Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Members of Sweet Home?s Union High School Class of 1939 gathered July 13, as they have annually for 16 years, at Sankey Park, to celebrate the 66th anniversary of their commencement ? and another year of friendship and life.
?We?re old codgers,? said Arlene Sportsman Sorseth, one of the 12 ? all over 80 ? who returned from last year?s event.
The fact that last year?s group was back intact was a point of pride.
?The same ones who were here last year are here this year,? said Lelia Morehead Cole, one of the organizers, who was a schoolmate of Sorseth?s all 12 years in Sweet Home schools. ?No one has died.?
?We?re holding our own,? stated Velma Vitek Costler.
?We only had 43 to begin with,? Sorseth said.
In fact, the attendees appeared to be feeling rather spry, for the most part. They gathered for a group photo and then, after a prayer by Ivan Groshong, settled down to a savory potluck picnic lunch of baked beans, a wide variety of homemade pickles, a wider variety of desserts and fried chicken from Glen?s Market ? fried in fresh oil specially for the group, one senior pointed out.
Jessie Meyer Johnson said that the class members generally meet at Sankey Park once a year in the middle of the week.
?Everyone?s retired,? said Johnson, who taught at Sweet Home Junior High for 29 years. ?I like a picnic instead of a banquet because everybody can mill around.?
Besides Sorseth, Cole, Costler, Johnson and Groshong, the other surviving class members at the reunion were Lucille Padock LaLonde, Doreen Rice Cookson, Dot Barnes Wright, Reva Hughes Jeffreys, Leo Dewey, Ron Fogle, and Tyke Sorseth, who is married to his classmate Arlene.
Although some class members live in the Eugene area, Albany and Salem, most still live in Sweet Home.
?I was born here and went to high school in Sweet Home,? said Cole. ?I couldn?t get away fast enough.?
But after living in Portland for 42 years, she said, she and her husband moved back to Sweet Home.
?You CAN go home again,? Cole said with a grin.
?You know how they say ?the apple doesn?t fall very far from the tree,? she added, gesturing to the east toward a bright, cloudless horizon. ?All you have to do is look out at Mt. Jefferson.?