Lee Hunt clearly remembers how he was punished when he skipped school back when he was a kid.
He had to learn the Gettysburg Address, and write 1,000 words about what he did that day that was so much fun.
“Didn’t skip school after that,” Hunt said.
About 20 Eudora High School alumni and their loved ones gathered for their 65th class reunion last week.
The graduating class of 1958 had about 30 students, and many of them enjoyed a meal together at Perkins while laughing and reminiscing on the past. Many of the alumni had to travel across multiple states to come back to the area.
The class has stayed incredibly close throughout the years, Elizabeth Weeks Woods said. Many of them went all the way from grade school to graduation together.
“We’ve stuck together, we’ve called each other, we’ve talked,” Woods said.
Arthur Neis opened up the reunion by recounting historical moments the class of 1958 had witnessed: the Vietnam War, Civil Rights protests, the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Watergate and 9/11.
Many of their classmates were drafted into the Vietnam War, and suffered from Agent Orange upon their return, Woods said.
The group told stories of some of their classmates who have died, and re-lived some of their grade school to graduation memories. Everything from pranks on teachers, to skipping school and setting cherry bombs off in the back of a car.
Hunt had skipped school that day with Henry Starkey and got a row boat that they found down on the Kaw River. They fixed a broken board and painted it and wanted to try it out. After the school found out, Hunt not only faced his punishment but his dad made him go to his teacher’s house to apologize.
Joan Wagner read aloud a note that she had written to her parents after their 10-year reunion. She gave updates on each member of their class, their marriages, children and whereabouts, many of whom sat beside her at the reunion and remembered having their first children or graduating from college.
Emmett Wright recalled finding one of his friend’s whiskey bottles and deciding to do a science experience with it. They poured the whiskey into a bird bath.
“These poor little birds would come and sit on the edge and some of them would just fall off the bird bath and some would flutter up to the clothesline and some would go upside down and some would lean to the side,” Wright said.
He also remembered climbing up the town’s water tower with several classmates and buying fireworks from a KC vendor and selling them in town.
Wright remembers throwing cherry bombs under the bridge when a siren came up behind them. They had tried to throw them all out of the car before he got there, but the officer knew they were the culprits.
Patsy Strammel remembers pranking their teacher. The classroom was on the main level, so all the students climbed out the window while he was in the hallway. When he came back, everyone was gone.
“He came in and there was nobody there,” she said.
Linda Renner’s parents made her transfer to Lawrence for high school, but she still wishes she would have stayed in Eudora with what she considered her real class.
“In 1955, or whatever it was, you didn’t argue with your parents like you would today. If it would’ve been today, I would’ve gone to high school with you in Eudora because I would’ve refused to go to Lawrence. But at that time, we just did what we were told,” she said.
“You’ve always been my class and my best friends, so I’m glad to be here and it’s good to see all of you,” Renner said.
Here are the members of the Class of 1958:
Linda (Akin) Renner
Larry Akin (Linda’s brother)
Patsy (Kelly) Eisenbarger
Lee and Verna Hunt
Dave and Ginny Lenahan
Janice (Lutz) Hammerschmidt
Arthur Neis
Sue (Pitts) Neustifter
Patsy (Schehrer) Strammel
Dean Stark (Bonnie)
Raymond Steffen
Bernice (Neis) and Larry Stouse
Bob Vigna (Frances)
Joan (Weimer) and Richard Wagner
Emmett and Mary Jane (Jackson) Wright
Elizabeth (Weeks) and Nick Woods
Classmates who have passed:
Doris Bartz Touchton
Donald Bohnsack
Delbert Breighthaupt
Betty Burns Mason
Wanda Cobb Puderbaugh
Merlin Eisenbarger
Phillip and Helen Everley
Velma Hadl
Calvin Hausman
Wayman Jennings
Karl Koch
Bob Mueller
Ruth May Nading
Clobert Noble
Henry and Carolyn Starkey
Jimmy and Marilyn Wilson
