The first senior class is returning just in time to say goodbye to the soon-to-be-replaced building.
By: Steve Rauscher
MONTGOMERY As this year’s juniors prepare to become the last class to graduate from the cramped Montgomery High School, the school’s first senior class is returning, just in time to say goodbye.
The Class of 1971 converges on its old haunt tonight for its 30-year reunion, opening a weekend of festivities that will likely include more than the usual share of reminiscing about the good old days. Because, in the good old days and as recently as 10 years ago a reunion like this was almost impossible.
"What made it happen this time was the Internet," said Don Murphy, one of the organizers. "There’s a whole group of us who have a lot of computer skills and time to putz around, and we just put it together on the Web."
The Class of 1971 will be getting together today and tomorrow at local homes of classmates. The weekend will culminate with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Good Time Charley’s restaurant on Route 27 in Kingston.
Mr. Murphy, who owns a massage therapy practice in Florida, said members of the class organized a 20-year reunion, but a diaspora that saw the bulk of the class members leave the region and, in some cases, the country, resulted in low attendance.
"I think what really made it difficult is that we got spread out too far," he said. "Five years ago we wrote letters (for the 30th reunion), but everybody ignored them."
John Zimmerman, another organizer, said he learned of the 20th reunion just a few weeks before the event, which left him no time to attend.
"I was out in the boonies in California at the time, and nobody knew where I was," said Mr. Zimmerman, who now lives in Binghamton, N.Y. "I was too busy to go, and I was really disappointed."
That prompted him and a few other classmates who’d kept in touch to begin work on the 30th reunion early. By the time e-mail became popular, he said, they had most of the street addresses of their classmates, which made it easier to get their e-mail addresses.
"People tend to respond to e-mail more," he said.
Class member and current Worcester, Mass. resident Becca Gustafson Brown said she and husband, Ken, also a 1971 Montgomery graduate, credit the reunion’s expected success to the maintenance of old high school ties.
"We started with a core group of five people and began the search for fellow classmates," she said. "As the e-mail list grew, so did the interest, and we were on our way."
But Ms. Brown said she could not deny that it was the Internet boom that really helped the group track down 70 out of 83 fellow classmates.
"I’m an artist and generally resist all things computer, (but) I’ve been amazed at how this e-mail business has been such a catalyst for the development of our reunion," she said.
Part of the reason that Class of ’71 members were so enthusiastic about the reunion, Mr. Murphy said, was the unique bond they formed as the first class to attend the then-new Montgomery High School. Before 1971, Montgomery high school-age students had been sent to Princeton High School.
"Other schools followed traditions, but we got to set them," he said.
Township resident Julie Staats, who lived in Rocky Hill during high school, said she was "extremely disappointed" at the time that she had to attend Montgomery High School.
"The reputation back then was that a bunch of hicks lived out in Montgomery," she said. "But I was happy when I graduated, because I saw the benefits of going there."
Ms. Staats, a member of the Class of ’72 which is also invited to tonight’s reunion said the new high schoolers were also infused with the spirit of rebelliousness emanating from a liberal college campus to the south.
"Being in the Princeton area, we got news (from the campus) about what was going on, especially with the (Vietnam) war," she said.
Taking their cues from Princeton University, the students engaged in a number of sit-ins protesting the war.
"We had this thing called ‘Hall Jam,’ where we all just sat in the halls" said Mr. Murphy. "The big thing we’re asking is ‘Where were you during Hall Jam?’ "
Ms. Staats says her memories of "Hall Jam" are hazy, but she clearly recalls another sit-in the girls held in order to gain the right to wear pants to school.
"Up until then, the girls always wore skirts. It was just understood," she said. "Of course the next day, we all wore pants. It was rebellious. Peaceful, but rebellious."
Today, the Class of ’71 has become the older generation. But this weekend, they will remember what it was like to be the rebels.

