reunion - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T07:23:16Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/reunionOld Salts Picnic Boynton Beach Inlet – April 28https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/old-salts-picnic-boynton-beach-inlet-april-282014-06-04T01:44:32.000Z2014-06-04T01:44:32.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509478,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960509478,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="538" alt="7960509478?profile=original" /></a></em><em>Longtime fishermen gathered for a picnic to swap tales. Photo: Wally Alexander, Ron ‘Captain Hook’ Hamlin, Mike Fortier, Rick Lyman, Bob Nicholson, Jim Duncan, Butch Moser, Jimmie Zeak, Dr. Charles (Buddy) Moore, and two unidentified participants. Kneeling in front is Tom Bland. <strong>Willie Howard/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p></div>Delray Beach: Small-town memories big part of reunionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-small-town-memories-big-part-of-reunion2013-12-04T21:23:57.000Z2013-12-04T21:23:57.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960487685,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960487685,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="350" alt="7960487685?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Zicky Simon, class of 1942, shares a light-hearted moment with Rose Machek Sloan, who came from a flower-growing family and whose father was a beloved scoutmaster. </em> <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong><br /><br /> It was a virtual who’s who of “Old Delray,” a collection of folks with last names linking them back to the earliest families who settled what was then a small town.<br /> There’s was Dr. Fred Love, whose family owned the drug stores in town. There was Rose Machek Sloan, whose family grew flowers and whose father was a beloved scoutmaster. There were McMurrians and Simons, family names that bring back memories of general stores and of the days when the community was a major producer of winter vegetables. </p>
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<p><br /> All gathered last month for what was billed as Delray-Seacrest High Reunion XIII, an event that takes place every three years and brings together students who attended Delray Beach Elementary School or Delray Beach High School during or before 1949.<br /> The more than 85 former students who attended the reunion had a chance to catch up a bit and reminisce about the old days, when the buildings that now make up the Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square were actually functioning schools — filled with kids who were not above a little mischief that today seems tame. <br /> “Those buildings hold thousands and thousands of memories for all of us who are here,” says Sloan, class of 1957, who was a student at Delray Beach Elementary School in the 1940s. “It was the most wonderful time.” <br /> It was a time, Sloan recalls, when it wasn’t unusual for teachers to come to dinner at one of their students’ homes or when students with good grades could earn a chance to work in what was essentially Delray Beach’s first community garden — an area on the school campus where each room had a patch of soil to cultivate. <br /> It was also a time when a prank or two was tolerated. <br /> Love, now in his 90s, graduated back in 1938 and remembers the Halloween when a bunch of students took the small imported car belonging to the principal, Mr. Landers, and carried it up the steps to the second floor of the high-school building. <br /> “He figured out pretty quickly who did it and made them bring it back down,” Love recalls.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960488078,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960488078,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960488078?profile=original" /></a><br /> Back then it wasn’t unusual for students to climb into the rafters of the old gymnasium and write their names on a wooden beam. Some are still visible if you look carefully. <br /> Ernie Simon, who leads the committee that organizes the reunions, says he never climbed to the rafters but one of his friends, Pete Cole, did and wrote Ernie’s name on a beam.<br /> “But he spelled my name wrong,” Simon said. “He wrote Erny instead of Ernie. At least my mother could see that I didn’t climb up there.”<br /> While many of the faces at the reunion are familiar ones, the event itself has evolved. <br />This year, for the first time in a while, the event was held on a Sunday, rather than over two days, and it took place mainly in the daytime, since driving at night can be a challenge for some of the visitors. <br /> Also this year, the entire event was held on the grounds of the Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square, giving the visitors a chance to wander through the restored buildings that once held their classrooms. <br /> For former students like Love, the trip down memory lane is one that has been changed ever so slightly by time. <br /> “It’s nostalgic,” he says about the reunion. “You remember the good things and can forget the bad.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960488282,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960488282,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="354" alt="7960488282?profile=original" /></a><em>Jerry Hughson, class of 1958, poses with his yearbook photo, taken when he sported a flat top.</em></p></div>Delray Beach: Seacrest High School Sports Reunionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-seacrest-high-sch2011-08-03T15:30:00.000Z2011-08-03T15:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960341267,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960341267,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960341267?profile=original" /></a><em>More than 200 former Seacrest High School (1949-1970) athletes, coaches, faculty, cheerleaders and others attended a July 8-10 reunion.</em></p>
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<p><em>LEFT: Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie, jokes with event organizer Dr. Carey J. Snyder (center), and Mary Ann Price Jensen.</em></p>
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<p><em>LEFT: Rick Rhoden (class of ’71), professional golfer and former MLB All-Star pitcher, speaks during festivities.</em> <br /><em>Photos provided</em></p></div>Delray Beach: Coaches get ball rolling for Seacrest sports reunionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-coaches-get-ball2011-05-04T18:20:57.000Z2011-05-04T18:20:57.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960325881,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960325881,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960325881?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p><em> (l-r) John Shipley, Seacrest High Class of 1964, Norman Price, Head Basketball Coach, Randy Cooper (with cap) Head Football Coach, and Tom Smith, Seacrest High Class of ‘67 pose at Seacrest stadium in front of a Don Seiler statue of Hall of Fame professional quarterback Y.A. Tittle. Seiler sent the statue to Atlantic High School when he was living in Miami in the 1960s. <strong>Photo by Tim Stepien</strong></em></p>
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<p>By Rich Pollack<br /> <br />Oh, the stories they will tell.<br />There will, of course, be the requisite dinners, activities and revelry when close to 150 former athletes, coaches, cheerleaders and Hawkettes from Seacrest High School’s “glory days” in the 1950s, 1960s and early ’70s get together for their first-ever Seacrest High School Sports Reunion in early July. <br />But what most likely will be the cornerstone of the event will be the sharing of stories from those not-easily forgotten years when Seacrest High School — the predecessor of what is now Atlantic High School — was a sports powerhouse and much more than just a building with classrooms and a gym.<br />“We had a very special thing at Seacrest,” says former coach Norman Price, who, even today, is referred to simply as “Coach” by men and women who are now lawyers, dentists, accountants and retired or current police officers and firefighters. “It was a really tight-knit group.”<br />At a time when Delray Beach was still a small community, when everyone knew everyone and some of the teachers actually grew up with their students’ parents, Seacrest was a central gathering place. <br /> “Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the school was the hub of the whole community,” says Carey Snyder, who along with Price is organizing the reunion. “It was a very special time and there are a lot of us who shared that very special athletic experience.” <br />Talk to some of the former players and you’re likely to hear stories about “character building” exercises, such as two-a-day football practices in the heat of August, or of coaches who could tug on a dislocated finger, tape it up and have you back in the game within minutes. <br />“There were a lot of us who suffered through those two-a-days,” says Jim Gardner, now living in Ocean Ridge, who played football at Seacrest before graduating in 1962. Gardner was also a standout in track and field, setting the then-school record in the discus and the shot put. <br />Like many other former Seacrest athletes, Gardner still stays in touch with a lot of his teammates, even working closely with them on the books and screenplays he’s writing.<br />Former quarterback for the team in 1963 and 1964, John Shipley, now a lawyer and coastal Delray Beach resident, also recalls those two-a-day workouts and believes they did more than just make the Seahawks the best-conditioned team on the field every time they played. <br />“What we learned back then is that hard work and dedication pay off,” Shipley says. “If you looked at everyone who played on our team, all of these guys are doing well. “There are doctors, lawyers, businessmen, police officers and firefighters and even a few who had successful military careers.”<br /><br />School gone, but athletes returning: Snyder, who had been talking with Price for a couple of years about a reunion, says athletics at Seacrest also played an important role in shaping her career as an associate director of athletics at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania and also as a former women’s college softball and volleyball coach.<br />Although structured sports for girls were limited back in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Snyder organized tournaments and other activities, so it’s not surprising that she is taking the lead in helping to make the athletes’ reunion possible. <br />Already, she says, close to 100 former Seahawks have signed up and they are coming from all parts of the country.<br />Many are coming to honor Price — who former basketball standout Tom Smith of Ocean Ridge says was always the best player on the team — and Coach Randy Cooper, who also had a long career at Seacrest. Other coaches are also expected to attend.<br />For Price, the reunion will help fill a void created when the old school building, just a few blocks from his home, was torn down a couple of years ago.<br />“I felt like a part of me was lost when we lost the school,” he said. <br />But expect the spirit of the Seacrest Seahawks to live on for a couple of nights in July and, if you go, also expect to hear lots of stories about guys with nicknames like “Bones” and “Gunner.” <br />You’ll hear the alma mater’s song, too, which was sung on the bus every time the basketball team returned home from a game. </p>
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<p><strong>Seacrest High School Sports Reunion</strong><br />• July 8 and July 9<br />• Reception, July 8, at GOL! The Taste of Brazil restaurant, $10<br />• Dinner and presentations, July 9, at Old Calypso Restaurant, $35<br />• A beach trip, golf outing and Sunday brunch are also being planned.<br />• For more information, visit: <a href="http://www.seacresths.com">www.seacresths.com</a> or contact Carey Snyder at careyjean13@aol.com or (561) 317-3834.</p></div>The boys and girls of another era reunite in Delrayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/the-boys-and-girls-of-another2010-12-01T20:46:29.000Z2010-12-01T20:46:29.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960313701,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Students look at old photographs and clippings from the Delray Beach School, circa 1954-55.</span> <span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;">Photos by Tim Stepien</span><br /></div>
By Ron Hayes<br /><br />The first rule of etiquette at high school reunions is very simple.<br />Everybody present is a “boy” or “girl” — even if they’re in their 70s or 80s.<br />“That girl I just kissed was my high school sweetheart,” Ernest Simon boasted, nodding toward a figure just disappearing into the luncheon crowd at the Delray Beach Golf Club. “Gloria Gove. She’s Gloria Gove Allen now.” <br /><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960314063,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-style:italic;">High school sweethearts Gloria Gove Allen and Ernie Simon catch up at their high school reunion.</span><br style="font-style:italic;" /><br /></div>
In the early 1940s, when Simon and Gove graduated from Delray High School, the town was small, they were young, and Old School Square had schools.<br />Now those high school seniors are senior citizens, and for two days over the weekend of Nov. 12-13, more than a hundred alumni of Delray and Seacrest high schools came together to share old memories, and make a few more. They lunched at the golf club, reminisced at Old School Square, danced at the Delray Dunes Country Club, and promised to do it again in 2014, if the fates allow.<br />Both Simon and Gove wed others, but they stayed in Delray Beach, and so did many of their classmates.<br />“I was born on Atlantic Avenue in 1921,” said Bob Miller, Class of ’41. “Born in a house right about where the Arcade Tap Room [building] is now.”<br />Thornton Wilder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, was never a student at Delray High School, but without him there might not have been a reunion.<br />In 1974, Simon, now a successful lawyer, took on the role of the Stage Manager in a local production of Our Town. He was struck by the cemetery scene in which the deceased Emily Gibbs reflects on how fleeting life is.<br />“It really hit me,” Simon recalled. “I wanted this so we would see each other from time to time.”<br />At that first reunion, 20 of the 35 students from his Class of 1942 turned out. In time, the reunion expanded to welcome anyone who had attended Delray High School or its successor, Seacrest.<br />“At first we did it every four years,” he explained, “but then we decided that was too long between. We were losing people.”<br />At the 2007 reunion, 135 graduates attended the luncheon. This year, co-chairman Dot Baker counted 109.<br />The earliest students represented were Laurabelle McNeece Brola and Dr. Fred Love, from the Class of ’38.<br />Brola, longtime editor of the school newspaper, The Highlights, echoed many of her former classmates in waxing nostalgic for the town she knew growing up.<br />“I felt so privileged to have grown up here,” she said. “This was the best place in the world to have grown up during the Depression because we learned to depend on each other. Five families went to school together, and we’d pick up each family as we walked to school.”<br />Love, 88, left for a career with the public health service, but returned to town in 1988.<br />“This is my one chance to see a lot of people I used to see every day on the street,” he said. He looked around the banquet hall. “I don’t see many people I know here.”<br />When Simon asked how many had served in the military, more than half the “boys” held up hands.<br />When he called for an a cappella rendition of God Bless America, everyone seemed<br /> to know the words. <br /><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960314080,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
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