“P. U. H. S. Reunion Picnic”

By

Gerry Niskern

“On Coyotes, on Coyotes,

Fight right through that line,

Run the ball right down the field,

A touch down sure this time!”

Yesterday a large group of coyotes gathered at Sahuaro Park in Glendale as the alumni of P.U.H.S do every year. There were tables laden with fantastic salads, scrumptious pies and cakes. Those girls had become pretty good cooks!

The reunion of former Coyotes from Phoenix Union High School and Phoenix Tech was to celebrate the great school they had all attended.

The school was established in 1895 and the last graduation was in l982. Former students from as early as the class of 1931 were enjoying a day of food, fun and reminiscing.

If you haven’t attended your 30^th, 40^th, or 50^th reunion yet, do go. They are the best. The barriers are down; broken by years of living. Who cares in which side of the valley you used to live? Does anyone really remember whether you drove a “hot” car, rode the bus or a bike to school? It was great to see the two guys who had competed fiercely for top grades laughing and reminiscing together.

I suspect more than a few of the women attending were remembering the guys, not as they appeared Sunday, but in “tight jeans and black leather jackets!” The men, of course, were looking for that pretty girl that captured their heart years ago.

Passing by various tables bit of personal history could be heard. We had all had marriages, divorces, more marriages, children, weddings, funerals and grandchildren. Most of the men had chosen professions and then changed careers and changed again. Many of the women who started out as “stay at home moms” discovered later it was great to pursue a profession.

A few of our classmates served in the Korean War; some didn’t return. Some had sons who served in Vietnam and others had grandsons and daughters now serving in the middle East.

We were in on the beginning of the war on drugs. We were the first with the pill, marijuana, and the sexual revolution.

We saw the super stores replace the corner grocery and drugstore, and men and women’s dress shops disappear.

Skirt lengths have gone up and down numerous times and guy’s tight Levis are now relaxed it.  The jean jackets worn by our grandchildren now are not $3.00 anymore.

We saw the Berlin Wall fall and the first man walk on the moon while we tried to see the world too.

We went from our first cars to family station wagons, vans and then SUVs. We’ve accepted credit cards, ATM’s, cell phones and computers as a way of life. We’re

working out, watching our cholesterol and have given up cigarettes.

Life has a way of leveling the playing field, and as the former coyotes made the rounds Saturday, probably more than a few saw that the campus queens and the football heroes are candidates for Extreme Makeover, and the class “Nerd” has become quite successful.