A Place In Time

A Place In Time - by Ernie Aydelotte ('69)

On that bright morning, on the first day of class in September 1965, the Morningside High School campus felt the first, tentative footsteps of the future graduating class of 1969. Except for the Senior Walk. The freshman didn’t go there. They didn’t even THINK of going there. LaVera Draper Brown says, “I remember being intimidated by the Senior Walk that we weren’t supposed to walk down. I wouldn’t have put even a toe on it my freshman year. That was very intimidating.”

Skip forward to August 15, 2009 and the graduates of 1969, who are now becoming seniors in a more formal sense of the word, arrived for their 40th reunion at the Doubletree Hotel in Torrance. They traveled from as close as El Segundo and from as far away as the island of Saipan (that would be Danny Lamar). Alumni came from Washington, California, Colorado, Virginia, Oregon, Alabama, Tennessee, Nevada, Utah, and Missouri.

In total, there were more or less 170 of us in the room: 100 from the class of 1969, 6 faculty, and about 66 from the “mini-Mane Event,” which was a sort of simultaneous co-reunion of MHS alumni from other years.

69 Officers Now 69 Officers Then
Even the politicians came! All three of the 1969 second-semester senior class officers were in attendance, as seen in this picture of Mark Dickens, Sylvia Kuefler Hansen, and Doug Hester For contrast, here’s an earlier photo of the trio, taken just few days prior to the reunion

 

Wallace Opstad Dave Van Hoorebeke Klair Bybee & Lois Stegan Four faculty
Some of our favorite teachers and administrators came. In attendance were Mr. Art Callen, Mrs. Lois Stegen, Mr. Klair Bybee, Mr. Wallace Opstad, Mr. Mike Campagna and Mr. Dave Van Hoorebeke. Here are a few faculty photos

 

The next picture is of the Johnson brothers, Ralph (’69) and Fred (’70), along with Ralph’s wife Suzie. Ralph, you may know, is not only a Monarch, but (as if anything more is needed) is also an original member of the R&B group Earth, Wind and Fire and a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

 

Here are a few more shots of mingling Monarchs:

 

Finally, the 45th reunion of the class of 1969 is already being planned! Set your alarms for the summer of 2014, and keep in touch with LaveraDraperBrown@Yahoo.com, who has already volunteered to coordinate our next get-together. We’ll leave you with a final picture, this one of our Ace Reunion Planner, LaVera:

 

OK, maybe just ONE more…

Note: Most (but not all) of the photos shown here were taken by Sharbert’s Photography. They took many more than were are able to show here. The set of photos can be viewed, and prints purchased, at http://Shabertsphotography.com.

 

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