LOVELOCK - How Lovelock has changed over the years apparently is in the eye of the beholder.
Three classes of graduates of Pershing County High School - 1963, 1993 and 2003 - held their reunions in Lovelock, June 8, the day of the Alumni Ball. Members of each class had their own stories and memories of Lovelock.
During their tour of the high school, alumni from the class of 1963, celebrating their 50th class reunion, were amazed to see trees and shrubs growing where their swimming pool had been during their high school years.
The new front entryway to the school, built in 1991, had them struggling to remember where their various classes were held. Their school library is now a computer lab. The stage in the auditorium where they graduated seemed smaller somehow; and the beautiful wooden bleachers in their gymnasium had been replaced with smaller aluminum bleachers.
They were astonished to learn from PCHS Principal Russell Fecht that the new larger gymnasium is packed during graduation ceremonies these days.
Their tennis court has now been replaced with a modern weight room that is open to the public throughout the year, and their shop class, which is now the wood-working class, has computerized programs and drafting tables.
As Fecht explained the additions to the area behind the high school, the alumni taking the tour were happy that the school had been able to keep up with the changes needed to educate today's youth.
At the class's official reunion site on the Moura Ranch in Lovelock's Upper Valley, Class of 1963 President Bill Fitzpatrick summed up his thoughts of the weekend with one word, "Nostalgic."
This brought to mind his memory of a classmate taken from the group by way of a baseball injury.
"Remember Corky Mindenhass?" Fitzpatrick asked his classmates.
"Oh yes, good ol' Corky."
"He was a great guy."
"Everyone liked Corky. I can't think of anyone he had a cross word with," were the replies heard around the table.
Mindenhass was hit in the head with a baseball during a game, Fitzpatrick explained.
"That was the biggest funeral we ever saw in this town. The whole town closed up shop and attended the funeral," he said.
Another moment of melancholy for the group came when driving by their former homes. Many of the homes were run down and some where not there anymore.
"But the trees are a lot bigger," Nile Davis interjected, which brought chuckles from his classmates.
Susan (Pommerening) Steward remembered a classmate, Mary Lynne Prida, who live in what is now the Marzen House Museum.
"We used to have sleep-overs at her house and have so much fun. Going through the house today brought back so many memories. It seemed a lot smaller than what I remembered," Steward said.
Leslie Roylance remembered she and Steward walking each other home at the end of a day of play at the other's home. Each girl lived on opposite ends of town and would walk to the middle of town with their friend to bid them goodbye for the day.
"We weren't afraid to walk around town in the dark. We felt safe here," Roylance said.
Other conversations were of ice skating in the irrigation canals and using old tires for camp fires. Both of which are big "no, no's" now.
As to how they felt as children growing up in Lovelock back then, "we felt special," replied Bob Mateas.
"Everyone worked together," Tom Moura remembered.
"There weren't any cliques. Everyone got along," Fitzpatrick recalled.
"We had to behave or your parents would find out. Everyone knew each other," Steward said.
"We had a much lighter life. I think we were more protected here. We never knew about the bad things in life until we moved away from here," Mateas said.
In summary the members of the class said that the school seemed three times bigger and the town seemed 10 times smaller.
This was contrasted by the memories of the Class of 1993, who summarized that the town seems to have grown since many of them left after high school. They sited businesses that were not in Lovelock when they lived here 20 years ago and roads that they used to travel that now have houses on them.
Only two of the nine classmates attending their reunion still live in Lovelock. Some expressed the desire to return to their hometown, while others still desired to leave it. However all were in agreement that it was nice to see each other and catch up on the lives of their high school friends.
The Class of 2003 held their 10 year class reunion in the courthouse park. They had 10 members of their class at the afternoon reunion but were expecting more to attend the Alumni Dinner and Ball later that evening. Unlike the other two classes, the Class of 2003 seemed to be up-to-date on the activities of absent classmates due to Facebook and other modern means of communications they said. As far as if the town had changed, not much in their eyes. Even Lupe Gomez who traveled from Texas where he has his own advertisement firm said, "It's about the same."
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