Gathering for a long weekend full of events, from cheering on the Cougars at football to touring the Escalon Museum and enjoying a Saturday evening dinner, the Class of ’76 from Escalon High School celebrated their 50th class reunion from Sept. 11 through Sept. 13.
Heading up the effort was the husband-and-wife team of Randy and Nancy Schmidt of Escalon, and all events had a good turnout.
“It’s quite a party,” Randy Schmidt said, smiling as classmates arrived for the ‘main event’ Saturday dinner at the Grossi Party Barn venue outside of town. He said the Class of ’76 had 93 graduates and he anticipated 55 to 60 of them for the dinner, which was catered by BBQ in a barrel out of Oakdale.
They also have lost 24 classmates through the years, and had a table with their photos displayed as well on Saturday night.
Among those looking over some of the memorabilia and yearbooks on display at the event were friends Olympia Santos and Diane Grimes, both from Oakdale.
Santos actually graduated from Oakdale in 1976 but spent one year at EHS, so she was happy to attend the reunion.
“Just to check out who I was supposed to graduate with,” she said with a chuckle.
Grimes was a member of the Class of ’76 and now lives in Oakdale.
“I went into the ROP program so I didn’t actually spend a lot of time in the classroom,” Grimes shared, noting that ROP helped set her on the path to a career, earning her beautician’s license before she graduated from high school. From there she went on to study and become an X-ray technician, working in that field for more than four decades.
She also remembered having a senior boyfriend as a freshman and then writing for several publications – including some sports writing for The Oakdale Leader – when she was a sophomore. She continued writing, eventually being published internationally with her writing about mules, which she raised.
“I also did the ROP program,” Santos added, “and I have been doing hair for over 50 years.”
Some EHS alumni from other years turned out to join the celebration, along with significant others attending with some of the grads.
“It’s an incredible turnout,” Schmidt said. “We have classmates from Florida, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington State, Oregon.”
Schmidt said many of those coming in for the weekend events enjoyed the Escalon varsity football victory over Oakdale in preseason action Friday night at Engel Field, others attended the annual Escalon Lions Club Autumn Car Cruise downtown on Saturday, still others migrated to the Escalon Historical Society Museum on Main Street to look over the various displays and artifacts celebrating the town’s history.
“It has been a blast,” Schmidt said, adding that they started planning for the festivities last November so they had plenty of time to get information mailed to the out-of-state classmates in hopes they could attend.
They wrapped up the festivities with an informal gathering in the garden setting at the home of Jim and Olympia (Santos) Bouman on Orange Blossom Road in Oakdale on Sunday, Sept. 13.
