TIMELINE by Mike Zbailey as read by Ken Muth and Shirley Rake Sharp 9-2-06
Ken – Good evening. My name is Ken Muth
Shirley- And I’m Shirley Rake Sharp
K – Well, we’re here to talk about the life and times of the Class of 1956 through the years. A lot has happened since we all arrived on this planet around 1938.
S – Right. Twelve presidents. Five wars, a cold war, and a lot of tension; Berlin Wall, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, a presidential assassination, a presidential resignation, impeachment, recessions, inflation, nine-eleven and all of the current issues out there. Stop the world, I want to get off.
K- But look what else happened – Polio was wiped out, heart transplants, new cures for old diseases, television, computers, bikinis, the internet, man on the moon, interstate highways, and Medicare.
S – Oh, the changing styles. Long dresses, short dresses, pants, Nehru jackets, casual clothes, bell-bottoms, Capri’s. And hairstyles - short hair, long hair, real long hair, for the men that is.
K – And look at the evolution of the music of our times. Big bands, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones; Peter, Paul and Mary; Madonna, Rod Stewart, Kenny Chesney, Rap Music, and still the Rolling Stones.
S – And through all of that, we went to school, grew up, worked, married, raised families, grandchildren, had a lot of ups and downs and some fun along the way. Where should we start?
K – Let’s start at the beginning – 1938, the year most of us were born. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President.
The average house cost $3,900
You could buy a new car for $860
Construction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was begun.
S – And look at the prices:
Gas 10 cents a gallon. Coffee 25 cents a pound, milk 23 cents a gallon
K – A lot was happening locally too. SykesvilleHigh School defeated Punxsutawney, 25-24 to win the Section 1 Basketball Championship and Kramer won the 1938 JC League Baseball Championship.
S – The Cascade Mine in Sykesville closed after 35 years of operation.
K – Things weren’t going well in the world in 1938. Adolph Hitler was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year because he was the biggest newsmaker. During the year, he took over Czechoslovakia and Austria.
S – OK. Some good stuff. “Thanks for the Memory” from the movie; The Big Broadcast of 1938 starring Bob Hope won the Academy Award for Best Song. Now you know where we got our theme for this evening. The Academy Award Movie was Gone With the Wind and Vivien Leigh (pronounced Lee) was the best actress. Guess who was Best Actor?
K – Frankly, my dear, I think that it was Clark Gable for Gone With the Wind.
S – Wrong, It was Robert Donat for Goodbye Mr. Chips.
K- What?
S – In addition to us, what other famous people were born in 1938?
K – OK – Newsman Peter Jennings, and Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian dictator.
S – Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame and actress Natalie Wood.
K – And Ted Turner and the football player and announcer Don Meredith
S – So on we marched into the First Grade in 1944. Mrs. Rupert in Sykesville and Mrs. Buheit in Kramer were our teachers. We all had friends and relatives in the war. Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the summer we started First Grade. Three local men, John Hanzely, Mike Danch and Ken Smyers landed on OmahaBeach with the 29th Division. All three were wounded and were awarded Purple Hearts. Ken Smyers would become the owner of the soda fountain in Sykesville, which was the local place to congregate, drink ice cream sodas and listen to the latest music.
K –Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to his fourth term in 1944. Vietnam, under Ho Chi Minh declared itself independent of France. We would see more of him later
.
S – In 1951, all of us in HendersonTownship joined you folks in Sykesville in the eighth grade and we became Sykesville-HendersonHigh School.
S – Five years later, in 1956, smarter than ever, our class of 46 students graduated. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President and Richard Nixon was Vice President. Our class officers were Jim Kuntz, President; John Bassett, Vice President; Loretta Knarr, Secretary; and Allan Scully, Treasurer.
K – By a vote of the class, Betsy Kuntz was named Best in Science. It wasn’t a coincidence that she, along with John Bassett, was also voted Hardest Worker.
S - Our class also voted on some of the other qualities that we possessed:
Best singers – Ron Meholick and Peggy Ann Hollopeter
Most Dependable –Mike Zbailey and Peggy Ann Hollopeter
Best athletes – Regis Felix and Anne Peace
Wittiest – Allan Scully and Nancy Peace
Friendliest - Ruth Munro and Jim Kuntz
Best looking – Ed Speakman and Loretta Knarr
K - Best Dancers – Nancy Keenan and Bob Melzer
Best mechanics – John Anderson and Marilyn Zimmerman
And to go along with that
Best Drivers – Marilyn Zimmerman and Richard Sanko
And some things don’t change
The most talkative classmates were, guess who – Bob Mehok and Nancy Peace.
S – And don’t forget – Most likely to succeed.
Ken Muth and Loretta Knarr.
I think that there will be more about that later.
Our yearbook said Bob Boboige was spirited and Bernice Solida was shy and cheerful. Walter Laborde was called quiet, but I don’t know why. Carl Reagle was a noted hard worker.
Don Zimmerman appeared naked in our yearbook. And this was 1956?
K – And Shirley Rake, the yearbook said, “Was among the top notch in the class,
No test is too difficult for her to pass.”
S – Mike Zbailey was the editor of the School Newspaper, The Scroll.
And Loretta Knarr and Bob Melzer were the yearbook editors.
K – And our Valedictorian was, of course, Betsy Kuntz
S – Our class was the backbone of a lot of activities and many of our classmates excelled in them. I don’t know how the school opened without us the next year. Six from our class represented our school at CountyBand. Ron Meholick went to State Band.
K – And ten of us, not including me, could actually sing very well and went on to the CountyChorus: I’ll note that our Master of Ceremonies is not on that list,
but, I understand he may try to do some singing this evening. Be kind to him.
S – The baseball team, new to our school that year, was very good. They won seven games and lost none and our class had eight members on that team.
K - We also had nine stalwarts on the football team, which won four and lost four with a heart breaking tie with our rival, Reynoldsville, the league champions. They worked hard for Coach Bob Booth.
S – The basketball team was the pride and joy of our little town and the township. They won 23 games and lost only 3, continuing a winning tradition. Bob Volansky was the league’s scoring leader and Russ Carlson was the Coach. Our class had seven players on that team.
K – And if we paying attention to such things.
The average house cost $10,500 in 1956
Gas was 23 cents a gallon and eggs were 27 cents a dozen.
S – Out in the world, Fidel Castro began his campaign to overthrow the Cuban government.
Prince Rainier married Grace Kelly.
K - The Kinsey Report and Peyton Place were best selling books. And this was 1956? I wonder if any of our classmates bought a copy of those.
S – Young Elvis Presley was just beginning to make a name for himself. A New York newspaper said. “He won’t last.” Wrong. Elvis has been dead for 20 years and he is still one of the highest earning entertainers in the world.
K – After graduation Bill Yohe entered the Marine Corps and Bob Mehok the Army. And let’s not forget Shirley Rake, who joined the United States Air Force.
S – But that was only the beginning. Here are some of the things that we did in the middle of all of the big events in the world.
In 1957, Nancy Peace married Darrell Lingle.
Bill Yohe and Gertrude Laborde were married on April 5, 1958. In that same year,
Laudrea Brewer’s daughter, Deborah, was born. She was one of the first children to be born to the Class of 1956.
K – In 1958, Loretta Knarr married Ray Shepler.
Mike Zbailey and Bob Volansky hitchhiked across the United States.
S – And my collaborator up here, Ken Muth, entered flight school to become a Navy pilot in 1958. John Bassett joined the Navy to see the world and visited over fifty countries. Classmates Nancy Keenan and Bob Melzer were married on June 6, 1959. Mike Zbailey was the Best Man. Bob and Nancy lived in Desire – (Looking at Bob and Nancy) Or was that Panic? Ron Meholick and Kay Smith were married on August 15, 1959.
K – In 1960 the long suffering Pittsburgh Pirates won the world series beating the New York Yankees on Bill Mazeroski’s home run. John F. Kennedy was the winner, over Richard Nixon, in the first presidential election in which we were old enough to vote.
Mike Zbailey was commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy after graduation from PennState. He served on the destroyer, USS Willard Keith.
S – Ken and Sally Ann Muth were married in May of 1960. In 1961, several of our classmates were in the military service during the two big international crises of that year – The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the building of the Berlin Wall. In that year, also, Navy Commander Allan Shepherd rocketed on the first sub orbital flight of the US space program.
Anne Peace Daugherty’s first child was born on October 3, 1963.
K – We were out of school nine years when President Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam. The number of US forces in Vietnam reached 184,000. Robert Allan Scully began his tour of duty in Vietnam with the Army Special Forces. Hard working Betsy Kuntz completed nurse’s training.
S – And the years went flying by. In 1966, Bob Volansky and Helena Gowan were married in New Jersey. Mike Zbailey was the Best Man.
K - In 1967, Nancy Peace graduated from the Clearfield Hospital School of Nursing. Mike Zbailey and Jean Kosiewski (Ko – shef – ski) were married in Jacksonville, Florida. Bob Volansky was the Best Man.
S - Judy Nichols Parks' fifth child, Donna, was born on July 28, 1967 in Eustis, Florida. US troop strength in Vietnam reached 475,000. In 1970, Robert Allan Scully began his second tour in Vietnam as an Attack Helicopter Pilot with the 17th Air Cavalry.
K – The last US troops left Vietnam in March 1973. And, that was the year Shirley Rake graduated from the University of Nebraska.
S – Yes, and that was also the year that Ken Muth received his P H D from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Kenneth Muth – sounds pretty good.
K - Three years later, in 1976, Janina Ann Frampton was born to Laudrea Brewer Frampton and her husband John. Janina is perhaps the youngest child born to our classmates. And back home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Allan Scully met Elvis Presley.
S – By 1977 the Class of 1956 was a hard working group with responsibilities and families. Bob Mehok was elected tax collector of Sykesville, a position he held for several decades. Brian E. Yohe, Jr. was born in Rochester, New York in 1979. He is the grandson of Bill and Gertrude Yohe and one of the first grandchildren of the Class of ’56
K – In 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected President. Hard working, Betsy Kuntz earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from DuquesneUniversity. In 1981 Robert Allan Scully’s military career ended when he retired from the Army with the rank of Major.
In 1981, we held our 25thReunion at the Sheraton Inn in DuBois.
S – Twenty-six classmates attended that Reunion. Bob Mehok was the Master of Ceremonies. We were all about 43 years old then, and in the middle of our working careers and raising families. With all of the big world events going on during all of those years, you would think that we’d have been exhausted at our 25th. Seems like only yesterday.
K – And somewhere out there, those kid who were graduating from high school in that year, are now celebrating their 25th High School reunion.
And the years kept whizzing by-
In 1983, Don Starr retired from the Air Force as a Master Sergeant. In 1988, he received his Bachelor’s Degree from San Angelo State College in Texas.
S - 1991, Betsy Kuntz earned her Master’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh
1992 – Mark Meholick, son of Ron and Kay, was ordained a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church.
1994 - Nancy Peace Lingle participated in the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Festival and soars over the New Mexico landscape. Hot air and Nancy always seemed to go together.
K – Regis Felix fulfilled a lifetime dream in 1996 and became a radio sportscaster.
Loretta and Ray Shepler, after two grandsons, were anticipating the birth of their first granddaughter in May 1996. The grandchild was named, James.
S- Dr. Ken Muth retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in 1996.
K – The Class of 1956 held our 40thReunion at this very same American Legion Hall in 1996. Mike Zbailey was the Master of Ceremonies, just as he is tonight. Our 45th was held at the Coach Light Inn in Sykesville on June 30, 2001. Bob Melzer was the Master of Ceremonies.
S – So, we all made it, and here we are at our 50th reunion. We traveled a lot of different roads to get here and we went to a lot of places and did a lot of things. Most of us are now retired. Some of us have gone on to a different career or a serious hobby. We had to deal with a lot of events during our live and we seemed to have weathered those storms
K - Looking back, I think that most of us had a good time in high school. Based on the responses to the questionnaire, we seem to be happy with the way things turned out. Husbands, wives, families and grandchildren are now the focus for a lot of us.
S – Our theme tonight is Thanks for the Memories and we can again thank each other for the fun and camaraderie during some of the most important and formative years in our lives.
K – The events of the world will continue, as before, so have a great five years until number 55. Keep working on all those dreams and we hope they all come true. And Thanks for the Memories!