60th Reunion Class of 1964

Date: 10/10/2024

On Saturday, September 14, 2024, nineteen members and eleven guests of the 1964

graduation classes of Little Falls High School and Saint Mary’s Academy gathered to celebrate

their 60th reunion with teasing, fond memories and joy at being together. (Hey, SMA people,

Lorraine had to hold down the fort by herself!) Martha and Don Lee, or Oliver as he reminded

us, did their usual superb job in organizing the event. We can’t thank them enough for making

this happen. And Bella Vista, located just outside Little Falls on Route 167, provided a

comfortable setting with plenty of tasty food to satisfy the hungriest appetite.

After a little time remarking on, sometimes laughing about, and often sharing remedies for the

effects Father Time has wrought on many of our bodies, most commonly hips and knees, we

wondered about and worried about friends who were not sharing the evening with us this year.

In some cases, we were glad to hear that it was just conflicts with other social events that

prevented them joining us, but, in other cases, we were sad to learn that it was health issues.

Our thoughts are with you. And we sadly learned of four more classmates we have lost: Joyce

Dempster Hogan, Tony Haponski, Dick Monahan and Jean Waldvogel. We’ll miss them.

Martha then asked each of us to stand, identify ourselves, and give an update. It turned out

that name tags might have helped, because, while we recognized faces, we sometimes

couldn’t pull names out of these old brown, gray, white, or, in some cases, bald heads. But we

were ever so grateful to see old friends again and dredge up memories of the good old days, of

particular teachers and their particular idiosyncrasies, of some of our crazy antics, and of the

differences in how people interact with one another in today’s electronic age from how we

personally shared time together way back then. We generally agreed that those truly were the

good old days. After all, what hangouts could be better than Kandyland or Papaleo’s? What

could provide more adventure than dashing across the railroad tracks dodging trains or

walking the hilly streets of Little Falls with our friends to go to and from school? Oh, what

memories. Reminiscing like this made some of us feel young again. And all agreed that the

scenery along the Mohawk and upstate in general is beautiful.

While we totally understand that distance or health issues made it difficult for many people to

be with us, we really wish more of our old friends, especially people who are close by, had

been able to share the evening with us. We miss you, old friends.

Martha and Don announced that, after having been responsible for the last three reunions, they

are stepping down. Since they have set such a good example and have done 90% of the leg

work of organization, Patty Nobile Castellano suggested that she and I pick up the baton for

our 65th. We hope that all of you who can possibly make it will seriously consider attending.

Who knows how many more we will have? The 65th may well be the last one. Please consider

joining us if you possibly can.

Lynn Schrader Snyder