EXETER — The last of the three Greater Pittston high schools held a 50th anniversary reunion when members of the St. John the Evangelist High School Class of 1969 gathered at Fox Hill Country Club on Oct. 12.
For some classmates, it was the first time they attended a class reunion. For one couple, they celebrated being together and never leaving each other’s side since freshman year and two former students traveled from Arizona and Colorado.
The evening started at 4:30 p.m. with a Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church where many class members remembered singing the high school alma mater. A photo session followed in front of Fox Hill’s portico with a 1969 Ford and a 1969 Dodge along, with a Chevrolet Corvette from the early ‘70s.
The committee began preparations earlier this year when invitations were sent in March to 102 of the remaining 118 classmates. Thirty-five classmates attended the reunion.
“We’ve been getting together for about seven years, a group of us, so this (reunion) just kind of evolved from that,” Piera Santi Morotto, said. “We’ve been meeting every month.”
A nostalgia table was set up with an old band uniform, a sweater, a yearbook and plenty of photos for attendees to look through.
Vinnie Falzone, of Oro Valley, Arizona, just north of Tucson, attended his first-ever high school reunion.
“I was nervous and excited,” Falzone said about seeing classmates for the first time in 50 years. “I was afraid I wasn’t going to recognize anybody and, for the most part, I don’t recognize a lot of them. You walk around and look at their photo/name tag.”
Falzone, retired from Prudential Insurance, was much more relaxed as the evening progressed and said he plans to keep up with everyone by trading email addresses.
The couple together the longest are the Battistas, Roberta (Nolan) and Ken.
“We just celebrated our 47th anniversary and we met on the first day of freshman year,” said Roberta, a former faculty member at Pittston Area where she taught for 35 years. The couple has two daughters and two grandsons.
Both retired, they spend their time travelling and babysitting.
Mary Beth Preston also traveled at length from Colorado to get to her 50th anniversary reunion.
“I was at the 10th reunion,” Preston admitted. “That was my last.”
Preston’s trip was in jeopardy when a fall snowstorm hit her area in Colorado.
“I was excited to get here,” she said. “We really did get a good education at St. John’s.”
Classmate Joan Hennigan, a retired Wyoming Area teacher, enjoyed her evening. She has been a member of the reunion committee over the years.
“I had the opportunity to be with people at all the reunion meetings once a month and, when we get together, I walk away thinking to myself, everyone is so nice and so friendly and so welcoming,” Hennigan added.
“The reunion itself, seeing everybody, the older cars in front, it brings back a lot of memories,” Phil Gelso said. “You get to talk to people, see where their lives went; it’s wonderful.”
