Chester Chatter: School friends can last a lifetime

By Ruthie Douglas
©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC

All over Vermont, small towns in the hills and down in the valleys, this is the time of year for gathering of high school classmates.

Perhaps it isn’t a big celebration at other places. But in Vermont, it is a special time of year.

Once it was not easy to get a high school education. On the back roads leading to the farms, a young person did not always have a way into town and to the high school. It was mighty special to be able to say that your child has completed high school and even more to say that he or she had gone on to college.

Friends were made in the 1st grade and often lasted a lifetime.  In my case, some 30 of us had started 1st grade at the same time and went through school together. We continue to meet once a month for lunch.

Perhaps it is for many reasons why Alumni Day means so much for so many of us. But it is great to see old classmates once a year at least. Hope you get to see your old classmates and have a good time.

News and notes from here and there

Neal Battice, a longtime resident of Chester, died recently. He always supported the community. Our thoughts are with his wife Priscilla.

Carl Davison Jr. of Melbourne, Fla. , has spent time with his dad Carl. He has also enjoyed getting together with his alumni classmates as well has his family members.

Alyiah Riendeau celebrated her 7th birthday with a party with family and friends. A good time was had by all.

Asta Spafford was in Washington, D.C., to attend the high school graduation of her grandson Zachary Spafford, who is Gunnar‘s son.

Cousins Doug and Bev Johnson of Jordan, Utah, and Beth, Angus and Jenny Johnson of the Northeast Kingdom visited with me on Sunday. And Jean and Joe Bolaski joined us for lunch at the Heritage Deli. A delicious meal was enjoyed by everyone.

Such a wonder time it was at the reunion of the Springfield High School Class of 1959.  The banquet was held at the Fullerton Inn on Saturday night. It was a wonderful meal and the event was filled with much laughter and plenty of hugs and kisses. Sixty years. Wow. How can that possibly be!

• Answer to last week’s trivia question: D-Day was June 6, 1944, the invasion of Normandy.
  
• This week’s trivia question: How many signs welcome drivers into Chester?