We begin our Senior Year in the Fall of 1959 after a summer unlike any other. With our newly acquired drivers licenses all things

are possible! Trips down to the shore and up to Bear Mountain... Down to Callahans and Hirams and up to Scot ties and Hogans...

Summer jobs at Palisades Amusement Park and Feiler's Five and Ten... Submarine races and The Mile...An endless summer of swimming

at The Old Mill by day and heading up to the Route 303 drive-in

by night.  

We are finally Seniors! A year of excitement, activities and responsibility. Our days are now filled with schedules, tests, clubs and career decisions. Our nights are now filled with homework and endless forms...

 

The President is Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Vice President is Richard Nixon. Just as importantly we elect George Brown and Ray Virgona to lead our class.

 

The nation is laughing at Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez while we have our own comedians Eileen Ennessor and George Makroulakis.

Miss America's all around woman is Lynda Lee Mead. all around teenager is Fort Lee’s Julie Bianchi.

  The sack dress, burmuda shorts and crinolines are the style. And it's DarLynn Stokes who sets

the fashion sense at Fort Lee High.

  The Bridgemen lead us to victory while John Cardillo cheers us on as our most school spirited.

 

Elizabeth Taylor is proclaimed one of the worlds most beautiful women, but our vote goes to Carol Napoli as Fort Lee's fairest.

 

Dobie Gillis is TV's friendliest teenager, while we gave our vote to Tommy Concannon.

 

We rushed home to tune in to American Bandstand but we had our own dance champs Carmela Luciano and Buddy Sturzione.

And now, in the year 2003...

  Palisades Amusement Park has been replaced by hi-rise apartments...

 

The Old Mill Swimming Hole will become a housing project...

 

And the Route 303 Drive-in-has been long abandoned.....

 

And WE have all turned into our parents. Those old folks who couldn't understand our appearance, our music or our friends, and who constantly referred to "the good old days"...

 

How blessed we were...to have had each other then, and to have each other now. If only for this one nostalgic evening. Because it is our memories that bond us. Memories of a time and place. Memories of "the good old days"....

 

To my Class of 1960,

 

To the upper and lower classmates here tonight,

To the Reunion Committee,

And especially to our teachers,

I thank you for making the memories possible.

 

Enjoy the evening, have a safe trip home, and begin making plans to see each other again at our next reunion…