THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510130221
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 148 lines
HARRY S. TRUMAN was sworn in as president of the United States, Allied troops marched into Berlin and forced the surrender of Germany, the first atomic bomb tests took place in the New Mexico desert - and the Suffolk High School class of 1945 took its place in a world still shaken by World War II.
Recently, nearly all 69 of the graduates and their guests met at the Harbor Club, high over the Norfolk waterfront, to reminisce and renew friendships.
Virginia Brinkley, the class sponsor, who is now retired after more than 50 years of teaching Latin, still lives in Suffolk and was a special guest.
``The students used to have such a good time together,'' she recalled.
The warmth of the reunion showed that half a century of living had not diminished the classmates' enjoyment of each other.
In June 1945, the young graduates had gathered at Suffolk Christian Church for a baccalaureate service titled ``Going Places,'' and listened as the Rev. Samuel Tilden Habel told them that it would take three ``R's'' to really go places in life: respect for self, regard for their work and a reverence for those who cared about them.
Even though the war was winding down, many of the male graduates had enlisted in military services with the provision that they would be allowed to finish high school. Trading caps and gowns for uniforms and weapons, they put their futures on hold.
``But at that time, we did not know what to do with our futures anyway,'' V.M. ``Barney'' Annas said.
The class took Habel's message to heart, and they went places. One-third of the surviving 60 classmates live out of state, with only 14 still living in Suffolk. G.S. Hobbs, downtown Suffolk businessman, was one of few graduates who came home to stay after a post high school tour of duty in the Merchant Marine and the Army.
``I think we had as outstanding a class as Suffolk High School ever graduated, but only about six or seven of us stayed in Suffolk because it was hard to find a job here then,'' he said.
Of the current Suffolk residents, several have moved back within the past few years, retired after careers all over the world.
Doctors, lawyers, business executives, engineers, social workers, military retirees, homemakers, the class of '45, brought up in the depths of the depression, valued their education, careers and their Suffolk roots as well as their childhood friends.
Phillip G. Darden Jr., a retired utility company lineman, traveled from southern California for the weekend.
``My lifetime ambition was to be here for a reunion,'' Darden said as he walked into his very first high school reunion. ``I've got a lot of memories from Suffolk High School, and I have not seen most of these people for 50 years.''
Many of Darden's memories center on playing high school football and working as a soda jerk at Russell's Drug store in downtown Suffolk. ``I served sodas to everyone in Suffolk,'' he said with a laugh. ``I made more Cokes than anybody in town.''
Russell's was a favorite after-school and weekend hangout for the class of '45. ``None of us really had a lot, so in the evening we would just walk up to the corner drug store and sit around together,'' said Gerald C. Jaffe, the class president.
``String of Pearls,'' ``I'm in the Mood for Love'' and ``Chattanooga Choo Choo'' were the tunes that came to mind when Jaffe and Annas, the unofficial social chairman, remembered the Saturday nights they jitterbugged to big band music at the dances held on the second floor of the Coca-Cola bottling plant across from the Suffolk golf course.
Acene Carter Byrum remembered the dances, too, as well as her stints selling refreshments there for the Home Economics Club. ``I can still remember getting Coca-Colas right off the line,'' she said.
Black-and-white saddle oxfords and ducktail haircuts had been the style for the boys while bobby socks, pleated skirts and cardigan sweaters buttoned up the back were high fashion for the girls.
At the reunion, the classmates, dressed in suits and ties, elegant pantsuits and dinner dresses, had to take a second or even a third long look before placing faces they had not seen in so many years.
``Everyone has changed a lot, has gotten older,'' said Dr. Harvey Rawls, a retired Norfolk urologist. ``But once you talk to them, you see them like you did 50 years ago.''
That same illusion of years dropping away, as if by magic, also struck Darden when he entered the reunion and was greeted by Annas and Jaffe.
``I felt flashbacks when I walked in,'' he said. ``It was like I was walking into ``This Is Your Life.''
Darden admitted that he had been reviewing old class annuals for several months, studying faces, hoping that he would recognize most people.
Faye Bell Beaver traveled from her home in Greensboro, N.C., drawn by the chance to see friends with whom she had shared classes since first grade.
Beaver viewed the reunion with mixed emotions. ``The other two reunions (the 25th and the 40th reunions) had been real happy times in my mind, but the 50th seems sad because we are all so much older,'' she said.
One of Beaver's prized childhood mementos was a small replica of the Washington Monument shyly given to her by a bashful admirer decades ago when they were sixth-grade classmates. The boy, Bob Brothers, interrupted his years at Suffolk High School to join the military, and she never saw him again until this reunion.
``Everybody here is a surprise because I have been away from them for 50 years,'' Brothers said with a laugh after being reintroduced to Beaver. After retiring from the Army and the CIA, Brothers is about to retire from his third career in probation and parole work in Norfolk.
Between the squeals of recognition and the warm hugs of welcome, classmates had a chance to swap anecdotes of their fondest Suffolk memories.
William Ballard, an engineer from Suffolk, remembered wartime rationing and siphoning gas from his father's car to drive to Virginia Beach. Annas, now a stock broker who lives in Virginia Beach, remembered the time he went to work for Jaffe at the Suffolk packing plant and inadvertently set a truckload of cows free to wander on Main St.
Fay Baines Barrett, now living in Wakefield, remembered riding around on car hoods with horns blaring to celebrate the end of the war with her classmates who remained in Suffolk. ``It was a great day when the war was over,'' she said.
Brothers reflected on the unique quality of a Suffolk childhood. ``Everyone knew and cared about everyone else,'' he said.
Reunions are the only time Western Branchs resident Catherine Lawyer New sees most of her former classmates. ``Fifty years sounds like a lifetime doesn't it?'' she asked. ``But coming here tonight, it is more like you woke up one day and 50 years had gone by overnight.'' MEMO: MEMORIES
William Ballard, engineer from Suffolk: remembered wartime rationing
and siphoning gas from his father's car to drive to Virginia Beach.
``Barney'' Annas, a stock broker in Virginia Beach: the time he set
loose a truckload of cows to wander on Main Street.
Fay Baines Barrett of Wakefield: riding around on car hoods with
horns blaring to celebrate the end of the war with her classmates who
remained in Suffolk. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Gary C. Knapp.
Carroll Frohman, left, talks to Virginia Brinkley, a former Latin
teacher, at the 50-year-reunion for Suffolk High School's class of
1945.
Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
``Barney'' Annas, left, and Gerald Jaffe, the president of Suffolk
High School's class of '45, look over old photos.
It's hard to match today's faces to yesterday's names, but Maurina
Synan Gminder and Acene Carter Byrum remember enough to greet each
other warmly.
John P. Taylor enjoys the view out a Harbor Club window, high over
the Norfolk waterfront, during the 50-year reunion of Suffolk High
School.
The 1945 yearbook featured Virginia Brinkley, Latin teacher and
class sponsor, who was a special guest at the reunion.
by CNB