This Daniel Boone High School Class of 1961website
was just inaugurated on December 21, 2010 —
and included only this (Introduction) & the
Class Roster.
The other five departments
(in the Contents table at right)
were added betwixt
April & July).
To date, we have had
12 Reunion Committee meetings
— and you are welcome to attend any of those upcoming.
They are always held on a Saturday, at 1:00 pm, at the
restaurant just east of Bowlorama, on Route 422, in Exeter Township:
The photo (above) was taken at Hut
Meeting #2 — on
August 28th, 2010.
At Hut Meeting #3 (on
September 25th)
Suellen surprised us all by showing up.
The reason this was so unexpected is because her homestead is in
Niantic, Connecticut.
But, as she happened to be in town, we were delighted
to see her.
Suellen Winterhalter Nugent
is front-row-right in the photo (above-right).
Also, second to the left of Suellen is Ron Van Pelt, who was not in the
August
picture (second people-photo above) — but had been at the
May
Hut Meeting #1.
Though we were missing a few of our prior members at Hut
Meeting #4
(on
October 9th)
— we gained a new one:
Bev Breitenstein, back-left in the
photo
at left.
And speaking of new Reunion Committee Members —
we got two more at Hut #5 (on
November 6th):
Carole Ludwig Gentile (3rd-from-right-front) and
Bob Kline (immediately behind her).
At Hut Meeting #8 (on
March 12th)
— we gained another addition to our
Reunion Committee: Darnell Bickel, front-right in
photo
at left.
At this conclave, our agenda included
nailing
down the
Reunion cuisinery, and
going through a number of the pictures from the
15th Reunion,
in 1976 — to see if we could attach names to each
of the faces, in preparation for posting them here on our website.
Did you think we were finished augmenting our Reunion Committee
by now ? Nope. On
July 23rd,
at Hut Meeting #11,
our newbie, John Kiefer, showed up
— with a large box of memorabilia
— most of which were
things
that no one else had brought forth yet.
John is front-right in the photo (above-right)
— and yes — he is
still the
jokester
that we all recall.
As the Reunion Committee for the Daniel Boone High School
Class of 1961 is now in the home stretch of their preparations
for The-Big-Event — the
largest conclave (so far) gathered on
August 27th (photo above-right).
At Hut Meeting #12,
we had 15 classmates, plus one wife.
Our newbies were Nancy Oxenford Johnson, who is married to classmate
Dewey Johnson (in attendance too) — and
Clyde Nonnemaker, who also brought his wife, Eva.
At this caucus, the day's agenda included electing Bob Davis, as
our Reunion Emcee — and structuring the Program
to be sandwiched into our 6-hour celebration
— scheduled for
Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
—
Our
Daniel Boone High School
is the older of only two such-named
high schools in the United States, and began in
September of 1956,
as the Daniel Boone Joint School District
was formed — with the amalgamation of the
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)
was sworn into office, as
the 35th President of the United States, on January 20th,
1961 — as we were
mid-way through our senior
year at Daniel Boone High School.
And nearly everyone, who ever heard of Jack Kennedy, remembers
these 17 words
from his inaugural address, on the snowy steps of the U.S.
Capitol building that Friday afternoon.
Currently, this is the
Amity Primary Center — one of four
elementary schools in the
Daniel Boone Area School District.
It accommodates Kindergarten through Second Grade now.
But in 1961, it was our High School
— grades 10-12. Well.
The first floor was.
The second floor, back then, was K-6 for Amity Township also.
Da question comes up: What song was #1 when we graduated
from high school ? And the answer depends
on: as of the date of which of the two events concerned.
Our baccalaureate service was held on Sunday, June 11th,
1961 — when the Number
One Song in America was
Running Scared,
by Roy Orbison. However ...
Our
commencement
exercises did not occur until 8:15 on Monday evening,
June the 12th — and by then, the charts had
rolled
over
(as they did every Monday) — with the new
topper being
Travelin' Man, by Ricky Nelson.
This was the first of 23 songs written for the 21-year-old Nelson, by
Jerry Fuller
— of which four charted in the
Top Dozen, including:
A Wonder Like You
(#11 - Nov 1961)
Young World
(#5 - Apr 1962)
It's Up To You
(#6 - Feb 1963)
For Ozzie & Harriet's younger son, double-sided
hits were the rule, rather than the exception.
Travelin' Man
(which was backed by Hello
Mary Lou) was the 11th double-duty
disc for Ricky in a mere five years.
~ Mary Lou,
which went to #9, was written by Cayet Mangiaracina and
Gene Pitney
— who was having a
pretty
spectacular
1961 himself — with
Love My Life Away
Every Breath
I Take, and
Town Without Pity.
Besides
doing
even better
in '62, he also penned songs for other artists, including
blockbusters for Bobby Vee
Rubber Ball (#6 - Jan 1961) and
The Crystals
He's A Rebel (#1 - Nov 1962)
— which,
ironically
— is the song that kept Gene's, Only Love
Can Break A Heart, from rising above #2 in November of '62.
Both Gene Francis Alan Pitney
(Connecticut) & Eric Hilliard Nelson
(New Jersey) were born in 1940 —
Gene being the elder by 2 months &
21 (or 19) days. [per calc method]
Of the numbers that Gene continued to put on the charts
throughout the remainder of the '60's,
the two that I especially liked were:
It Hurts To Be In Love
(#7 - Oct 1964)
and possibly his very best
Half Heaven Half Heartache
(#12 - Feb 1963)
And today, 50 years after our graduation from
Daniel Boone High School
— what music do we most like ?
Well. Pretty much the same stuff —
from the '50's & '60's. But.
To that — we would definitely have to add:
Jacqueline Marie Evancho.
Send us some stuff ??
If you have anything from our school days
(1948-1961) — please
send it to
Joyce
in a stiff (cardboardish) package — and mark it:
DO
NOT BEND.
We will take good care of it — and return it to you at
the Reunion — or by
mail (if you prefer).
Be aware that the item must be flat (or relatively flat) — so
that it can be placed on a scanner-glass. Multi-paged things
(like stapled yearbooks, or such) are ok also.
If it has bulk (like our class-hat,
ring,
jacket, et cetera) — simply put it on, and have someone
take
several pictures
of you modeling it. Then, send them to
Joyce
— or, a CD of the jpg-files would be fine too.
Suggestions:
any printed matter: class play programs;
music, sports, or other event programs; tickets from dances;
school newspapers
(Coonskin Cap, Lincoln Gazette, et cetera) or yearbooks;
articles from local area papers
(Reading
Eagle/Times, Pottstown Mercury, Birdsboro Dispatch, others ??)
pictures:
from any of our school / student related events —
especially the 4-day Senior Class Trip to Washington.
I'm sure you may have other things, not mentioned here
— please share those too.
Our request for this nostalgic stuff is 2-fold:
(a) for here, on our website, and
(b) because Mel Feick has graciously
volunteered to put together
a PowerPoint presentation to be shown at our Reunion.
Should be fun!.
We could use some address-help too.
On the next page is our
Class Roster.
We are still missing quite a few addresses.
If you can help with any of these —
please contact our Reunion Co-ordinator:
Joyce
Hamilton Zeiber 118 North Walnut Street
BirdsboroPA19508-2006
484 333-1009 - cell
phone
& voice mail
jefjoyjam@aol.com - email
They are always held on a Saturday, at 1:00 pm, at the
restaurant just east of Bowlorama, on Route 422, in Exeter Township:
This DBHS Class of 1961 - Introduction Page