HUMBOLDT — Along about midnight Saturday Janice Pollman McCullough will kick off her shoes and fall into an easy chair.
By then the latest Humboldt High Old Grads Reunion will be history, as will the 50th reunion of her class of 1961. McCullough been an active participant with both.
She is completing a two-year term as president of the Humboldt High School Alumni Association, which cast her in a prominent role in putting together the biennial reunion. She also is involved in a coincidental two-day reunion of the ’61 class, including a social at her and husband Charley’s home following Saturday night’s all-classes banquet.
“I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said, although “it was at times a little bit overwhelming.”
The Old Grads Reunion has 529 reservations, one of the largest gatherings ever.
“We had 472 two years ago, and I think we’ve had over 500 before,” McCullough said Wednesday afternoon.
“We have people coming from all over,” McCullough observed, “from California, Florida, Oregon, Texas. You can just about name a state and there will be someone here.”
Her class has the second largest number of reservations with 21 — of 45 still living — McCullough noted, and would have the most “except for the class of 1971, which was quite a bit larger than ours.” This is also the first year of eligibility for the 1971 class to participate in the reunion.
“I really think it’s amazing that we have so many come every two years when you consider that you aren’t eligible until you’ve been out of school for 40 years” and many of the classes had fewer than 50 students at graduation, McCullough said.
“Probably a lot of it is small-town cohesiveness,” she continued. “People like to come back home and many of them still have family here.”
An outcome she can’t explain is that a good number of former grads who live in or near Humboldt opt out of the reunion.
“I don’t know why,” McCullough said, other than “some people, I guess, are more social than others.”
McCULLOUGH has been in the thick of the reunion planning and preparations for nine years. And even though they are every two years, the turnaround for preparations begin shortly after the event.
Within one month officers and directors gather for a debriefing and then request use of the fieldhouse next to the high school for the next reunion.
By November and December of the following year addresses for the two newly eligible classes are recorded. The tempo picks up in January of reunion year with postcard preparation; the reminders going out in February.
In May, class representatives are contacted to send specific invitations, mailed Aug. 1. In the intervening time all the little details of having the two-day event are attended to; Friday night’s session for visiting draws about as many as Saturday night’s banquet. There also are volunteers to recruit and confirm for all sorts of tasks.
