H.B. Plant High School Class of 1954 Alumni
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H.B. Plant High School Class of 1954 Alumni |
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CLICK HERE to check out the Plant High Class of 1953's website |
Mary Anne Kearney Please make your check payable to: PHS Class of 54 Also, let us know if you're interested in another get together, you can either put a note in your donation letter to Mary Anne or Click HERE to contact us Children
of the Greatest Generation Born in the 1930s and early 40s, we exist as a very special age group. We are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900s. We are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years. We are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves. We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans. We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren't available. We can remember milk being delivered to our house early in the morning and placed in the “milk box” on the porch. We are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the War. We saw the 'boys' home from the war, build their little houses. We are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio. As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood “playing outside”. There was no little league. There was no city playground for kids. The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like. On Saturday afternoons, the movies, gave us newsreels sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons. Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party Lines) and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy). Computers were called calculators, they were hand cranked; Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. The 'INTERNET’ and ‘GOOGLE’ were words that did not exist. Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on our radio in the evening by Gabriel Heatter and later Paul Harvey. As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth. The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow. VA loans fanned a housing boom. Pent up demand coupled with new installment payment plans opened many factories for work. New highways would bring jobs and mobility. The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics. The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands. Our parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined. We weren't neglected, but we weren't today's all-consuming family focus. They were glad we played by ourselves until the street lights came on. They were busy discovering the post war world. We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed, enjoyed ourselves and felt secure in our future, although depression poverty was deeply remembered. Polio was still a crippler. We came of age in the 50s and 60s. The Korean War was a dark passage in the early 50s and by mid-decade school children were ducking under desks for Air-Raid training. Russia built the “Iron Curtain” and China became Red China . Eisenhower sent the first 'Army Advisers' to Vietnam. Castro took over in Cuba and Khrushchev came to power. We are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, “global warming”, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease. Only our generation can remember both a time of great war, and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. lived through both. We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better. not worse. We are "The Last Ones" More than 99 % of us are either retired or deceased, and we feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times"!
Special thanks to Chuck Hansult for the picture from the 1954 Prom he sent us. CLICK HERE to see them.
Special thanks to Van Waters for this really nice Dancing in the Movies link! CLICK HERE and enjoy!
Play
the 50's Car Game, CLICK
HERE
Special
Thanks to David Weinberger for these pictures of the 6th Grade Class
at Roosevelt and the 5th Grade Class at Gorrie Elementary School- If
anyone can provide the names of the students, CLICK
HERE and we'll update the pictures to include them.
Thanks to Denny Craig and Phil Thomas for letting us know that Charlie Gill was inducted into the Plant High School Football Hall of Fame at the Sixth Annual Plant High Football Hall of Fame Banquet at Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club on March 27, 2011
Two
Paths Cross
Now, fast forward 56 years, to October, 2010. Ken, living on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, received an email from the Plant High School 1954 Reunion Committee and opened the website. With no specific purpose in mind, he clicked on “Classmate Information.” and then wondered if there was anyone else from the Class of ’54 living in MA. As he scanned down the listing, wondering if there was anyone else in Massachusetts, he found that there was indeed someone … in fact, in the same town as he resides in … E. Falmouth. As it turns out, 56 years after graduating, these two members of the same class live 2,500 miles from Tampa but only 3.5 miles apart. Upon
making initial contact by phone, Wade Crews and Ken Woolf met in person
and had lunch together. It turns out It was an enjoyable lunch talking about days at PHS, respective careers, and families. They hope to get together more in the future. Yes,
it is a small world and this experience would not have been possible
if not for the efforts of those who actively support the 1954 Reunion
Committee and its web site.
Special Thanks to David Weinberger for passing along his picture of Miss Stephens 4th grade class at Mitchell Elementary. As you will notice we have quite a few '?' for names, please E-Mail us if you know any of these people and we will update the names.
Left
to Right If your are a member of the 'Mitchell 4th Grade Class' and want a high resolution copy of the Mitchell Class picture, CLICK HERE
Pictures of the 2010 Reunion are in, CLICK HERE for Slideshow of Reunion Pictures If you have any problem navigating through the slideshow, CLICK HERE
Ms. Roberts’ 6th grade class at Mitchell Elementary, 1948 portraying Robin Hood and his Merry Men and Ladies
First row L to R : Joan Wingate, Francis Vary, Dick Ray, David Byars, George Conley, Vernon Maultsby, Bunny Brown. Second row L to R: Adelaide Gonzalez, Mary Lou Suhrer, Nancy Bucklew, Billy Cummings, Jimmy Wisner, Herman Cimino, Billy Nowatny, Joe Ragano, Marguerite Milliken, and Bess Geesink. Third row, standing, L to R: Jean Phillips, Laila Matthews, Linda Prescott, Patsy Johnson, Bebe Hughes, Maril Jacobs, Fred Hudgins, Grayle Nesbit, Mike Edelstein, Louise Graham, Delores Grady and Eugenia Rawls If your are a member of the 'Mitchell 6th Grade Class' and want a high resolution copy of the Mitchell Class picture, CLICK HERE
We are still looking for volunteers to send in pictures from past years As well as someone to write the next Panther Tracks article. CLICK HERE to send an E-Mail to volunteer. It's Easy, It's Fun, and your Class will really appreciate it!
We have archived pictures from the last two reunions, if you want to make prints of any of of these pictures CLICK HERE to send an E-Mail requesting instructions on how to download a High Definition photo file of any of the pictures for your personal use. These files will produce excellent prints at least up to 8 x10 size. You can also use the link above to send us any pictures you would like to add to the photo album.
CLICK HERE to visit the Plant High Archives where you can find past Panther Tracks articles and other goodies we have placed on the website in the past.
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Don't get mad, read our Tips for Getting Around this Website.... Fellow Classmates This Web site awaits you. Take a stroll down the memory lane that is the black and gold of H. B .Plant High School Class of 1954. Several pages await your exploration. For most, you simply click with your mouse and the page displays. A couple of them – Class Information and Put in your 2 Cents – open separate windows. When you finish with one of those pages, simply close the window to return to the main site. Use your mouse to click any underlined link to display its page.
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Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 H.B. Plant High School, Class of 1954 Alumni. All rights reserved
interest
and circles of friends. They graduated and went their separate ways
… to further education, careers, and family lives.
that they both belong to the same tennis club and could very well have
passed by each other on countless occasions without knowing any better.
Ken typically plays in the early mornings and Wade arrives later in
the day.
