By Chéye Roberson
Sentinel Writer
The Greenwich High School class of 1970 celebrated its 45th reunion this past weekend with two days of partying like it’s… well, 1970.
“You’re 63 and you can act 18 again,” said Tim Haymon, the reunion co-chair and owner of Timberline Structures, a building contractor in Greenwich. The reunion kicked off 7 p.m. on Saturday night at Indian Harbor Yacht Club, where the last GHS class to graduate from the old Greenwich High School—the current Town Hall—danced the night away. (The present Greenwich High School, on Hillside Road, opened in 1971.)
Attendees recuperated the following afternoon with a barbecue at Greenwich Point’s clambake area, catered by class of 1970 graduate and local restaurateur Rick Marr.
Sunday’s barbecue table featured something for everyone.
“Last night was more of a buffet with loin of pork and things that the yacht club did,” said Marr. “This is more just a luncheon, four different salads, hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, and three different types of chicken, marinated and grilled vegetables, which are all gone. They went fast.” The class of 1970 reunion is held every five years and continues to be an event that helps attendees put their daily stress on a shelf while they let loose and enjoy themselves.
“We had so much fun,” said Andy DeLisser, an alumna in attendance. “I think everybody’s happy to be here, to be healthy, to see each other and get together. It’s a great thing.”
Jonathan Ash brought a flying drone to the party. “Yep, I was flying our drone here to get pictures,” said Ash. “I’m very much into remote control cars and boats; a man of all toys. And so we bought the drone today so that we could fly up and take some pictures and group shots and what not and do it safely without any intrusion on anybody’s privacy.”
“We have lists going back to the earliest reunions that we’ve had, and we try to update them every five years,” said Barbara Rose Bishop, a member of the reunion committee. “We’re before email, if you can believe it. So we added an email and then we had another layer to communicate. And so every time we start up again planning a reunion, we update the mailing list, we send out post cards, and the ones that come back, we know those aren’t the right addresses. We used Facebook a lot the last two reunions, which helps because people are connected in different ways; and a lot of word of mouth.”
Classmates came from all over the country to join the celebration. “Oh my gosh, from all over,” said Bishop. “Seattle, Washington. California. A couple people from Las Vegas. A lot of people from Florida. And everywhere in between, really.”
“The memories that I had were that everybody was in specific groups, and I didn’t have any one group,” said alumna Barbara Trow. “So I sort of floated through all of them. The advantage was that I know a lot of these people without even having to look at their nametags. But now we’ve all come together as one, where there’s no longer Eastern Middle School, Central, and Western now. We’re just all one. And it’s really nice.”
According to guests, this year’s reunion was a success. “I’ve been to a number of these reunions. By far this was the best one,” said Philip Pinkert, a Cos Cob resident. “Everyone was just up, happy, having a good time.”
The alumni enjoy the benefits of being a close-knit group. “We had a great class, and our class has stuck together all these years,” said Ash. “And when we’re not coming for our reunions, a bunch of the gentlemen get together in the wintertime and play golf together. So our group has just been very fortunate to have a great brotherhood and sisterhood of people who just enjoy being together. We still have our health, fortunately, and God bless those who are not with us anymore, but it’s just a super great group of people and we’re so lucky.”
