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

Jack Harmon, 88, Kathleen (Booth) Robinson and George Justice, both 90, left to right, gathered Tuesday for a 72nd reunion of their Enterprise High School Class of 1936. - The Observer/GARY FLETCHER

They were Jack Harmon, 88, and George Justice, 90, both of Joseph, and Kathleen (Booth) Robinson, 90, of Lynden, Wash.

The three enjoyed recounting the old times and remembering old friends.

“A lot has changed since we were in school,” Harmon said.

One of the stories of Justice and Harmon’s past capers involved a water fight that included a fountain that was at the library at that time.

Also, both Harmon and Justice recalled shining shoes at two barber shops.

When hay hands were making a dollar a day, Justice could make up to $25 a day shining shoes, he said.

They worked Saturday — the day that people came to town to go shopping.

Justice said that by cleaning the bath tubs and other facilities in the back of the barber shop, he did not have to pay rent for his space there.

Justice brought out some old black and white photos.

“We had a heck of a basketball team,” Justice said about the photo that included him.

And, the FFA parliamentary team (in which he’s also pictured) took the state championship.

Both Justice and Harmon were born in Leap where Harmon attended Chapman School.

Justice moved to town and he and Robinson attended all 12 grades at Enterprise where their graduating class numbered 32.

Harmon rode a horse three miles to the Pyles place, then drove to high school on the 15-mile road that was not snow-plowed regularly.

“Sometimes I didn’t get there until noon,” he chuckled.

“You didn’t think anything of it, you just did it,” he said about the horse ride in any kind of weather.

Harmon’s date for the junior-senior prom was Robinson. She was a Booth then. Her parents owned the funeral home now owned by Lee Bollman.

The father of the man she married ran a drug store, first in Lostine, then in Enterprise.

Yes, things are a lot different now.

There are other survivors of the EHS Class of 1936, but Harmon and Justice decided to get together with Robinson while she was in the area staying at her Wallowa Lake cabin.