A steady stream of Sweet Home High School graduates flowed through the registration booth Saturday morning and afternoon.
More than 900 graduates pre-registered for the event, with more than 100 registering in the breezeway at the high school Saturday.
“We’ve been doing really good,” Mona Hyer Waibel, ‘48, said. “All ages, it’s nice.”
Sisters Norma Gingerich Jewell, ‘60, of Eugene and Valina Gingerich Garlinghouse, ‘69, of Sweet Home were among those visiting their alma mater Saturday.
“We were here 10 years ago,” Garlinghouse said. Things had totally changed from the days when they attended high school. The registration area in the breezeway used to be part of the front office and entryway.
Both had run into people they attended high school with.
“That’s really neat, the faces you know but can’t put a name to,” Jewell said.
Around the school, SHHS graduates visited a quilt show, art show and car show, wandering the halls, reacquainting themselves with old friends and looking nostalgically at photos, trophies and the school.
Dot Barnes Wright, ‘39, chuckled a bit as she looked at her brother, Ron Barnes’ senior class photo, ‘48, in the halls. He was the only member of his class wearing a bow tie.
Jessie Myer Burnett, ‘39, shared the laugh with Wright. After graduating Burnett spent 29 years working at Sweet Home Junior High School.
“It’s been fun hanging around registration,” Burnett said. “Because I’ve seen some people I know.”
The school was brand new when Burnett and Wright started attending. They were members of the first class to spend all four years in the new building.
Wright moved away after graduation, getting married in 1941. She lived in Salem for 35 years before returning to Sweet Home in 1978 after her husband passed away.
Burnett has lived all but two years in Sweet Home after graduating. During that time, she lived in San Diego, Calif.
Ken Robertson and his wife, Winnie Winkler Robertson, ‘60, enjoyed the car show.
“It’s been fun,” Winnie said “We have a ‘55 Chevy, so we’ve been checking out all the cars.”
The Robertsons owned two A&W restaurants in Salem. One was sold. Robertson constructed an office complex on the site of the other. The Robertson also owned Figaro’s pizza shops, maintaining an interest in supplying the chain’s stores, and are partners in RAM Trucking, based in Sweet Home.
The reunion gave a chance for old friends to get reacquainted. Donna Morris Dorsing, ‘62, of Moses Lake, Wash., and Linda Dunn Mann, ‘63, of Washington, D.C., were neighbors and friends while attending high school.
The had not seen each other for 12 or 13 years. Mann has lived in the Washington, D.C., area for about the last 15 years, working for the government as a human resources officer. Dorsing operates a farm, with apples, peaches and cherries in eastern Washington.
Mann’s sisters, Kathie Dunn Davis, ‘70, of Cummings, Ga., and Darlene Dunn Saulmon, ‘61, joined Dorsing at the Elks Club for breakfast Saturday morning along with Mann’s sister-in-law Joyce Rowe Dunn, ‘59, of Sweet Home.
In the meantime, members of the Smith family, with some 30 persons who are SHHS graduates, could be found all over the place.
At the west end of the high school, Waibel snapped a family picture of Charles Clark, ‘71, with his wife, Dixie Smith Clark, ‘73, of Sweet Home; Cheryl Smith Stone, ‘67, of Paris, Ken; and Nyla Smith Howell, ‘71, of Fallon, Nev.
Tom Smith, ‘75, took to the softball field with fellow graduates as his father, Blair Smith, and brother, Dennis Smith, ‘66, watched.
Dennis Smith traded sports stories with Rudy Hashberger, ‘65, as they watched the reunion softball game.
“It was rare that we completed a pass,” playing against schools from Salem, Corvallis and other larger schools, Hashberger said.
But in Hasberger’s senior year, “we were getting drubbed” by South Salem High School, Dennis Smith said.
Dennis Smith was the quarterback, Hashberger said, and he completed a two-yard pass to Hashberger when the pass that had been called would have been incomplete as usual.
“The coach chewed Dennis out,” Hashberger said.
In those days, Sweet Home would have 23 or 24 out for football, while larger schools would get 70.
That year, the Huskies got down to 17, Hashberger said.
Hashberger and Smith said they had a lot of respect for their coach, John Witte, especially after graduation.
“At the time I was playing, I thought he was pretty stupid,” Smith said, but after graduation, he understood more and respected the coach.
“He taught us a lot about life,” Hashberger said.