Delayed romance, hunting trips and run-ins with the Glendale Police were topics of conversation Saturday when Hoover High School's Class of 1951 met for its 55-year reunion at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.
High school sweethearts Janice Boswell-Maher of the class of 1953 and her husband, Peter Maher, class of '51, attended the reunion.
"We went steady for two years in high school and after graduation, he went into the Navy and we lost touch," Janice Maher said.
They were reunited 48 years later, dated for five years and married in January 2005.
Hal O'Neal and Chuck Butler were reminiscing about the time they went rabbit hunting in Palmdale with a group of boys from the class.
It seems one of the boys took aim at a rabbit and missed the mark. The bullet ricocheted off a rock and hit Butler in his private parts, O'Neal said.
When they finally found a doctor to remove the bullet, the boys all joined Butler in the examination room, and when the doctor asked them what happened, they all started laughing.
The incident happened on the weekend and all the boys promised to keep it their secret. But someone must have told because the following Monday as Butler came limping up Kenilworth Avenue toward the school he was met by cheers from many students.
Dave Clayton, who attended the reunion with his wife, Marilyn, a graduate of John Burroughs High School, class of 1953, remembered driving to a football game in Pasadena in 1949.
The caravan of cars was moving so slow over Suicide Bridge that Dave Clayton drove around them with two wheels on the curb of the bridge.
He lost a hubcap along the way and, was surprised when the person who picked it up returned it to him while he watched the football game in the stands.
Twins Chuck and Ed "Bud" Lang reminisced about when they got caught by the Glendale Police for stealing motorcycle parts.
"The judge said we had a choice of going to Juvenile Hall or church, so we chose church, and we've been attending every Sunday since," Bud Lang said.
Committee leaders Tom O'Loughlin, Marilyn Nadeau-Chrisman and Jean Newhouse-Woody coordinated the reunion.
O'Loughlin ran his own business, RGV Insurance, for many years in Glendale. He's enjoying retirement on Balboa Island. His two sons also graduated from Hoover.
The class is very close, said Chrisman, as they have had a reunion every five years since graduation.
"We were in a class that really cared about each other," she said. "A lot of us have been together since kindergarten."
The best part of working on the organizing committee, she said, is finding lost classmates.
"It's like a treasure hunt," she said.
