|
Bill Yazbec (1965)
WELCOME DDHS CLASS OF 1964 AND 1965
This is a special welcome for the class of '64 AND '65 50th Reunion website. Welcome! We hope you will be able to join our classmates to celebrate our 50th high school class reunion.
It has been nearly 50 years since we've all been together as a class. We've lost some of our classmates, but they will forever live in our memories. Our years at DDHS were special, and left us with so many memories. As Freshmen, we all were a little apprehensive on those first days at DDHS. We had to take typing class and Freshman English. We quickly became familiar with changing classes every hour, racing to the lunch room to get in line, and spending time with our friends in the 'commons area' after lunch. We went to our first football game and mixer. We got together to build our first Homecoming float. Do you remember 'the whale'? I remember the best we finished was 2nd place in that competition each year. I guess we had good ideas, but we weren't very good at putting our ideas into a winning float.
We watched our football team win the conference championship, and at one of our first 'Assemblies', they announced the gift given to the school to build the George Borg Stadium, Track, and Tennis Courts. We thought we would have a good basketball team, and the swimming team worked hard and did well in the conference. Do you remember the Valentines Dance that was sponsored by our class?
As the year went on, we became comfortable and familiar with our new school and we came to understand the standard of excellence that was everywhere throughout the school. We got to know our teachers and the upperclassmen, and by the end of the year, the intimidation we felt back in September had faded away. We looked forward to the Cometeer every Friday, and we got our first 'ERA' yearbooks, and asked our friends to sign our yearbooks. We looked forward to the new Freshman class and to moving on to our Sophmore year.
As Sophmores, we began to take more challenging classes like Biology, Chemistry, Algebra II, Geometry and all the differenct language classes. Do you remember disecting your frog? We had to take speech with Mr. Scott. We went to the football games at the new Borg Stadium, and to our second Homecoming game and dance. Another last place finish in the float competition. We knew what to expect and how to handle all the little things to get along and make our school days fun and full of learning. For those who had lockers assigned by the gym or near the shop classrooms,we knew to find a 'friend' to share the locker with that was closer to most of the classes. Remember study halls, and library passes? Remember the morning announcements, and saying the Pledge of Alligiance? We took Driver's Ed, and got our driving lessons from Webb Schultz. And the big day came when we went to the library downtown and took the drivers test! A big day for all of us. We got to know the ladies in the lunchroom and some of us could talk them into the things we wanted at lunch. I think weekly lunch tickets were $1.25!!!
We woke up in the summer of '63 and realized we were going to be Juniors! Little did we know what was ahead in the coming year. We got a new principal. Mr Rodman left, and Mr Hamburg was our new principal, and everyone seemed to like him. Sadly, he passed away that fall on a trip to New Mexico. Our new principal, Mr. Olson came in January. We lived thru another life changing time in November, when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. Do you remember where you were when you heard the announcement come over the PA system? The guys were getting their letter jackets and we had to vote on our class ring design. Our Junior year was the year of our Prom. Daryl Christianson was Prom King, and Sue Sueser (Loft) was Prom Queen. We elected John Benson as class president, Robin York (Hembrook) secretary, Judy Werbel (Sage), vice president, and Betty Ann Beresh (Reidner) treasurer. The spring musical play that year was Finian's Rainbow. Mr. Bell was the director.
Three years at DDHS behind us and we had become Seniors. It felt good to get to that point, but it became a time of soul searching as we all had to begin thinking of what was next in our life. We wanted to enjoy every moment of our Senior year, but early on we were faced with taking college entrance exams (ACT and SAT), and meeting with Miss Shunk for advice on what to do next. For some it was to find a job, others joined the military, some got married, and others went off to college. The Viet Nam War was heating up and became a scary thought for the guys in the class because of the draft. The football team finished 4-4-1. John Benson was Homecoming King, and Karen Matousek was chosen as Homecoming Queen.The basketball team struggled, the swim team had another good season, finishing 3rd in sectionals, and 13th in the state. The baseball team had a down season with a 5-8 record, but the Comet track team and the Comet golf team again captured the conference championships. And we prepared for our graduation.
Overall, our years at DDHS were 4 wonderful and memorable years. Our time there taught us to have high expectations and to work to achieve excellence. We were all proud to be part of the Class of '64 and the Class of '65 and to be alumni of Delavan-Darien High School.
We hope to see everyone at our 50th reunion in the summer of 2015!
Til next time....
|
