On yearbooks, the Sugar Bowl, and road trips

By Rhonda Westfall

I made what turned out to be a fairly big mistake last week.

I brought my high school yearbook to work.

On second thought, it wasn't a mistake as much as it was an error in judgment. Who would have thought a picture book from 30 years ago would provide so much fun for certain people around this office? Shows how naïve I am.

Most Flirtatious: Rhonda Kloeckner and Bob Smith

The point of bringing Wings '70 here was legitimate enough. We were starting the series on the 30th Anniversary of the St. Johns Auto Program and there was a photograph in the yearbook of students working in the original auto shop inside the 'new' St. Johns High School - I wanted to have the yearbook photo scanned for use with the article.

Unfortunately, I hadn't planned on a couple of colleagues getting their grubby little paws on my old senior yearbook.

Needless to say, Jim and Dave had a grand time leafing through the pages, pointing and chuckling at pictures of classmates with thick, black-rimmed glasses and strange hairdos.

It also didn’t help to have an underclassman, Kim Brewbaker, walk into the office just as the frivolity was beginning and add fuel to the fire by telling his own tales. Thanks so much, Kim.

Eventually I was able to reclaim my property and work returned pretty much to normal - if there is such a thing as normal around here, that is.

The episode did make me stop and think about what life was like back then. Although it was only 30 years ago, in some respects it seems like another lifetime - so many things are different today. It's incredible to think about, but something as essential as the computer I'm typing on right now did not exist. The copy we produced for the school newspaper was set on a manual typewriter - pieced together on those old blue stencils and run off on the mimeograph with the help of 'Ma Bates'.

Torch Staff: Seated are: Shirley Halfman, Sue Koenigsnecht, Sharon Rossow, Mary Jo Durner, Sally MacLuckie, Mary Austin, Dana Hazel and Barbara Maier.
Standing are: Rhonda Kloeckner, Sharon Kowalk, Lynn Henning, Dave Gaffney, Diane Fedewa, Rose Paradise, Tom Fowler, and Pete Motz.

The technique seems crude by today's standards, but the content of the product was top notch - she taught us well.

I would suspect the same holds true for any classwork or activity from 1970 - or from any time before, for that matter. The basics of learning never really change - and neither do the basic life experiences. Every person from each different time period has been shaped and molded by the choices and decisions they've made during the intervening years.

And, that process never stops.

We're all still in school, learning new lessons each day.

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The feature article  on the Sugar Bowl has a definite link to those high school years. Our class was on the tail-end of the time span when a walk downtown during lunch break often meant a stop at the ice cream shop - many a secret was whispered by boys and girls seated in its wooden booths.

Like generations before us, the Sugar Bowl was more than a place to buy a soda or ice cream sundae - it was a community gathering place for young and old alike.

And it will be again, if Ruth Nihart has anything to say about it.

A lot of hard work has already gone into returning the Sugar Bowl to its former glory. The hours of research spent documenting its past were a necessary first step in obtaining the historic designation that lays the groundwork for the physical restoration which will soon begin.

It was a personal pleasure to work with Ruth on the narrative which was submitted as part of the Sugar Bowl's application to the National Register of Historic Sites - thanks for allowing us to share it with our readers.

* * * * *

Lastly, thanks to those readers who have commented so positively on the County Road series we've been running here. It's turned out to be another one of those learning experiences for all of us, I think.

Greenbush is up next - my apologies for not making it through the township this past week. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate a bit more in the week ahead.

Of course, it is still February - such a lovely month with its snow, cloudy days, cold winds.

And there's an extra day to enjoy this year- February 29.