My Family & Memories: Reunion

Family Reunions and Class Reunions are common for us. Growing up I remember Mom’s class reunions. Mom (Joyce Keesee) graduated from Rochester High School in 1956. The class size was very small – between 20-30 people. I can remember helping her put together reunion booklets detailing the life of the classmates – what happened since the last reunion. Rochester also put on all-class reunions every year. We would go to the family picnics. Dad (Bill Kludt) never went to his class reunions. He graduated from Centralia High School in 1955. Although, he stayed in touch with a few of his buddies. His grade school, Galvin, also held student reunions. But he didn’t attend those either. Although, his sister did. Of course, the school no longer exists – it closed in 1961 as a grade school but was used by the college for an electronics class and was headquarters for the ESD 113 Film Library from 1971-76. It was offered for sale in 1984.[1]

I graduated from Centralia Senior High School in 1978. I remember attending our first class reunion 5 years later – it was held at the old Scout Office in Chehalis on a Saturday with a family picnic the following day at Borst Park. We also had a reunion at the former Centralia Eagles (it’s now a church). The last two reunions have had a social at Dick’s Brewery on Friday night with the main reunion being held on Saturday evening at the Grant Hodge Legion Post 17 building in Centralia.

My husband, David, graduated in 1969 from Tumwater High School. I remember we attended his 20-year class reunion. It was the first time I met his buddy, Stan. Stan was in his Dress Whites (Navy). We also discovered that one of David’s classmates is the mother of a girl in our son’s daycare. We’ve attended several more reunions as well as annual socials.

Our son, Nathan, graduated in 2007 from Tumwater High School. Unfortunately, he has not been able to attend any of his class reunions. The first one was when he was in the Navy and now, he lives on the East Coast.

Family Reunions were popular on my mom’s side. We didn’t have any on my dad’s. Mom’s immediate family always got together on Thanksgiving. We got so big we could no longer hold them at people’s homes – we had to go to community halls. Every year they were held someplace different – alternating between Washington and Oregon. Then we started having a family camp-out every summer. These also moved around. This tradition is still continuing. Although, I haven’t been able to attend.