Tom Toftey shared this photo, along with these memories of the students who first met at 3 or 4 years old during “story hour” in the old public library with Gertrude Allen. Tom and his friends eventually became the Class of 1963. Tom writes:
Since there was no kindergarten class, some of us gathered for nursery school at Evelyn Toftey’s home where we used chairs made out of orange crates. A few of those orange crates were nailed to Evelyn’s floor.
The class was so small; they all fit in Dorothy Jackson’s firstgrade classroom. It was there that we first bonded. Later, students came from Hovland, Grand Portage, Schroeder, Tofte, and Lutsen – but still, the class remained small. It didn’t even fill an entire school bus to head to the Maple Hill School for “field day” each spring.
When the taconite boom hit, new students were welcomed. But some students moved away to places like Yakima, Washington, Big Bear Lake, California, Page, Arizona, and Bessemer, Michigan. So, by the time they graduated from CCHS, the class numbered just 41.
Now, as the class prepares for its 50th class reunion on Saturday, August 3 at 4 p.m. at The Landing on the north shore of Devil’s Track Lake, it is hoped that some of those classmates who moved away will return to Grand Marais for the reunion. Unfortunately, Toftey reports, the class has lost contact with the following people:
Kara Barnes, Judy Cable, Johnny Cole, Eleanor Duhaime, Robert Klicker, Joe Kascyzcki, Judith and Annette Gustafson, Michael Lyght, Neal Hult, Jennings Dodd, Michael Owen, Florence Wilson, Mary Kay Lundblade, Barbara Sherer, Nancy Laine Dittberner, Ronald Tveiten, Janice Warren, Dick Leng and Shari Sullivan Ruehle.
Cook County News-Herald readers who can provide contact information—email addresses or telephone numbers preferably— may give that information to Tom Toftey at tofteyconsulting@sbcglobal.net or (630) 668-9903.
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