people spent considerable time in the past two years, calling, arranging (arm twisting?) and mailing and encouraging in order to make this happen in the delightful way it did.

Roosevelt Sr. Citizens Center

We were fortunate to have the use of the Roosevelt Senior Center.  This has been “our biannual home” at least beginning with the 1999 reunion. We are much appreciative of the good relations that were cultivated even in the distant past between the “Pirates” of Con. 8 and their neighbors, the “Roughriders” of  Roosevelt.

Those relations are much facilitated in the present day by the old-time Con. 8 pirate Willie Jackson and his charming wife Norene.

Shortly after noon, those many parking places vacant in the picture to the right began to fill. It appears our camera man did not closely monitor this development, but this shot somewhat after noon, communicates the idea of the gathering of the clan.

This is a shot primarily of Neil Hickerson, class of 1955, and I don’t think he is just now arriving. As a member of the sponsoring class, and a brother-in-law of two of the Co-Chairs, Neil would have been put to work at the “crack of noon”.

These pictures, and many that follow, are mostly from the files of our Unofficial Roving Photographers, and the previous two reunions.

Even those who circulated fully at the gathering might have seen only his camera lens and also been blinded by the surprise flash. So, here he is without camera, Charles Theodore “Ted” Blish, class of 1949.

Inside the Building, the visiting began at the reception desk.

Here Fred Polly, class of 1949, compares notes with Margaret (Nichols) Chiristensen, Class of 1960. Fred already has something to drink so he has been here a few minutes.

In the background Myrle (Nichols) Hendrickson and Rita (Smith) Walker have apparently remembered some amusing episode (probably from the fifties, wouldn’t you guess?).

In the picture below the common theme is the name REESE.

Seated in in the foreground to the left are Wayne Reese and Opal (Reese) Herrin. Then in the white shirt at the end of the table is Ron Reese. All these Reese attended Con. 8 and are cousins, children of three Reese brothers, Ed, Carl, and Claude. The two ladies on the right side of the table are Zula, spouse of Wayne, and Derna spouse of Ron. Of the the two barely discernible persons in the background the lady listening attentively to the story presented by Ron is Elouise (Brewer) Curtis. Elouise’s husband Byrd is beside her. We caught them later after Ron had finished his story, but not together.

Here he is, and to Bryd’s right, Eldon Dickson.

Here is collection of athletic gentlemen looking for a basketball court.

Attendee’s from the 1952-1953 basketball team: Ray Curtis, George Sorell, Herman Ritchie, Noel Brewer and Danny McClure.

That 1953 Senior Boy’s team was one of our premier entries in  the sports hall of fame.  Unfortunately the sports archives do not have a picture of that team taken in 1953. I am sure that other teams both men’s and women’s and in the absence of a basketball court had to content themselves with just talking about those past glories.

C. H. and Helen McClure are in focus, here, in the foreground, and we can all make guesses about who is who in the back ground examining the history posters on the wall or groups engaged in discussion of special topics or special gossip.

Also, at this reunion, some business was done, and important steps taken to form an organization to provide perpetual care for the Con. 8 Monument Site and for other less tangible parts of the Con. 8 Tradition.

This year spouses were encouraged to join in the class photographs. Usually, it is easily determined which is the class member and which is a spouse. Some cases may be harder to puzzle out because both are Con. 8 graduates of the same or perhaps different years. Distinguishing those is sometimes left as an exercise for the reader. As has always been the case we have a large number of persons who may not have graduated at Con. 8 but were members of a class for many important years and in everyone’s hearts they are remember with that class. And finally, this year we have a number of persons in group photograph who are the “virtual classes” who would been graduates in later years had the school not had to close.

This is an important group for us.  These are a few of the many who were Con. 8 students for many fondly remembered years, but the school had to close before their year of graduation.

For the first time we made a small effort to how many we could collect together for a photograph.  We didn’t get all I’m sure and we’ll plan to have an enlarged group all the way from ’58 to ’67.

Queta (Sims) Catlin abt 1962?

Gayle (Brown) Riddle abt 1960

Terry Schrader Spouse of Phil

Phil Schrader Class of ’64 or ’65

Margaret (Nichols) Class of ’64

Myrle Ann (Nichols) Hickerson Class of ’58

Taken directly from a story in the Hobart Democrat Chief, sent to the Editor by Maggie (Barnes) Walker Class of 1947.

Those attending the reunion were Ronnie and Peggy Avants, Lois (Sorel) Barnes, Zelma (Taylor) Bell, Bill and Helen Blish, Ted Blish, J.K. and Betty Bock, Lillie (Stephens) Brewer and Brenda Gregory, Noel and Ginny Brewer, Margaret (Nichols) Christenson, Joy (Shockley) Clark, Leonard Cleal and Joan Pazack and Ada Wedman, Roxie (Cooper) Collins, Jack Culvahouse, Dutch Cooper, Byrd and Elouise (Brewer) Curtis, Ray Curtis, Christine (Newton) Davis, Charles and Thelma (Barnes) Davis, David and Fern Denham, Eldon Dickson, Leo Dickson, Norris Dickson, Delbert and Fern (Speights) Durham, Carol (McClure) Friesen, Ron and Carol (McFarland) Guthrie, Ivar and Marlene (McClure) Henins, Opal (Reese) Herrin, Neil and Myrle (Nichols) Hickerson, Birlee (Schrader) Holder, Tom Holder, Jewel (Ritchie) Jackson, Willie and Norene Jackson, Polly Mainer, Reba (Vanderslice) Marshall, Verna (Bailey) Mahoney, Charlena Mask, Major and Darlene McClure, C.H and Helen McClure, Dan and Myrna McClure, Dwight McClure, Rex and Wanda McClure. Zoe (Sims) McMilin and Queta (Sims) Catlin, Paul and Janel (Culvahouse) McPhail, Thelma (Taylor) McQueen, Opal (Johnson) Miller, Jim and Lajuan (Nichols) Norvelle, Gary Norvelle, Fred Polley, John Polley, Florence (Brock) Ragsdale, Gayle (Brown) Riddle, Ron and Derna Reese, Wayne and Zula Reese, Herman Ritchie, Sherman Ritchie, Mansel Ritter, Ruth Ann (Dickson) Rounds, Phil and Terry Schrader, Dorothy (Estoll) Shelton, Patsy (Schrader) Shockley, Janny (Shockley) Simpson, Duane Smith, Ronnie and Judy Smith, Faye (Risenhoover) Snow, George and Donna Sorrell, Margetta (Newton) Stafford, Cletus and Delores Stephens, Joe and Joyce Stephens, Ed and Geneva (Daniel) Taylor, Willie and Sylvia (Brewer) Terry, Maggie (Barnes) Walker, Nora Faye (Ritchie) Walker and Rita (Smith) Walker.