Too old for five-year plans: Chelan’s class of 1961 celebrates 65th reunion

CHELAN — At their 60th class reunion, members of Chelan High School’s class of 1961 decided five years was too long to wait to see one another again.

They began gathering annually. And when classmates returned to Chelan Oct. 1–4 for their 65th reunion, the vote at the Saturday night dinner was unanimous: They would be back next year.

For class coordinator Pat Paasch, the gatherings reconnect people whose shared memories stretch well beyond high school graduation, back to kindergarten classrooms, downtown soda machines and Saturday matinees at the Ruby Theatre.

“At our 60th reunion we decided we were too old to plan 5 years out and voted to meet every year,” Paasch said.

Born during World War II, the classmates grew up in a Chelan where, Paasch recalls, many families had arrived during the Depression or after the war from states including Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Arkansas.

They remember being raised to be kind, respectful and hardworking, with expectations enforced by more than their own parents.

“If we misbehaved every adult in town felt free to correct us and they did,” Paasch said.

Their school years coincided with changes in the community’s school buildings. Paasch recalls that the class began kindergarten in September 1948 as the first students to attend the newly built Morgen Owings Elementary, with Mr. Lewis as principal and Mrs. Lewis teaching kindergarten. The couple’s daughter, Susan, was a classmate.

Later, they were the first to attend the remodeled junior/senior high school, where the original building had been expanded with a long, low wing.

But some of the memories that have lasted longest came from the places students gathered outside their classrooms.

At the Blue Bird Cafe across from the school, a huge maple bar and a Coke cost 15 cents. Students could dance to the jukebox at the front of the cafe.

The boys with cars gathered at the Richfield station, which Paasch notes is the site of today’s Tin Lilly. Its soda machine required customers to maneuver a bottle through a maze before pulling it free from the ice water that kept the drinks cold.

“There was grape soda, vanilla soda, orange crush,” Paasch said. “Nothing you can get at a store tastes like that did.”

Hydroplane racing became another shared memory. Paasch recalls hearing the boats roar through open school windows when races began in 1957.

Some students found a reason to leave class and made their way to the beach instead.

“We had to get to the beach to see the boats and we are still doing it,” she said.

The reunions take place at Darnell’s, owned by a class member, with catered events at the cabana and time spent visiting, remembering and watching hydroplanes. The gathering ends with card bingo, a game classmates brought home from winters in Arizona.

Through the years, the class has held onto its identity as Chelan Goats. Paasch remembers red-and-green school colors and navy sweaters decorated with emblems, stripes and goats.

The annual gathering brings those classmates back to the lake, the view of Stormy Mountain and the people who remember the same places and youthful adventures.

“It is nice at our age to be with people who love that beautiful lake, grew up looking at Stormy, share all the same memories of fun foolishness and 13 cent Saturday matinees at the Ruby theater,” Paasch said.

Sixty-five years after graduation, the town they grew up in is still the place that brings them together.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media