50-Year Reunion Happenings 

This 50th reunion was held on Saturday, September 10, 2005 at the Knollwood Country Club, 16633 Baywood Lane, Granger, Indiana. Social hour started at 5:30 PM with attendees picking up their name tags as the classmates picked  up the reunion booklet.  Attendees were greeted by Judy (Kelley) Bauer,  our chairperson, and Carol, Doris, and Jean from our Committee.  At 6:30, Judy formally opened the Reunion with a welcome to all attending and then introduced Janet (Reed) Rice, our Class Vice-President who gave a wonderful Invocation.  Then Lena ( Knollwood ) released tables to go to the buffet located in a separate west room.  The dinner buffet featured individually sliced Prime Rib,  Chicken breasts & Tuna slices, with three (3) salads, mashed potatoes, brown rice, steamed carrots and green beans, chicken noodle soup and dinner rolls.  The buffet was excellent and enjoyed by all.  

Following dinner, Judy introduced our Mistress of Ceremonies, Rosemary (Zirille) Spalding.  Rosemary first asked for a moment of silence in dedication to our deceased classmates.  She then read the names of those classmates who have away since our last Reunion.   Rosemary then continued by naming the Reunion committee and thanking them for their work.  Rosemary presented her Reunion message which was very well accepted  ( 50th Reunion Message ).  

Rosemary concluded her message by recalling various classmates participation at our Graduation Ceremonies back in 1955.  She recalled all the classmates' names (I think she must have referred to an actual program she kept all these years to recall all those names) .  Very impressive.  She acknowledged several in attendance had performed at our Graduation Class Night exercises (Band, Orchestra, and Chorus).  She then called Chorus classmates up front to "sing" again but this time to do the MHS Fight Song.    Rosemary was fully prepared by having copies of the words that she passed out to the "singers" and then Sharon (Wiekamp) Showalter, started the singers off.  You know - the group still sounds pretty darn good (you needed to be there).  I have to admit that if we'd known we'd have such a powerful singing / listening experience, we would have made arrangements to record the song and put it on the website for you all to enjoy.  Maybe next time.  Thank you to Rosemary for a meaningful / reminiscent message. 

Judy then discussed the door prize that was made and donated by Classmate Paul Daggy.  A beautiful clock made from woods provided from MHS reconstruction activities.  Paul discussed where the various woods were originally used at MHS.  He discussed that he would craft the winner's name to add to the clock.   Judy then asked Paul to draw the winner's ticket from the bowl that contained every classmate attending the Reunion.  And the lucky winner was Gladys (Cole) Gerschoffer, who was also our '55 Homecoming Queen.   The door prize drawing concluded the program.  But not quite....  

Judy introduced Sharon (Wiekamp) Showalter who organized the call to the front of classmates by MHS junior high feeder schools.  We somewhat arranged everyone to fit the camera and grabbed a  group picture.  Then each one had to write down their name on a school sheet that is to help the editor put names to faces in the pictures.  Well the success of this method is yet to be determined.  The photographer and editor (me) has yet to tackle these opportunities.  Got to fully recover from all this Reunion fun.  However, I will advise that the objective is to get a set of  school pictures on this website to share with you classmates who could not attend.  

As a reward for participating in the group picture, Judy promised that then they could have their anniversary cake that was served by Knollwood servers.  The cakes were individually decorated with "50" on each piece per attendee.  Picture will be on website soon.  Sorry you can't taste it but you'll just have to imagine what it would have been like.  Anyone who has enjoyed West End Bakery's famous applesauce donuts can appreciate just how good their cake would be.  BTW:  I'm a frequent buyer of those applesauce donuts I mentioned so I have direct experience on this issue. 

After the school group picture taking fun was completed, the band was called back to provide us with dance music.  The Houseband was excellent (would be highly recommended).  They had played during our dinner and kept the volume at a level that allowed us to both enjoy their music but also talk.  I must note that our chairperson emphasized to them that this was an absolute requirement and they graciously complied.  Their music was well received and I must also say that we actually had people out on the dance floor - yes - really - dancing.  Some classmates still "have it" and still enjoy dancing.  Great to observe.  The Houseband played until 10:30.  During this time most attendees roamed and chatted.  Everyone appeared to be having a great time.  This person also roamed around and bothered almost everyone seeking to take their picture.  These pics will also be on the website sometime soon.    Others were also moving around taking pictures and I've asked some who I bumped into to send pictures to me for the website (digital cameras are great).  BTW: I've already received some pictures taken by other Reunion photographers that were  incorporated into our Reunion photo gallery. 

After taking these informal class pictures, I (on my own) opted to wander among the tables and take more pictures.  Unfortunately, I did not get everyone's picture, but did catch many. These pictures can be viewed at 50th Reunion Pictures .     

Everyone had a great time and all enjoyed the reunion including the facilities, dinner, organization and best of all visiting with each other.  We had positive comments and several voiced that they would like to have another reunion in 2010 however, a few also said maybe we should actually have them more often, like again in two (2) years.  At our age, maybe we can't plan too far out.  Time will tell.  Not sure just how many more reunions the (still - standing)  reunion committee has - some new or previous committee participants would definitely be welcomed.

Comments by: Dale Bauer

COMMITTEE: 

Judy (Kelley) Bauer was the General Chairperson for our 50 year reunion celebration. And BTW - she did a super job but then I'm biased (LOL - to you instant messengers).  The committee included Mary (Dykes) Delnat, Fred Kanouse, Richard Schroeder, Dale Bauer, Andy Mast, Janice (Prough) Farkas, Tom Farkas, Sally (Roelandts) Rieff, Sharon (Wiekamp) Showalter, Jeanne (Forte) Blasko, Mary K. (Smith) Kase, Doris (Wachs) Musary, and Carole (Hook) Kovachevich. 

REUNION:

The 50th reunion was held on Saturday, September 10th, 2005 at the Knollwood Country Club, 16633 Baywood Lane, Granger, Indiana. Social hour began at 5:30 PM when attendees picked up their name tags and classmates picked  up their reunion booklet.  Dinner was a buffet featuring Prime Rib,  Chicken & Tuna, with three (3) salads, mashed potatoes, brown rice, chicken noodle soup and dinner rolls.  

After the Program, cake was served where each attendee got a piece of cake with the number '50' in maroon color on top of the white icing.  The professionally decorated cakes were from the famous West End Bakery in Mishawaka.  The cake was delicious and a very special finishing to a great banquet.  

INFORMAL GET-TOGETHER:

On Friday night, September 9th, Andy Mast made arrangements for us to have an informal get-together at the family owned Giannetto's Pizza in Mishawaka (located at the 100 Center where the Kamm Brewery operated our high school days).   Giannetto's  welcomed our classmates and spouses/friends and did everything they could do to provide services to our group.  They provided a private room (downstairs room that once housed the Ratskeller Pizza for those who may visited this business years ago).  Many enjoyed various pasta dishes, salads, sandwiches and their famous deep dish pizza.  Some even had beer or wine to go along with their food (or just for the drinking for that matter)!  We got there at 6:00 and many were already there.  Our group rapidly filled the downstairs room and we had to overflow up to the main restaurant area which become full also.  Would you believe that there were actually people eating there who were NOT an MHS '55 party person?  We think that we had over 100 attend this get-together.  Amazing turn out.  

REUNION STATISTICS:

Returned questionnaire responses:   (The reunion booklet content was based upon the returned questionnaires.    Final statistics at the conclusion of September 10, 2005 Reunion.

Demographic Statistics

Classmates Representation By States/Country

Last Update: June 19, 2009