2 weeks Ago By By Angela Guglielmino / [email protected]
For Tib Belza, a member of Marysville High School’s class of 1974, there are some people coming to the class’s approaching 50th reunion that he has not seen since graduation. He said that the reunion is an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and share interesting stories about what has been going on since life in high school. Belza, who is on the reunion committee, agrees that he feels a connection even to class members who he didn’t get to know closely.
“There were all kinds of different personalities,” Belza said. “The real shy people, the real outgoing people, but you usually had classes (where) you intermingled with them quite a bit.” The class of 1974’s 50th reunion will be held on Sept.
28 at the Peach Tree Golf & Country Club in Marysville. According to the class’s senior commencement program, they were the school’s 100th graduating class with 395 seniors. One hundred years earlier, in 1874, there were only eight graduates.
As far as the reunion committee can ascertain, the class of 1974 has lost at least 53 classmates to tragic accidents or health problems. “In spite of the reality that we move on from our high school days, returning and reuniting with our friends from our years at MHS is heartwarming, sometimes surprising, sadly a little painful when we learn that some we remember as ‘wild and crazy’ in their youth have experienced loss, illness, or are no longer with us. Conversely, we reunite with some we thought were quiet and shy in their youth who have gone on to do daring and amazing things or work in their lives.
At the end of the day, we’re all humans. We all experience the human condition for all its joys and challenges,” Kathy Hanlin McPherrin, a member of the class of 1974, wrote. “To meet again is a privilege! Maybe the saying that we mellow and cherish our youth, in spite of aging, is true! You make it possible to gather with those friends from our teens, realize who we have always been, cherish the memories, and for a few hours pick up where we left off.
” Reflecting on his time at Marysville High School, Belza remembers having a fun high school experience. “Going out to the movies, going to the drive-in movies, cruising,” Belza said. At the time, Belza happened to have a newer car because his brother was traveling the world, and he left him his 1971 Malibu.
“People thought I was rich: ‘Nah, it’s my brother’s car, I’m just taking care of it,’” Belza said. Belza played various sports, including football, basketball and baseball. “You were good,” a fellow reunion committee member, Ann Bugni Chesini, said.
Chesini explained that a meaningful activity during their high school days was the Big-Little Games with their archrivals from Yuba City High School. “We would have Big-Little Game parades on D Street the afternoon before the football games, with many student-built floats,” Chesini said via email. “Other important activities included homecoming events, rallies, assemblies, the junior prom and senior ball dances, the Shakespeare presentation and dance productions.
” Speaking about their time in high school, Chesini said students could leave campus to walk or drive to nearby restaurants like the A&W, Taco Bell, Foster's Freeze and Dairy Queen. Some students would also drive all the way to the Yuba City McDonalds on Highway 20. She also said that students were then allowed to smoke on 18th Street between classes and during lunch breaks.
With laughter, Chesini and Belza also recall locker pranks. “You’re always looking to see if somebody opens something, and maybe they had things jammed in there, and something would fall out and scare them,” Belza said. “If someone just started dating someone, then someone put a whole bunch of pictures of other girls or something.
” More reminiscing is expected to occur at the coming reunion. “I think we’re pulling it off where we have a video showing many old pictures from the four years, and that might be fun for people to see that. And we’re going to have old music from the 70s playing,” Chesini said.
Gordon Nakagawa, a fellow classmate and well-known musician, will perform several songs during the reunion event. To register for the reunion, contact Ladonna Langley Choate at 530-315-6073 or [email protected] .
Fellow students from the graduating classes of 1973 and 1975 are also welcome to attend. The cost is $55, and the reunion on Sept. 28 begins at 5:30 p.
m..
