Skowhegan Class of 1974 Bonds Defy Time and Distance

When we were children, we often heard our elders say things like, “Don’t get old!” or “One day you will wake up and realize that you are an ancient being.”

Well, as usual, they were right. In August, I will be attending my 50th high school reunion.

How can it be that half a century has passed since he marched into the Skowhegan Regional High School gymnasium with about 250 other classmates to the tune of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Pomp?”

In 1974, amidst the Watergate scandal, President Richard M. Nixon resigned.

Maine horror author Stephen King has published his first book, Carrie.

The Rubik’s Cube was invented.

This year’s top song was “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand.

It was a different world. In 1974, a loaf of bread cost about 35 cents. Can you imagine? A dozen eggs, less than 80 cents. Apartments could be rented for about $150 per month, and the average cost of housing was $36,000.

Just 50 years earlier, Calvin Coolidge was president. In 1924, her mother was two years old.

Wheat cereal and Milky Way candy bars were introduced in 1924. Twelve eggs cost about 25 cents, and a gallon of milk costs 28 cents. Cars can be purchased for approximately $100 to $265. What is the average cost of a house? $2,500 to $3,000.

Yes, it seems like a long time ago. I won’t be here in another 50 years, but many of you will be. Imagine how much your house or rental will cost then.

It means time passes quickly. One year of our lives passes faster than the last.

Exactly five years ago, I attended my high school’s 45th reunion. Everyone looked very nice. We ate, talked, and laughed. We reminisced about our high school successes, our antics, our favorite and not-so-favorite teachers. Kim was there, along with Cheryl, Donna, Dawn, Kathy, Jay, Susie, Marge, Mary, Jeff, Betsy, Donnie, Ben, and many others.

Those we have lost, including Holly, Richard, Wally, Eddie, Michelle, Debbie, Diane, Bruce, Alan, Carol, Sean, Tony, Don, Brent, Jamie, Danny, Vincent and Peggy, are commemorated on a special display table it was done. Since then, the list has grown.

When we graduated, we were a class of 250 out of over 1,000 enrolled at the school, and now we only have 725 students. Time moves on. Or, as my mother used to say, “The Fugitive of Tempus.”

Our class was the first freshman class to enter a brand new high school and spend four years there. It was the first time that we girls were allowed to wear pants to school. It’s nice to actually be able to wear jeans. Bell bottom pants were especially popular.

The first class reunion I attended was the 15th. Before that, I lived out of state and thought I was too busy to go back since high school. I was hesitant to attend that year, remembering some of the less fun aspects of high school: cliques, competitiveness, and peer scrutiny.

But 15 years later, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendship and respect we shared. we were growing up. We were happy to meet each other, a collection of different people who have spent most of their young lives together, learning, discovering, developing interests and sharing secrets. We left school as children but came back together as adults, enriched by time and experience.

Since then, I have attended every reunion and am definitely looking forward to my 50th reunion as time and distance grow further away.

In that three-hour bubble, we end up existing in both the past and the present, 1974 and 2024, barely thinking about the 50 years in between. Then, they scatter on the wind.

When you think about it, time is interesting.

Amy Calder has been a reporter for the Morning Sentinel for 35 years. Her column appears here on Saturdays. She is the author of the book Comfort is an Old Barn, a collection of her selected columns, published by Islandport Her Press in 2023. Contact her at acalder@centralmaine.com. For her previous Reporting Aside columns, visit centralmaine.com.

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