4
July 27, 2018
T he C olumbia P ress
Reunion: Members of WHS’s 100 graduating classes gather to reminisce
Continued from Page 1
type,” said Whetsell, 87. “I
They were part of the com- used to disappear and be
gone all day. We’d play
munity. … It was very
on the log rafts on the
much a family kind of
Skipanon. They used to
place. Look at all these
call me Skipanon Don.”
people that still get to-
Doris Dunn Larre-
gether.”
more
was more into
About 150 people
music
than
sports and,
poured through old Larremore
like
many
teenagers,
of-
annuals, took photos
ten
felt
as
if
she
didn’t
and chatted about high
fit in.
school days.
“I got married and
Don Whetsell, who
dropped
out and they
now lives in King City,
wouldn’t
let me come
was a member of the
back,”
Larremore
said.
class of 1950, the first to
Dyer
“That’s
how
things
were
graduate from the new
WHS campus after it moved back then. I got married and
from the site of today’s grade so they figured I might bring
some sin if I came back. But
school.
“I was a Huckleberry Finn then I was told the school
board can’t keep you out.” So
she returned, graduated and
proudly calls WHS her alma
mater.
There also were adjust-
ments for Ginny Schlecht
Dyer, who graduated in 1981.
“I moved from a big school
to a smaller school,” Dyer
said. “It was a little different
here at first. You don’t realize
everybody’s related to every-
body. But after living here for
so many years, I can appreci-
ate the bonds of a small com-
munity and I understand the
kinship.”
For Robert Vollmer of the
class of 1952, high school was
a time of small rebellions and
the comforts of community.
The high school had no lawn
back in the day, he said, and
the father of a classmate who
lived in a trailer across the
street once came over and
spun donuts with his tires in
the dirt in front of the cam-
pus.
“As I look back, it was excit-
ing,” Vollmer said. “As a kid,
I was mischievous.”
He got a ticket at age 15 for
driving without having a legal
driver with him. His mother
knew the judge and was able
to talk him into a reduced
fine.
Susan Jensen Walker, class
of 1980, appreciated the
small community and small
classrooms.
“Teachers could look right
at me and know whether I’d
gotten it,” she said. Later,
he family moved to Corvallis
“and it was totally different.”
Above: About 150 peo-
ple attended the July 21
reunion.
Top right: Robert Vollmer
confesses he was a bit
mischievious.
Left: Members of the
class of 1962 sit still for a
group shot.
Below: Jerry Beard of
Napavine, Wash., and
Warren Hubbard of
Longview remember when
there were no traffic lights
in town.
Photos by Cindy Yingst
Her husband, Bri-
an Walker, class of
1975, has never lost
his appreciation for
the small town of his
youth.
“It was a nice small
town and everybody
knew everybody,” he
said. “No. It’s not the
same today. Today
Warrenton’s got its
own strip (near Cost-
co). It used to be that
the only strip in town
was the one down Main Street.”
Would he rather forego to-
day’s better shopping oppor-
tunities?
“I’d turn it back. I loved that
time.”
Seaside offering beach wheelchairs
The Sunset Empire Park &
Recreation District has made
two beach-accessible wheel-
chairs available to the public.
The wheelchairs create
new opportunities for those
with mobility issues. Outfit-
ted with large, wide tires, the
wheelchairs can be pushed
across the sand.
Manzanita was the first
community on the Oregon
Coast to provide beach wheel-
chairs and Cannon Beach fol-
lowed last year.
Randy Anderson, a local
painter, was one of the driv-
ing forces behind the pro-
gram. Reservations are en-
couraged by calling the Bob
Chisholm Community Center
at 503-738-7393.