The majority
of our graduating class was born in 1932 and 1933, in the depths of the
"Great Depression." We did have a few born as early as
1931 and few stragglers came onboard as late as 1934.
We still don't know why anyone would think of a depression as
being "Great." Our
parents were mill workers, millwrights and mill owners; they owned
taverns, restaurants and shoe repair shops; they were loggers and timber
barons; educators, fishermen, domestics, waitresses and musicians.
There were few divorces and most of us had the good fortune to have
two-parent homes.
In the 1930’s,
Aberdeen was predominately a forest products town, with a deep harbor
port and a secondary economy borne from the fish-rich Pacific Ocean.
During our formative years, many millions of  board feet of lumber
were milled from our nearby forests and more millions of tons of fish
products were processed by canneries.
The canneries and lumber mills vied for shoreline space along the
Wishkah river.
As youngsters, we attended eight different
primary schools in the Aberdeen area. Stevens and Washington,
located on the
Stevens School, 1909-1953
"South Side." McDermoth and Saint Mary’s in
Aberdeen's central area. A. J. West, located west of downtown.
Robert Gray in the north end, and Wishkah and Central Park, rural
communities located outside of Aberdeen.
We spent those school years in the midst of World War II, living
with rationing stamps and gasoline shortages. Each week we saved our
dimes to buy war stamps, trying to save enough to fill a $2.00 "war
stamp book." Six of these little books could be traded
in for a War Bond, which would pay $25.00 at maturity, after the war was
over. Some of us had
fathers and older siblings serving their country.
We would see little flags hanging in front windows with a blue
star, or stars, signifying how many from that home were in the service.
Once in awhile, there would be a gold star amongst the blue,
telling us that a family had lost a loved one in the service of their
country. In August of 1945,
prior to our entering the 7th grade, peace returned to our country and
our lives.
Our junior high years were
better, no wars, plenty of gasoline, good employment for our parents and
the majority of us were happy entering our teens. When we were
ready for the 7th grade, we all headed for Miller Junior High, with the
exception of the kids from St. Mary's, our Catholic school and
Cosmopolis, a small neighboring town; they joined us in the 9th grade.
We had to learn to go to different classes for each subject, having 5 or
6 teachers, instead of just one. After
junior high, it was on to J. M. Weatherwax Senior High School.
By graduation in 1951, many of us had had six years of schooling
together, some as many as 12 or 13, if you include grade school and
perhaps an occasional kindergarten through senior high school.
It was during these years that friendships were forged that
continue until this day.
Ah, at last, High School.
We had dances at the teen-age canteen, located over DeWitt's Beauty
School on Heron street. We danced and danced and danced.
We were learning the finer points of social behavior.
In 1950, when we were juniors, we moved to a beautiful new YMCA for our
dancing and romancing. That same year, the North Koreans decided our
fate for the next few years. We had classmates that were
reservists and they were called to active duty, leaving their friends
behind, shipping out with their Marine units. Fortunately, we had
no casualties as a direct result of the Korean War.
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As seniors in June of 1951, we
graduated 207 eager people, ready for college, the service, marriage and
the job market.
Many more
students, after finishing high school or college, did their
"stint" in the service. We served
in all branches, Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.
Even a few of the gentler sex went into the armed forces. Three
of our classmates made the service their home for 20 years or more.
Several of our classmates "crossed the
line" and married students from our arch rival high school located
in Hoquiam. Aberdeen and Hoquiam are separated by a street
intersection. A result of two small communities, both
established in the mid part of the 1800's finally growing together,
because of what for a better term, could be referred to as suburban
sprawl. We were the  Aberdeen Bobcats and the Hoquiam Grizzlies.
We had cross-town rivalries in football, 
basketball, baseball and
track. Our biggest rivalry was the annual football classic held on
Thanksgiving Day at 12:00 noon, rotating each year at the local high
school stadium. The stands would be full with 6000 to 7000 fans
rooting for their favorite. It didn't really matter where each
school had finished in the league standings, this was the "game of
the year."
After high school and service
duties, The Class of ‘51 went on to college, married, went
to work in the woods, fished commercially or eventually went into business for
themselves. We have homemakers, teachers, doctors, lawyers,
insurance people, counselors, Boeing workers, artists, writers,
accountants and CPA's, electronics workers, electricians, plumbers,
pilots, painters, contractors and truck drivers.
We have suffered, as any
class of our size would, our share of classmates dying. We lost two
while in high school, and shortly after graduation, we lost one of our
most liked classmates, Graham Brooks Horning, killed in an auto accident
while in the U.S. Navy. A page honoring "Our
Departed Classmates" appears elsewhere on this web site.
Our first reunion was held
in 1961, celebrating at the Morck Hotel in downtown Aberdeen, we had a
large turnout and everything was quite formal, the ladies in their
finest and all the gentlemen in suits and ties. We had such a
grand time we decided we should have reunions at least every five years
thereafter. As the years went on, and we had more reunions, we
became less formal; during the 70's it was the time of the "Leisure
Suits" and long sideburns for the men. They really lived up
to the times.
In 1981, as a part of our
30th reunion, we published a reunion book complete with pictures of us
at graduation and also a picture taken at that reunion, along with an
autobiography. In 1991 we published another reunion book with
updated autobiographies. By 1991, we decided that as we grew older
and many of us were retired, we would like to have informal
get-togethers each year for luncheons on or near the 7th of June, which
was our graduation date from high school. We still have our
"big" reunions every five years.
Thirty to 40 classmates usually attend our annual luncheons.
If you are still with us,
after this “long” history rendition, we hope that you will spend
some time searching out classmates, or perhaps, if you are a child or
grandchild of these wonderful people chronicled within, take a look and
see what mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa looked like in 1951, and if they
submitted an autobiography in 1991, it is included along with their
graduation picture.
Please take time to sign our guest register
located at the bottom of the Table of Contents page.
THANK YOU !!
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