A Golden Anniversary: Class of 1974

What happened in 1974?

And Randy and his classmates graduated from Stafford High School. Their celebration began last Friday night with a soup supper at the Stafford Senior Center. (How appropriate, right? There might have been a joke or two made about the location.)

 

 Friday night soup supper crowd

Back row: Jim Carter, Rex Hildebrand, Randy Fritzemeier, Tom Tuckwood, Dale Hearn, Gregg Blew, Terry McCune, Richard Brensing, Rex Hoskinson, Bob Howell

Front row: Gemma Austin, Nancy Hildebrand, Connie Harmon, Renee Salem, Marcia Bauerle, Jim Powell

Last weekend during Stafford's Oktoberfest, they celebrated their 50th class reunion. When you're 17 or 18 and walking across the stage to receive your diploma, you don't realize how quickly those 50 years will fly by.

Different people came to different parts of the reunion. This was Saturday night following the all-school alumni banquet. (The only one not identified before is Peggy Miller, second from the right in the front row.)

Randy's class has done a great job getting together every five years since graduation for reunions. I've been to all but the first one, so it kind of feels like I'm part of them, too. 

They've lost 12 of their 46 classmates, which I thought seemed like quite a few. Some have been able to be at all the reunions and others live much further away and were just able to get back for a few milestone gatherings like the 50th.

Photo by Julie McNickle

 

 They were also part of the annual Oktoberfest parade.

Photo by Dale Hearn - Getting ready for the parade

Some of the spouses got into the photo at the Nora Larabee Memorial Library Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to Julie McNickle for the photo from Saturday night's alumni banquet (below). She does a great job in documenting events through her photography.

Hopefully, my Skyline High School Class of 1975 get-together for our 50th next year will be just as successful.

While the Parade Passes By

re·un·ion

rēˈyo͞onyən/

noun

noun: reunion; plural noun: reunions; noun: re-union; plural noun: re-unions

1. an instance of two or more people coming together again after a period of separation.

   "she had a tearful reunion with her parents"

   • a social gathering attended by members of a certain group of people who have not seen each other for some time.

     "a school reunion"
   • the act or process of being brought together again as a unified whole.

     "the reunion of East and West Germany"

Stafford's Oktoberfest is not quite so dramatic as the reunion of East and West Germany, but, for 25 years, it has gathered people back to our little town. It began as a fall festival, but it didn't take long for Stafford High School classes to move from their traditional Memorial Day alumni banquet to Oktoberfest weekend. Now the first weekend in October has become a time of reunions, with school classes and families coming home.

Under the Friday night lights of the Lou Brock Field at SHS, the Trojan class of 1974 gathered around their spirit flag. Classmate Marcia Vasey Bauerle made the flag as a high school senior. Gemma Austin, who still lives in Stafford, has become the official keeper of the flag, and, for the past 40 years, it's flown as Trojans have left in motorcades to state track meets and other events when some extra school spirit was warranted.

On Friday night, there was no mistake: The Class of '74 was back and cheering every touchdown with a wave of the red and white and a shake of pom pons (also furnished by Gemma, ever the cheerleader).

I didn't graduate from Stafford High. But after 33 years of reunions and with two children who are also SHS alumni, I feel like an honorary member of the group. 

Our small town loves a parade, so the next morning, the Class of  1974 waved to their friends and families as they bounced down the brick streets.

"Lordy, lordy! We've hit 40" pretty much says it all, doesn't it? (Of course, I wouldn't know ... until next year, anyway.

We had two little parade goers watching for Grandpa. Well, one was watching. The other one seemed unimpressed with the small-town festivities.

Kinley was also watching for her Mommy, who was celebrating her 10-year reunion.

And we waved at Great Aunt Kathy, too, who didn't see us from her perch on the Class of '84 wagon.

I thought Kinley would be excited about gathering candy thrown from the floats and vehicles.We had her sack ready.

But her parents have obviously trained her well. She wasn't too excited about leaving the sidewalk to venture into the street.

She got a few pieces of loot and then enjoyed the parade as it passed by.

From patriotism ...

... to a small, but mighty marching band ...

... and some pretty snazzy vehicles.

Main and Broadway was the place to be.

It's good to be with family - whether it's blood that connects you ...

... or people who share your graduation date ...

... or just ties that bind in a small Kansas town.

An Oktoberfest Treat: Banana Coconut Muffins

Tomorrow is Oktoberfest in Stafford, America. It's the 25th annual version of Stafford's Fall Festival. What small-town festival is complete without a parade?

It's also a reunion time for alumni of Stafford High School. Randy will celebrate his 40th class reunion. His sister, Kathy, will gather with her classmates to commemorate 30 years since leaving the hallowed halls of SHS. Jill's class will gather for their 10-year reunion.

Kinley - Oktoberfest 2013

This little parade-goer has done some growing since last year, and her little sister will be here for her first Oktoberfest parade. I'm guessing one of them will be more excited than the other.
 
I imagine many former Stafford students will make informal visits to the old high school, which burned down this past March. (It was no longer being used for classes.)

Our first Oktoberfest stop will be the Stafford Educational Foundation fun walk and run. Randy is on the Foundation board, so he's helping with the event. Kinley may be my walking companion. We'll see how things unfold tomorrow morning.

I will pull some of these Banana Coconut Muffins out of the freezer to eat as we head out the door. (They are appropriately dressed in red, black and white muffin wrappers in honor of the SHS Trojan colors.)

I had a bunch of bananas ripening on the kitchen counter and saw the recipe for Banana Coconut Muffins on one of the cooking blogs I read regularly. I also love using cream cheese in baked goods for both the taste and texture. How can you go wrong, adding mini chocolate chips, coconut and butter brickle bits?

Speaking of texture, I didn't put coconut in some of the muffins. While Randy is a big fan of coconut, Jill doesn't like it because of its texture. Since part of this recipe was destined for their freezer to welcome baby Brooke, I deleted coconut in some of them.

If you'd like a little hometown "texture" and are in the neighborhood, you are cordially invited to Stafford's Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 4. Start the day with a walk or run at 8:30 AM to benefit the Stafford Education Foundation. There are downtown arts and crafts and food vendors from 9 to 4, an 11 AM parade, a book sale at the Stafford United Methodist Church from 9 to 2 and free entertainment on a stage at Main and Broadway, beginning at noon. Wiener Dog Races begin at 2 PM. Yep, more than 100 wiener dogs are already registered. We'd love to have you!And welcome home, Staffordites! (Is that what Stafford people are called?)

Banana Coconut Muffins

Adapted from Inside Bru Crew Life blog

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut, divided
1 cup toffee bits
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin tins.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well. Stir in bananas and vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and slowly incorporate into the banana mixture. Stir in 1 cup coconut, toffee bits and chocolate chips by hand.

Fill cupcake liners or tins 3/4 full. Sprinkle with extra shredded coconut. Bake 20-25 minutes. Coll on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing from the cupcake tins. Cool completely before storing in a sealed container. You may also freeze the muffins.

Note:  I didn't put coconut in all the muffins, since Jill isn't a fan. The coconut-less version turned out tasty, too. (I scooped out some of the batter into the muffin cups prior to adding the coconut. To keep them identified, I topped each of the coconut version with a sprinkling of coconut on top. It made the muffin tops pretty, too, with the browned coconut.)

Happy Friday

Instead of writing something separate today on Kim's County Line, I'm linking my October post from Lovely Branches Ministries' Food for Thought. The theme this month is the Seasons of a Woman's Life. Besides some reflections on that, there's a great recipe for Apple Butter Coffee Cake.

I'm looking forward to Stafford's homecoming events this evening and to celebrating Stafford's 125th birthday tomorrow at Oktoberfest. Best of all , our kids are coming home for the weekend!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of tales to tell from the Oktoberfest events, as well as an update on wheat planting and milo cutting. But for now ...

Happy first day of October! Happy Friday!