We are great, we are fine, we're the class of...

 Remember when we would finish this chant with "sixty-nine"?  Did we adapt it from the class of 1968:  "We are fine, we are great, we're the class of sixty-eight"?  

The BHS class of 1959 could have easily possessed this chant.  They recently had a reunion on August 28 and 29.  One of the members of that class was "Skip" Webster.  He was one of the freshman football coaches (Mr. Rykhus was the other) and the JV basketball coach when we were in school.  He asked me to find some news articles from their school days that could be displayed during the reunion.  It seemed that the obvious decision was to make copies of the Brobocas that were issued during their senior year. 

Those issues usually came out every Wednesday in the Brookings Register.  Since the library has an up-to-date microfiche machine and copies of the old papers on microfiche, it was quite easy to resurrect those old issues.  Because the Brobocas were too big for one 8 x 11 inch page, it was necessary to splice an upper and lower portion together to make a facsimile of the original.  

Our class had a number of older siblings in the class of 1959:  Nancy Faust, Mary Iverson, Patsy McMillan, Janice Moulton, Marcia Shirley, and Joan Webbenhurst.  Others that may be siblings or cousins are Burt Alexander, Dennis Sanders, Jim Sterud, and Art Swenning.

It may seem rather odd that their class would have a reunion 67 years after graduating, since reunions usually occur at five year intervals.  The reason they had one this year is that the class had lost about 15 members in the last five years.  They all thought they should have another one before there were only a few members left.

The reunion was well-planned.  On Friday, a bus tour around town was arranged, and a class photo was taken at McCrory Gardens, where registration was also held.  One of the class members was Marilyn McCrory, the daughter of S. A. McCrory, for whom the Gardens are named (https://www.cityofbrookings-sd.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/48),

The main festivities and dinner were held at Innovation Village.  The Brobocas were displayed on the walls, while various other memorabilia were arranged on tables.  There were about thirty-five people in attendance, so the accommodations were rather intimate. After the dinner, various members told of their school experiences and memories.  

A number of class members had stayed in Brookings, and their children were students of ours in the 1970's and 1980's.  I had a wonderful conversation with Janice Moulton, Mary's sister.  Her mother Irene (https://www.hickeyfuneralchapel.com/obituaries/irene-moulton) and my mother both grew up in Faulkton, South Dakota.  Irene was a frequent visitor to my mother in the latter years of my mother's life.  I'm sure they had many memories to exchange about life in Faulkton.