Sunday, September 9, 2018

RHS Class of 1958 Celebrates 60th Anniversary Reunion!

MikeBo’s Blog
Mostly Cloudy  87°F/ 30°C in Cedar Park, Texas
Mostly Cloudy 68°F/ 20°C in Riverhead, New York
Buonagiornata miei amici,

When my class graduated from Riverhead High School on June 23, 1958, Dwight Eisenhower was in the last two years of his second term.  John F. Kennedy would not be President for two more
Our Alma Mater
years and would not be murdered in Dallas, Texas for another three. Vietnam was as well known to most Americans as Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941. And so, on a muggy night in June we gathered for one last time in our caps and gowns. With words of optimism from our class valedictorian, Tom Medsger, and a speech from School Board President Amy L. Tooker, we scattered into the night eager to face our futures. Now, after sixty years, we’re coming back!

Some of us in the Class of ’58 never left Riverhead or went away  to college or served a hitch in the service and came back after a few years. Still others, like me went away never to return except for an occasional visit to the old hometown. So, we are all looking forward to the third weekend in October to reconnect and share our memories. It’s a reunion that will have most of us reaching for our class yearbook, The Blue Peconic, for a refresher course on the senior class all those years ago. Traditionally, class reunions take place every ten years, but once Father Time started making his mark on our alumnae, the reunion committee decided to make the event every five years.  Our last class reunion was in
Class of '58 in 2008
2013. The highlight of our Golden Anniversary in 2008 was a guided tour of our old alma mater, which is now the Pulaski Street Middle School. But, to the Class of 1958, it will always be Riverhead High School.

Our intrepid reunion committee has taken great pains to track every classmate  down and extend an invitation. But, if we have somehow missed you, here is the schedule of events for the reunion weekend. You can send me a private message, if you didn’t receive an invitation and would like to join us. On the schedule is a reunion reception on Friday October 19th, a dinner at the Polish
The Botulas - Mary, Mike and Charles
Hall on Saturday night, and a Sunday Brunch at the venerable Birchwood to cap things off. (For all you old-timers, we knew it as Regula’s Corner).

So, if you see an unusual number of old folks doddering into Papa Nick’s or are wondering about all that wheezing coming from the Polish Hall, or if a senior citizen stops you on Main Street and asks you for directions to Doc’s Tavern,  you’ll know that the Class of 1958 is back in town!

Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]