Class of '53 Plans Pelham Memorial High School Reunion

This was written by Joe Hoehlein and posted by Michael Woyton.

There are reunions and then there are “super” Pelham Memorial High School reunions.

No one does it quite like the Class of ’53. You read it right, the Class of 1953 from the last century.  

Like a lot of other classes, they started out with their 30th reunion at the Pelham Country Club. You might wonder why they waited so long to have a reunion.  Anyone trying to put one on knows the toughest part is locating the classmates.  Before 1983 there weren’t the websites and internet to help locate mates that had scattered across the country. In addition, most of the female classmates had gotten married and with new names tracking them down was that much more difficult. 

But thank heaven for the hard work of several classmates who made call after call to find our friends and start a database.  That actually took several years and out of 127 who graduated, only five remain un-located despite repeated efforts.  

There are not too many places in Pelham to hold an appropriate celebration and over the ensuing years, classmates debated where to go to hold future reunions.  There were a lot of questions about whether there would be enough interest in more reunions. But class President Joe Hoehlein wasn’t satisfied with the status quo and he decided that the still incomplete class list be worked on and a 50th Reunion Plan was born.

They didn’t wander very far by going to the New Rochelle Ramada where most of the attendees stayed. That was a rousing success with a boat trip up the Hudson (like they had done for Senior Day), a party at a mate’s house and an outstanding banquet and dance. 

It was so much fun that the collective wisdom was to hold some more gatherings, so after the 50th, there were trips to the Cape, another to Mystic and now it is time for the Super Reunion—the 60th in June in Old Saybrook, CT.

As teenagers, we had pizza parties, participated in Sock & Buskin productions, train rides to the city and a senior day boat ride on the Hudson River to mention a few things.

Well, our 60th Reunion June 18-20 will sort of reprise some of those fun things.  We’ll start the two-day event with a pizza party for early arrivers, see a Broadway musical “Good News” in the 1877 Victorian Goodspeed Opera House, take the Essex steam train ride up the Connecticut River and board the “Becky Thatcher,” a paddle wheeler boat for a luncheon cruise on the Connecticut River.

Finally we will finish up with a “Grand Finale” Banquet  and program at the Riverhouse, a posh banquet facility overlooking the river on the very night 60 years to the day that we graduated.

Doesn’t that sound like a fun time and a Special Reunion with our oldest and dearest friends? Makes you proud to be a PMHS grad. There are less than 90 classmates still with us and about 40 will attend, many with spouses. We’re doing something right.

Joe Hoehlein is willing to share his class’s successful ideas if you wish to contact him at joe@hoehlein.com.