EXETER — West Pittston native Mary Lou Manganiello makes a point to return home for as many high school class reunions as possible. This time was special for the Lititz resident; it was the 50th anniversary of her graduation from Wyoming Area High School.
“It is the 50th and we graduated in 1969 and we will be turning 69, if not some of us already turned 69; it’s a special year,” Manganiello said. “I try to make the effort to make every reunion because we just had a fun class – I still connect with people.”
That was the overall sentiment of members of the Wyoming Area High School Class of 1969 as they gathered at Fox Hill Country Club on Aug. 30.
Seventy-five classmates attended the reunion, according to Barbara Mackey Bullions, reunion organizer, who added 45 of the nearly 300 members of the class are deceased. Bullions returned to Wyoming Area years later as a faculty member, retiring just a few years ago.
“We started in the spring; we got a late start,” Bullions said of organizing the reunion. “The hardest part was finding everyone. We did find all but 20 people.”
The main reason for Bullions being involved with the reunion was to find two friends she hadn’t seen since graduation.
“I wanted to get involved to find two classmates, Elaine Rhoades and Susan Hazlett,” Bullions said. “I found them both. Susan lives in Connecticut and Elaine lives in Nebraska.”
Bullions spoke of the diversity of a young school merger with West Pittston, Exeter, Wyoming, West Wyoming and Harding.
“We were only together for three years,” Bullions said of members of the class. “We were used to little schools and West Pittston had the biggest school of all the schools. In sophomore year, we were all thrown together attending school in West Pittston; it was hard.”
Bullions said the late ‘60s were rebellious years, “It was the late ‘60s and we were involved with the school strike when the entire school staged a walk-out with the motto, ‘No sports, no school.’
“We were the class of the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Doors,” Bullions added. “We were the class that graduated and went to Woodstock – we were the hippies; 1969 was a special year.”
Early in the evening, classmate and musician Brenda Welliver Nighbert played piano as she and her classmates sang the Alma Mater.
From Facebook, “Thank you for the privilege of playing our Alma Mater,” Nighbert said. “You sang well. Miss Fear would have smiled.” Nighbert referred to the late Catherine Fear who penned the school song.
A memorabilia table was laid out with report cards, a yearbook, a diploma, letterman’s jacket, cheerleading sweater, hats, mugs and plenty of newspaper clippings.
Classmates had a chance to revisit their old high school on Montgomery Avenue in West Pittston, now Wyoming Area’s Intermediate Center, Saturday morning, followed by an evening hosted by Victor Guilliano at his establishment, The Wine Cellar in Pittston, on Sunday evening.
Also in attendance was class president Atty. Bill Anzalone, along with his wife, the former Tina Medico. Anzalone summed up the evening celebration.
“It’s our 50th year and everybody celebrates their 50th year and you take it for granted,” he said. “ You actually get here and you see your classmates; you reflect back to 1969 when we were all young kids. Never in our wildest dreams did we think this day would come.
“There is just so many experiences in all of our lives — good and bad. We’ve lost parents, we’ve had hardships, we’ve had success and failures, but here we are 50 years later and we reflect back upon it in a happy moment.
“I would tell anybody who is celebrating a momentous occasion like a 50th to go out and just break bread with your classmates,” Anzalone concluded. “It’s special; it really is special.”
