Yakima High School

50 Years Later - Notes and Photos from the 2006 Reunion

Last revised: SAT 7 OCT 2006

Introductory comments

What a wonderful reunion!

Nick and his team put together an outstanding event, and the "memory book" was the best I have ever seen.

Dear friends were there...a great turnout out of our class of about 520. Most of us have gotten a little shorter and rounder, except Ed Rosland who managed to get taller and stay trim.

Joanna gets the "bravery" award, and there were others who showed up in spite of their medical situations.

There was a super turnout by the Rally Squad...seven out of eight! We should have brought pompoms for the picture.

And the golfers will love Ed Rosland's pictures of the Saturday golfing (see below).

I had forgotten just how many pictures Ed and I took....boxes and boxes full of them now.

And I collected many other items for my scrapbook, such as the program for "The Fortune Teller" (FEB 1955). [Can you remember Count Berezowski, the Jeweller, the members of the highest-ever-GPA orchestra, the huge chorus, the "special dancers", and who was on the 31-member "Make-up crew"?]

We had memorable times with our friends during our high-school years and again at this reunion.

Special thanks to Ed, JoAnn, Mera and Liggett for supplying the information and the many pictures on this web page. JoAnn took over 200 very nice pictures of individuals and small groups. Liggett gets the "Captain Caption" award for providing the captions.

Enjoy.....

Mike Chambreau

Technical notes:

Most of these photos have been reduced in size to appear properly and quickly when viewing them on a computer screen from a web page (average size of about 80KB). If there are particular photos of interest to you, let us know, and we can supply the original large-high-resolution files for your printing, etc.

We had small digital cameras (Mike, Mera), bigger digital cameras (Ed), and a 35MM film camera (JoAnn). My judgment is that film is still the best, though the digital cameras are amazing and are getting to the film range (8MB or so).

[And the detail in the originals is phenomenal...you really do not want to see everything the camera captures! The original files have 50-times the amount of detail, compared to these web pages pictures.]

R - C PHOTO LABS

R-C Photo Labs has been in business for 55 (!) years, bringing you many pictures of your junior- and high-school years.

Our committment to security and privacy is unmatched. Your valuable color prints are controlled by trained professionals.

Click here to see our staff guarding our equipment for quality and your privacy

Slumber parties

Those of you staying at the Red Lion may have experienced somewhat loud neighbors. There was not one, but TWO bachelorette parties going on, a 7-girl one and a 9-girl one. The 9-girl one (Shannon and her 7 friends plus bachelorette) were the ones coming and going in the white stretch limo with the white poodle dog. After a day of touring, they went to "Gasperetti's" for dinner [Remember "Gasperetti's?]. They had a good time and slept in the next morning until 11:30A. I offered them the special R-C Photo Labs "Slumber Party" package, though they declined [Barbara Cheshire is my witness].

Our class

Many, many thanks to Liggett T. for getting our original class picture and names and to Nick and his reunion team for all the information.

Where did they go?

Our class had 521 members (see "Complete class roster" above"). Here's where they are now. 

Categories

    - Deceased:                                               63 (12%)
    - No address or information:                              97 (19%)

Most class members stayed in or returned to Washington:      244 (47%)


    - Class members in Washington (western plus Wenatchee):  121 (23%)
    - Class members with Yakima addresses:                   100 (19%) 

        (A few have homes in other states too.  This 
         category includes Selah and other nearby towns.)
 
    - Class members in Eastern Washington:                    23 ( 4%)


Many moved out of state:                                     117 (22%)

    - Twenty-eight class members in:  California
    - Eighteen class members in: Oregon
    - Twelve class members in:   Idaho
    - Nine class members in:     Arizona
    - Seven class members in:    Florida
    - Five class members in:     Texas, Virginia
    - Four class members in:     Utah
    - Three class members in:    Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nevada
    - Two class members in:      Maine, Maryland, Montana, Pennsylvania
    - One class member in:       Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware,
                                 Hawaii, Kentucky, North Dakota,
                                 New York, West Virginia

Slideshow

Carl Volckmann (Linda Terril's husband) did a great job getting many of our previous pictures into a PowerPoint slide show.

I am in the process of figuring out how to make it easy for you to access.

THEN and NOW photos

At our reunion, we were able to get updated photos of several of you. "Then" is around 1956; "Now" is August 2006.

More pictures from Franklin Jr. High

Other photos by Mike

Friday evening

Saturday - Wine tasting tour

We got to see the valley at its absolute best....temperature in the high seventies, a mild breeze, good visibility and all those apples waiting to be picked next month. It was a well-organized and interesting tour.

A large (1.1MB) file of the above picture is at: Valley view

Saturday - Golfing

Ed Rosland got these wonderful photos from the golfing on Saturday. I'll let you provide the names and captions.

[I've left these at Ed's larger (350KB) file size, so you can make nice prints of them.]

Saturday night

Sunday Brunch

Driving around Yakima

Sunday after the reunion I drove around Yakima. A few of these may be of interest to you,

The Boise Cascade mill on the east side of town next to the freeway has been sold, and the current owners are shutting down the three operations there, so it looks smaller and shrinking.

Our favorite drive-in, "The Freezer" is now a bagel shop.

Photos from around town (roll 0414 from JoAnn)

Various houses

Other photos

From Ed Rosland

Friday night
Saturday night

Junior-Senior Prom decorations, with names overlaid

From Jo Ann Waldbauer Woody

Jo Ann took about two hundred pictures. These were taken on film and then digitized. Outstanding quality [Showing more details than you might want to see. Original files are 4.3MB; "first-pass" reductions are 950KB]

These pictures have been resized but otherwise left intact and average about 80KB, with fine detail. Jo Ann "shoots a little low", so tops of heads might be right on the top edge.

I got most but not all of the names, again with help from Liggett. If you have additions or corrections, let me know.

Roll 9109
Roll 9110
Roll 9111

Roll 9112

Roll 9113

Roll 0410

Roll 0411

Roll 0412

Roll 0413

Roll 0414

From Mera "Sugar" Stephens Carlton

From Andrea Trenner Collison

We thought you might find some interest in the charcoal drawing of Yakima Senior High that hangs in our home today. It was originally done by Phil Kooser for the 40 year reunion of the 1938 class. Since this is about the time we were born, it has become a part of my history.

The picture was given to me by a former 1938 YHS graduate, who became our youngest son’s second grade teacher at Maple Leaf Elementary School in Seattle (Two of our children had teachers in elementary school, who were YHS graduates).

The teacher who gave us this picture was Catherine Van Court (married name). At the time we sold her home, she gave us the picture she had treasured for many years. It is framed with the orange and black matting.

As I looked at the pictures on your wonderful website of YHS, I could not help but feel that our picture represents the many generations, who went through YHS before us, including both of my parents.