The Mount Baker class of 1954 will be marking a momentous occasion this weekend, as they are having their 60th grad reunion.
In 1954, the Armond Theatre was showing Small Town Girl and Island in the Sky and milk was two for 35 cents at the Cranbrook Trading Co.
David Pascuzzo has been organizing the reunion in Cranbrook.
"The class started in 1942," Pascuzzo said. "We had 46 graduate that year in Cranbrook at Mount Baker High."
On Aug. 22 they will be having a meet and greet at the Cranbrook Golf Course. Then, on Aug. 23, they will be having a banquet at the Heritage Inn. And to top it all off, they will be having a brunch at the Heritage on Aug. 24.
Pascuzzo said people are coming from as far as Texas and Ontario, but will also be coming from around B.C. and Alberta.
“Very seldom do classes have more coming than graduated,” he said. “We have 54 coming.”
Those are graduates and their plus-ones.
A few of the women won’t be able to come because they are taking care of their dependent husbands.
“We’re quite impressed by the numbers of people showing up,” he said. “We’re going to have all the grad pictures set up at the Heritage. I have newspaper clippings from 1942 to ‘54 covering sporting events, song events, choir events, awards that kids won. We have all the school records except for first grade.”
Pascuzzo recounted some of the events that transpired back then, such as the day they opened Mount Baker.
“We were at the old high school which was at 10th Avenue,” he said. “That was our high school. We were in ninth grade in ‘51. It was Easter time and we took our books and walked down to the new school. That’s when they opened Mount Baker. At that time it went from grade nine to 13.”
On V-E Day, they had a parade and the kids all got together and marched to the cenotaph.
“There was a big deal about it because it was Victory in Europe Day,” he said.
In 1949, the students went on a big march to protest the rise in an all important snack.
“They put the prices up of chocolate bars from five cents to seven cents,” he said. “So we all marched from downtown Baker Street to Central School saying we all want five cent chocolate bars. I’ll never forget that.”
During World War II, students had to bring 25 cents to school every week to buy war bond stamps.
“They are little booklets of stamps and you pay 25 cents and then when the booklet is finished I think you went to the bank and you actually got a war bond issued for $10 or $25,” he said.