EAST PALESTINE Class plans 40th-year reunion weekend

Classmates' e-mail generated interest in the reunion.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
EAST PALESTINE -- Amid reminders such as Hula-Hoops, Slinkys and autograph hounds, members of the East Palestine High School Class of 1963 will rekindle old friendships and create some new ones.
Classmates will gather Friday through Sunday, some coming from as far as California and Arizona, for their 40th reunion. Georgia Sutherin Farmer, Sandy Swogger Bush and Charlotte Wilhelm Capel have been helping plan the weekend festivities, including creating a quilt and a flag to sell as fundraisers.
Capel is making two flags, one for the class to display at class reunions and other events, and one to auction off during the weekend. The flags feature the school mascot, a bulldog.
The quilt is in the school colors of brown and white and features photos of all 96 class members. Several classmates gathered the wallet-sized senior photos and Farmer did the quilt work. Farmer said she scanned the photos into a computer, then printed them onto fabric.
Bush said after Farmer suggested the quilt, the classmates began e-mailing one another for photos. When Bush, Farmer and Capel got together the first time, they had all but six of the photos, and ultimately had to scan only one from a yearbook.
Capel said they will have a raffle for the quilt and the flag will be one of many items donated for an auction. The auction proceeds will help cover the cost of the reunion. The raffle proceeds will be used for a bereavement fund.
Bush said the classmates will discuss at the reunion how to use the bereavement fund. When a classmate dies, the class has typically sent flowers. She said 13 class members have died.
The women said they plan to suggest donating to a charity or the East Palestine High School scholarship fund.
Expect excellent turnout
Bush said she and Farmer and Capel are excited because 55 of the class members plan to attend the reunion. Capel said e-mails among members of the class in recent months generated interest in the reunion.
"In high school, everyone has their own groups and goes about their business," said Bush. "There are a lot of people you don't get to know. Now most of the class members have e-mail, and we've been able to spread word of the reunion that way."
Among the weekend events are the reunion at the city park community center, a golf outing, church services and a picnic at Beaver Creek State Park. Farmer said classmates who organized the reunion weekend thought it appropriate to meet at the city park rather than renting a restaurant banquet hall.
"The city park was a gathering place," she said. "We were always at the pool. Not many people had backyard pools then."
"We always had a lot of fun here," Capel said. "It was a big deal for us to take a bus up to Idora Park. We had our senior picnic at Arrowhead Lake [Columbiana], but we spent a lot of time here at the city park. We just about lived here."