Lewiston High School


Reminiscing about Our School Years


Here are a few of thoughts contribuited by your fellow classmates. Please submit things YOU remember about those school years. Perhaps you had a favorite teacher--share why that teacher was special to you. Maybe some incident was particularly amusing and may provide a chuckle to others? REMEMBER--the statutes of limitations have expired!!

Lewiston Idaho, Class of 1964-Class Reunion



Added Fall 2009

Remember when… extracted from 10-year reunion memory book

  • Cruising Lew's
  • Shackle pants, narrow belts and ties, white socks, crew cuts and flat tops
  • Toni Blue wore her bright red can cans two inches below her knees to attract the boys attention
  • The time the sixth grade boys smuggled aspirin into the Valentines party in hopes it would make them drunk
  • John Pederson was the white gorilla of the Scully gang, How's that John
  • Darryl Ailor's fifth grade flame was Pam Kaufman
  • Ted Dahlgren and Mike Kovanen once got kicked out of glee club for singing dirty words to the songs.
  • A police officer caught Sue West and Gordon Barker out counting weeds
  • When John Duthie was so afraid of girls and now all the girls are so afraid of John
  • Mrs. Helle hacked Cheryl Eble in home ec
  • Toni Blue, Darlene Tobin, Lynda Kohl, Timmy Kelly, Janet Hein took a 47 Chey to lunch, ran out of gas, and got to school 90 minutes late, and had to eat in the cafeteria the rest of the year, but sneaked out the PE door and ate at Koethke's instead
  • Timmy Kelly was madly in love with John Hamilton
  • The girls who ate the prunes in home ec class at Sac Jr high
  • Lyn Rognstad had that cool Las Vegas days party that was so rudely interrupted
  • Donna Quesenbery fainted in front of class because she had to get up and give a book report
  • Janet Hein didn't know how to lock the bathroom door and John Hamilton didn't know anyone was in there
  • Junger's, Casey's, YAC
  • Yo ho, Yo ho, and a bottle of Rainer
  • True! Did you know the roof of St Stan used to be a favorite necking spot? Sherry Hoffman and John Vassar can vouch for that
  • Cindy Houck raised her hand in the middle of Mr. Hustead's boring lectures and as a result had to stand with her nose against the blackboard the whole hour
  • Sylvia Brotherton thought she was Annie Oakley
  • Sharon Klemm got a May basket in the fifth grade from Bill Grimoldby
  • Louis Heimgartner's knife was used n Lynda's throat
  • The time at SAC that Micki, Mary and Dave had to wear Band-Aids over their mouths to keep them from yawning
  • How about when John Larson used to count the freckles on his arms during history lessons
  • John and Deidre were parked at the beach and Dennis LeKander came up and said HEY, John, got a match.
  • Marilyn Jones beat up Dennis McDonald and knocked out Bob Morton with her lunch box
  • Susan Issac and Diane Davis were picked up by a cop at the Auto-vue
  • Gary Whitinger on the band trip coming back home from Grangeville
  • Mary Rauch was Bill Greene's gal
  • Lyn Rognstad did the limbo at the YAC
  • Bill Waide and Vicki Rasmussen ate sunflower seeds
  • Mr. Topinka hit Ron Morrow, Mike Speno and Tim Bartlett over the head with a book several times because he thought they were unpatriotic
  • Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Everly Brothers, Fabian, James Darren, Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon and the Beatles and all Rock and Roll
  • Ron Tierney and Dave Reimers were baseball stars and all the girls had crushes on them.
  • A boy chased a girl at recess and to her it meant only one thing-true love
  • Debbie Hall made a pass at Mr. Harris and it worked
  • Lois Schock kissed Mr. Dent's Bald Head
  • I wonder if Richard knew Dianna in the first grade when she had such frizzy curls that she looked like she had ratted her hair and forgot to comb it.
  • The day Timmy Kelly literally crawled around Mrs. Hayes room to get test answers.
  • You know there really used to be some cute couples; like Darlene Tobin and Bob Clabby, or Susan Miles and Jim Mundt, or Mike Kovanen and Delores Hill.
  • We took naps on our rugs in first grade and one day John Vassar didn't wake up until school was out
  • Becky Ranta wore Tim Bartlett's bracelet in the fifth grade
  • Cheerleaders were Joan and Judy Eldred and Judy White. Also Lyn Robinson and Julie Bailey



Submitted Summer 2009: Rocky Sinclair

As I was attempting to build this website, several topics came to mind. Perhaps these will trigger some ideas for you to contribute. No doubt you have tales to tell that make these pale in comparison.

Cruzin' Lou's… that was the big deal to go to see and be seen. Don't remember ever actually ordering anything, for that we went to the Arctic Circle. A whole carload would get out and individually order a Coke. Mostly it was so the clerk would be obligated to say I am sorry sir, we only serve Pepsi products. Then the next one, and then the next one, would go up and order a Coke just to get the same reaction. Remember that Phil? Burgers were only 19-cents in those days.


Accountability… Remember when we were expected to be accountable for what we did. If we screwed up and ANY adult found out about it, we were sure our parents would find out by the grape vine. Not to say we did not do some pretty goofy things. The television ads promoted such things as smoking (anyone remember what LSMFT stood for?) and ambulance chasing lawyers did not yet advertise to get you something for nothing.


Pranks… No doubt others can add to this topic with much better reminiscing. What I do remember, is we were pretty careful to NOT do any damage to anything. Everything else was pretty much fair game.

Senior physics class: Frank Penzer and Marion Shinn would always lunch together. They were ALWAYS late returning, returning from the gym side door rather than the student hallway door. The room was always locked when empty as well. After a while, we got pretty tired of that. Remember those plastic wallet calendars the bank gave away. Worked perfectly to gain room access. Not sure he ever figured out how we did it. Another time we just refused to go into the room after he was late. We had all seated ourselves on the steps on the stairway there and just started singing when he finally opened the door, and seeing we did not come in, begged us to come to class. It must have echoed all the way down the hall as all the other classes were, of course, started on time.

Study Hall: Remember those "row" desks that must have been a throw back to our parent's time? The "monitor" always had a tall stack of plain scratch paper on the corner of her desk. She also often "excused" herself and left the classroom for who knows what reason. The game was to see if we could take all that paper each day without getting caught. I still had scratch paper left after finishing college. I will let others explain how the brackets keeping the front desk legs from sliding off the podium got loosened.


Favorite Teachers… A couple teachers come to mind, probably because of fun incidents during classes.

Who remembers "Little" Eva Peterson who taught English on the third floor? She had her desk and a lecture podium on a riser at the front of the room, the class was a large one. When she would get to lecturing, she could tilt that podium forward nearly to the point of tipping. The poor student directly in front of her had to be in fear of his life about then. Looking back, we had a very strong foundation in English that we acquired despite classroom antics and she provided much of that.

Then there was Frank Penzer who taught SPCA (or some new-to-us acronym) physics. What first comes to mind was his demonstration on freezing stuff. I remember he took a weenie and froze it in liquid air. To demonstrate how fragile it had become, hit smashed it with a hammer, it shattered like glass. Weenie everywhere, on us, on him, all over the room. By the time the fragments hit anything, they were thawed completely and sticky. Pretty sure there are bits still lodged in the cinder block crevices of that room even today-hopefully painted over by now. Anyone remember those light tables with water and bouncing pop beads that made all those pretty wave patterns? Hell, anyone remember pop beads?


Basketball games… Of course we did not have our own court for our games so had to use the LCNS gym. I doubt if that old building is even in existence these days.


Favorite Annual "Signings"… Probably everyone got the obligatory Good luck-have a nice life notations in their annuals each the spring. Occasionally, a really creative one came along. Here are two examples.

Well, another year has gone by and we haven't flunked out (I don't think, anyway). Ruby's room was, as last year, quite informal, to say the least. What a ball!

Ruby, though deaf and unable to see,
Rates very high as a teacher with me;

Because of this, I find it my duty
To expound on Ruby's beauty.

You will notice her long, lovely hair,
Flying wildly in the air.

Also note her flat little feet
This part of her body being so petite.

The beautiful gowns she wears to school
Make Billy Greene want to drool.

Her stockings are maintained in a lovely state,
If only she'd keep the seams straight!

From this description, I hope I've given you
Some of the fond memories of her which I hold too.


Last year I was very poetic in your annual-remember my touching ode about Ruby? However, this year my talent has waned, I'm afraid, so I'll have to write in plain, dull old prose. Anyway, remember all the good times we've had this year: We began the year by choosing our lunch table, the same one, I believe, we used last year (it was a strategic location). From that table we launched such projects as trying to fill up the vent with trays, cold lunch garbage, spoons, forks, dishes, and just about anything we could get our hands on; throwing food across the cafeteria in a attempt to win the terrible war with such slimy individuals as Don Herbert and Gary Nichols. (Remember the day I nailed Galpern who immediately came back and just about choked poor Patterson to death for it?); bending fork and spoon handles so they looked like fat corkscrews, and (our crowning achievement, I might add) turning the telephone booth against the wall while that girl sat eating her lunch in it..

Other memorable events of the year took place on the way to physics. Remember when we plugged up the drain on the drinking fountain and just about flooded the school (almost). Then there was the time someone put food coloring in the reservoir for the you know what and it flushed down a luscious hue all afternoon. I'll also always remember the day we had somewhat a hand in putting dry ice in the end toilet in that good old downstairs lavatory. Just before physics we did such things as have pinecone fights, stuff oranges up Mr. Pentzer's exhaust pipe, and shove burning incinerators down the hall. There was also our fine choir which serenaded Mr. P and Mr. Shinn as they emerged daily after lunch. As the afternoon progressed, we met again in beautiful Ruth Modie's math class. Wasn't it terrible the way we kept hiding her plants outside the windows in the cold air? Wasn't it terrible too how poor Ruth was bugged unmercifully by Al. (I can't say anything nasty about Ruth or she will take 1/64th of a point off my semester grade! Shudder!)

Well, I'm about out of room so I'll quit (you know not for lack of adventures to remember) Lots of luck in the future and I'll see you next year at the U of I. Phil





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