THE CLASS OF ‘65
Three years ago, I wrote about the Class of 1927—celebrating their 95th anniversary. I gathered information from the high school journal of a member of the class, Josephine Furman. Last year, I wrote about the Class of 1944—using writings from their Gagashoan and interviews with two class members, Nick Verzella and Tom Conners.
This summer I have chosen to write about the Class of 1965 (my class), the largest class in the history of our school district. This year, 56 seniors graduated from ER; in 1965, there were about 190 of us (our commencement program lists 186 graduates, the ER Herald lists 192). Every class has its own history as a part of the world around us. For the “baby boomers” of 1965, a lot of changes happened after they began kindergarten in 1952.
When the school year began in September 1952, the total district enrollment was 1538. There were six kindergarten classes. Mrs. Mayo, Mrs. Reed, and Mrs. Nohe each taught a morning and afternoon class. That same year, St. Jerome’s School opened with 38 kindergarteners and 25 first graders. Half of the public school faculty lived in the village, and 14 faculty members had graduated from ER. As the Class of ’65 moved along through elementary school, each year a teacher moved up a grade level to provide for another “section” of students. In the early 1950s, the Board of Education, after looking at census predictions, determined more property was needed for new school construction. With hardly any open land available, the voters approved purchasing part of the Harris Farm. A football field was built, and the varsity team moved their games from Eyer Park to Harris Field. A 1956 School Board mailing proposed a new one-story high school for the Harris property; and so, in 1959, grades 9-12 moved to the “new high school.” The new building had an auditorium seating 800 and a gym for 1200 people. By 1961, there were 1815 students in grades K-12. That year, when the Class of ‘65 entered the new high school, the building was already too small. A new wing and swimming pool were added in 1964.
Our years in school from 1952-1965 mirrored the life of many small towns. Every Monday – Friday, the fire whistle blew at noon and the Carshops’ day workers left at 4:00 through the tunnel. Most of our fathers worked in the village either for our large industries or as owners of mom and pop stores. We could have milk delivered to our homes by the Parkside Dairy. We could enjoy ice cream there or at the Dairy Queen. Summers were spent at the playground or the swimming pool. Lunch was good at Sweetland or the Candy Kitchen. Hoselton Chevrolet was on East Commercial Street. There were pharmacies, clothing stores, hardware stores, and about a dozen little grocery stores, as well as Ben Franklin’s Five and Dime. In the early 1950s, we had two TV channels, NBC and CBS, and a little bit of ABC. Shows like I Love Lucy, Arthur Godfrey, Texaco Star Theater, and The Jackie Gleason Show were filmed in black and white. By the mid-1960s, shows were being produced in color, and our three channels had many westerns, dramas, variety shows, and comedies like The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, Batman, and The Ed Sullivan Show. On Sunday nights Ed Sullivan showed a cavalcade of entertainers including many of the popular rock ‘n roll musical groups—The Beach Boys, the Beatles (first time on American TV in 1964), the Mamas and the Papas, and The Supremes. Going to the Rialto Theater in the early ‘60s we saw award-winning films like West Side Story, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Miracle Worker, and Lawrence of Arabia.
During our school years of the 1950s, President Eisenhower led our country. The Cold War with the Soviet Union seemed far away from our everyday lives. The USSR launched its first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. Civil Rights issues became part of the headlines with Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954, and the Little Rock Nine in 1957 fighting segregation. Then, in 1961, John F. Kennedy (our youngest President) took over the reins of leading our country. And along came our goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely by the end of the decade. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a frightening time, as was the Vietnam War. Civil Rights issues were more often in the news. And then, when we were juniors in high school, our President was assassinated. And suddenly, we all became much more aware of the world around us.
It has been said that “it takes a village to raise a child.” With that sentiment in mind, last year a memorial tree was planted in Edmund Lyon Park. The plaque at its base states: “From a grateful class, we dedicate this tree in appreciation to all who guided us to become good students, citizens and faithful stewards of the village spirit that makes ER the Home of Champions. East Rochester Class of 1965.”