Alumni enjoy HSCHS reunion weekend

The annual Hot Springs County High School Class Reunion, organized by the Alumni Association, was held last weekend. Members of classes 1959, 1969, 1974, 1984 and 1994 and alumni of Grass Creek participated in a variety of events. It was a time of catching up on life, reminiscing and feeling the changes as the years went by. 

Each of the classes met at locations for their individual gatherings, some floated down the river or did other fun activities. They met for meals and then Saturday night, all classes were invited to gather at the VFW. The band Blackwater performed. The next day at the Hot Springs State Park, participants were treated to lunch, with tacos provided by the Masons. They could also purchase class photos from photographer Levi Shinkle. 

As different alumni sat down to finalize their catchup and recap, there were many comments from various classmates describing their feelings of coming back to Thermopolis. Some said it felt "emotional" and "nostalgic."

 One class of 1994 reunion participants said, "It's wonderful. And there's so many fun events and our class is just a bunch of partiers because we always start 24 hours earlier than the rest. But the food was good. The company is obviously amazing."

Another classmate said, "It's just been amazing seeing everybody. It's, you know, learning about everybody's families and meeting them. It's been really good just getting caught up. It's something that I think I'll definitely cherish. I'm happy for everybody to see how far they've come and seeing where everybody ended up. There's a lot of people that do certain things that I would have never pictured, but it just seems to suit them."

Some of the comments described how some of the town of Thermopolis has changed, such as some of the additions to the park and the new high school and middle school buildings. Others commented on the new restaurants that they had never experienced before. Some were surprised by the decrease in the town's population.

Other reunion participants said, "It's been fun to see everybody that was able to make it out and catch up. Got some people that I hadn't seen in a long time. I was kind of surprised to see." Others said they had "mixed feelings," because they missed all their classmates all these years, but, "I'm happy to see everyone. It's been a big high. It's been really nice to see and love on all of my friends and classmates."

One of the members of the class of 1974 said, "One of things that struck me was how many people are still alive. I didn't expect that. And about how many people showed up, I think our graduating class was 86 people, and we had 45 people come."

Regarding other feelings the classmates felt was some "apprehension". They really wanted to see some and not others. Memories of fun and fighting on the playground, practical jokes, certain teachers and their antics, accidents in the science lab, and many others were shared. 

"It's just like coming home. We drive through the canyon and see the sights, and we're back where we started," said one reunion participant.

Additionally, Chairman of the Alumni Association Shasta Shafer said about this year's reunion, "I think this is a great year with a great turnout. At the VFW, we had a lot of people there. I took pictures from last year versus this year, and we had probably double, or maybe even triple, the amount of people. They stayed longer too, with the live band."

Regarding the Alumni Association, Shafer agrees that they are rebirthing after a time of uncertainty. She said, "We're ready to just get more organized and just hit the ground running. We want to launch a website so we have online registration and we're going to offer our t-shirts and different things online as well to purchase."