>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Members of the La Grande High School’s class of 1958 look at one of their yearbooks during their 50th reunion last weekend. The members of the class are, from left, Fred Goodwin of Lake Oswego, Sylvia (Courtney) Porter of La Grande, Larry Hildebrandt of La Grande and Bob Winkel of Forest Grove. - The Observer/DICK MASON

Suddenly Stoddard’s feeling of euphoria vanished following a command from an LHS principal.

“Stoddard! Get in my office,’’ the school administrator snapped.

The principal next shut his office drapes, told his secretary “No phone calls’’ and closed his door. He then looked Stoddard squarely in the eye. Stoddard expected the worst.

“I understand that you shot a big buck this weekend at Eagle Creek,’’ the principal said.

Stoddard nodded yes. Then came a question so surprising it momentarily stunned the LHS student.

“On Friday would you take me there hunting?’’ the principal asked.

A relieved Stoddard agreed.

The principal, who did not want anyone knowing he would skip work on Friday to go hunting, then opened the door and let Stoddard out into the crowded hallway. Next he issued a stern rebuke to keep everyone fooled.

“And don’t you ever do that again!’’ he yelled at Stoddard.

Such tales were spun continuously among laughter and smiles last weekend at the 50th reunion of the La Grande High School Class of 1958. The event was attended by 88 classmates plus 48 spouses and friends. The number is significant considering that the LHS Class of 1958 had 144 students, 24 of whom have since died.

“This is such a close class, we really like and care about each other,’’ said Loren Nebeker of Midvale, Utah, a member of the Class of 1958 and the reunion’s chief organizer.

Barbara (Chantry) Cluver agrees. So tight is the connection Cluver feels that she traveled from her home in Germany to see her classmates again. Cluver has lived in Germany many years after first going there during her junior year of high school as part of an American Field Service exchange program. She went to Europe in 1956 of her junior year on a ship filled with 600 AFS students. Cluver became friends with many but the ties she has with her LHS classmates are more binding.

“There are so many wonderful people here. We are lifetime friends,’’ Cluver said Friday night at a reunion gathering in Island City.

Two of the Class of 1958’s teachers attended the reunion — Ariel Bean and Norm Masterson. Both received a standing ovation from their former students Saturday night at a dinner at the Blue Mountain 4-H Center. Many of the class’s other teachers have died but students’ memories of them burn bright. Teachers like the late Norma Mayger are among them. Jack Panter, now of Glenwood Springs, Colo., vividly recalled how Mayger shaped his life with tough love and compassion.

Panter said he was prone to misbehaving in Mayger’s math class. Mayger thus had Panter sit in a desk at the front of her class, a few feet from her.

“Whenever I spoke out of turn or was rude she would be tap me with a ruler,’’ Panter said.

Mayger did not dislike Panter, but instead cared deeply. Her compassion surfaced after Panter graduated from high school and moved with his family to Salt Lake City. Mayger desperately wanted Panter to attend college.

However, she feared that his situation in Salt Lake City would prevent him from doing so. Mayger drove to Utah, picked up Panter and took him back to La Grande so he could go to EOU. Mayger let Panter stay at her house to help with his expenses.

Panter later went on to have a successful career as a jet pilot, one he credits to Mayger putting him on the right life course.

So grateful is Panter to her that he helped create a scholarship honoring his teachers as a tribute to Mayger.

Panter and his classmates attended LHS when its brick building, constructed in 1952, was new and kinks were still being corrected. The building, for example, had some engineering problems that were coming to light. One was a poorly installed outdoor drainage system.

This system was the cause of a serious flood that struck the high school in the 1950s, said Fred Goodwin of Lake Oswego. Water poured into the gym and the auditorium. The water was so high in the sloped auditorium that it reached at least four feet high up to the stage.

The gym floor was also submerged.

“It had maple blocks which floated to the surface,’’ Goodwin said.

The drainage problem was later corrected.

A problem which persists today is winter driving over the Blue Mountains. Crossing the Blues in winter today is no picnic, but it was even more difficult in the 1950s when there was only a two-lane highway and vehicles and snow removal equipment were not as advanced.

LHS students often refused to be deterred, taking creative measures to prevent ice and fog from delaying their travels over the Blue Mountains.

Goodwin recalled that once the LHS basketball team was returning from Hermiston on a foggy evening via bus. Their driver pulled over near Cabbage Hill because the fog was so bad.

The players and other students on the bus quickly grew impatient.

“We had dates that evening we had to get back for,’’ said Wally Anderson, who now lives in Beaverton.

The students addressed the problem by getting out of the bus and walking in a single file line several dozen feet in front of the bus. The driver then started the bus and slowly followed the players. It was an uncomfortable experience for the players.

“Soon we were all frozen,’’ Goodwin said.

The players continued for about two miles with the bus in tow until they were out of the fog. They then reboarded it and had an uneventful trip back to La Grande.

Fewer people, unquestionably, ventured out of La Grande in the 1950s in the winter than today.

“In the 1950s you didn’t get out of La Grande in the winter — even the trains didn’t get out,’’ Goodwin said.

This spawned Hobby Night at LHS during the winter. Once a week students in grades 7 to 12 and adults would gather at LHS to teach each other and discuss hobbies such as jewelry making, knitting and model plane building. It drew a lot of students, in part because a dance always followed. Students could not attend the dance unless they had gone to Hobby Night, said Virginia Linkenhoker of La Grande.

“What we all really were excited about was the dance,’’ she said.

Television viewing was not part of Hobby Night but it would have been a popular addition. Television had come to La Grande in 1954 and the novelty of the small screen remained mesmerizing for years.

“We would go into someone’s house just to watch snow on a screen,’’ Goodwin said, referring to what a blank screen of a set looks like when it is on.

SHARING MEMORIES: Members of La Grande High School’s class of 1958 pose for a group photo at the Blue Mountain 4-H Center Saturday. - The Observer/DICK MASON

“We were having such a good time whenever we got together that we decided to start meeting every five years,’’ Nebeker said.

One reason for the class’s closeness may be that so many members have retained strong ties to La Grande and Northeast Oregon. Nebeker has maintained a close count of his classmates and determined that 48 now live in Union and Wallowa counties, including 32 in La Grande. Eleven members of the class live in Umatilla and Baker counties and a total of 115 reside in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Nebeker also found that 11 couples in the class married and that eight of the marriages succeeded.

The first couple from the class to marry was Dick and Sharon Wollen Stoddard of Weiser, Idaho, who celebrated their 50th anniversary earlier this year.

Nebeker shared such information during a reflective presentation in which he made note of another fact. He said that about one billion seconds have passed since the Class of 1958 graduated.

“Think of that as one billion heartbeats,’’ Nebeker said.

He said that everyone who lives another 20 years has another 56 million heart beats left.

“Enjoy every one of them.’’