Editor's note: This story is part of PrimeTime, our quarterly magazine for active seniors. You can find PrimeTime inside the Oct. 11 edition of the Daily Reporter, available through Tuesday at newsstands. Or you can find it at the newspaper office (weekdays) at 22 W. New Road, Greenfield.
By Shelley Swift | Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE -- When the Class of 1960 graduated from Vernon Township High School 65 years ago, little did they know a good number of them would be meeting once a month for breakfast well into their 80s.
About a dozen former classmates meet the first Wednesday every month at Lincoln Square Pancake House in Fortville.
Time has not faded the friendships forged more than six decades ago, for the group who grew up in the 1940s and '50s.
The monthly mini-reunions were kickstarted by Eddie Clark, the classmate whose idea it was to track down all his former classmates more than 30 years ago.
"He located every class member except one person. He got their addresses, their email addresses, their phone numbers and published a paper listing all that information, which has been truly helpful in many respects in getting all our classmates together," said classmate David Branigan, who has lived in Fortville all his life.
"It was quite a project, just digging on my computer to find people. I got on ancestry.com and found all but one, a woman who had joined the Navy," Clark recalled.
Initially the group used the contact sheet to keep in touch between class reunions.
It wasn't until 2008 that the monthly breakfasts were born.
At first they met at restaurants in Anderson and Pendleton, then Jim Dandy in Greenfield, but they've been meeting consistently at Lincoln Square in Fortville for the past 10 years.
The manager there, Emily Eno, said she looks forward to seeing the group each month.
"They're just some of the sweetest people ever," she said.
Ties that bind
The friends have supported one another through life's ups and downs, including battling cancer and losing spouses over the years.
For many months, Clark missed the group breakfasts as he navigated his own cancer journey.
When he strolled into Lincoln Square on Oct. 1, he was greeted like a rock star.
"There he is!" friends shouted, as Clark appeared in the same sweater all Vernon Township graduates received in 1960 -- a gray crewneck with a large V on the front.
"He can still fit in his!" one classmate marveled.
The sweater was still in pristine condition, and adorned with three pins Clark acquired in high school, including the viking mascot, a club pin and one he got for typing 40 words a minute in class.
"I was burning those keys up," he said with a grin.
Now Clark is a "professional piddler" who looks forward to reconnecting with old friends each month at Lincoln Square.
Fourteen classmates and guests gathered at the most recent breakfast Oct. 1, when they caught up with one another and reminisced about the memories they shared.
"Everybody always has such a smile on their face, which is good to see," said classmate Georgena Burch, who lives in Fishers.
The Class of 1960 started out with 83 students in the first grade, but graduated with about 63.
Nearly half of those graduates have since passed away, including two just last month.
Anywhere from five to 25 attend the monthly breakfasts at Lincoln Square, although the average attendance is around 10.
The class was the first to graduate after the Fortville High School Demons and the McCordsville High School Pirates merged to become the Vernon Township Vikings.
They combined classes in the former Fortville High School, which became Vernon Township High School, on the site that has since become Landmark Park just north of downtown Main Street.
Mt. Comfort High School was consolidated into the school in 1964, creating the Mt. Vernon High School that exists today.
The Class of 1960 were seniors in high school during a unique time, as the iconic 1950s rolled into the pivotal 1960s.
It was a quintessential time to be a teenager, when boys in letterman jackets and girls in pencil skirts and saddle shoes cruised around town in Ford Thunderbirds and Chevy Bel Airs, listening to an emerging style of music known as rock and roll.
Life was pretty sweet, said classmate Garen Garvin-Waters.
"It was just so beautiful to drive up the street. The streets (in Fortville) were brick, and the trees were arched over the road," she said.
It was also an exciting time for high school sports.
Vernon Township had some successful teams at the time, said Jan Dobbins, who played basketball.
"Back then the gyms were packed, because people didn't have these," he said, gesturing to his cell phone.
Garvin-Waters remembers the town frequently coming together to celebrate in the streets when the school won basketball games.
"The firetruck loaded up the team and brought them downtown, where we had bonfires burning right in the middle of Main Street," she said.
That was well before the days of wifi and video games, she added, when young people found joy in the simple pleasures, like riding bikes and jumping in piles of leaves.
In high school, students from each graduating class would climb the Fortville water tower to spraypaint their class year in big bold numbers.
"We were the leaf pile jumpers and the tower painters. We have so many shared memories of a very fun and very safe time," said Garvin-Waters, who remembers the joy of making hollyhock dolls from hollyhock flowers and selling them to buy a comic book for a nickel or two.
She fondly remembers one classmate hosting an annual picnic on his family's farm property each year.
"We just shared so many fun and heartfelt times together," she said.
What do childhood friends talk about now that they're in their eighties?
"Mostly about going to the doctor," joked Burch, 83, who enjoyed the lively conversation at this month's breakfast.
"It's just about getting together and having fun, and hearing how everyone is getting along, and being supportive for the ones who need supporting," chimed in classmate Bill McCarty.
"People can't believe that we've done this so long. We've been very fortunate. Everybody cares about everybody," he said.
For those who miss a meeting, the rest of the group passes cards around the table and signs and mails them, letting their classmates know they were missed.
If someone in the group is sick, the others pitch in to send flowers.
They also pray before each meal they share.
A couple months ago, a bystander noticed the group praying and passing around cards at Lincoln Square. He was so moved by the group's compassion, and their commitment to keeping in touch more than six decades after high school, that he bought them all breakfast.
The group was so appreciative, they all signed a "certificate of adoption" and presented it to the man, inviting him to join them for their monthly breakfasts anytime he wants.
A few spouses tag along to the breakfasts each month.
Marty Wyatt graduated three years after her husband Ron Wyatt, a member of the Class of 1960.
No one in her class stays in touch the way her husband's class does, she said.
"This is very special, and a very special group of people," she said.