Marching between representatives of the Southern Anoka Community Assistance food shelf and the Ursa Minor Junior Roller Derby at this year’s Columbia Heights Jamboree parade will be a very special group of octogenarians. The Columbia Heights High School graduating class of 1959 will be on hand, celebrating its 65th anniversary.
While some will march or ride along in classmate Larry Zmuda’s blue 1946 Ford coupe, a larger group of graduates will have a designated place on the corner of 40th and Monroe to cheer on their classmates.
“There was no question that for our 65th high school reunion, we just had to make our celebration in conjunction with the Jamboree,” said Elaine (Strehlow) Morrow, a coordinator of recent class gatherings and Jamboree Queen candidate in 1959.
Leona (Bridge) Scherer recalled that “being a teenager in the late ’50s was great … After school we would hang out at the local drug store and have cherry Cokes and talk about teachers, tests, boys and all the latest fashions.” Later some might head home “to watch American Bandstand and learn the latest dance steps to show off at the next Fieldhouse dance.”
In a journal they’ve submitted to the Anoka County Historical Society (Columbia Heights High School 1959 Class Journal/ Our Class and Generation), classmates Don Peterson and Larry Edralin have documented memories of bygone years growing up in Columbia Heights and the surrounding area.
Peterson writes, “We loved the drug stores, dime stores, the hobby shop, Gambles, Chet’s Shoe Store, the Heights Theater … we rock and rolled to Elvis Presley … crui-
sed Central and along 40th Ave. Met our friends at the A&W. Drag raced when challenged.”
When approached for their reactions to the impending reunion with their classmates, those interviewed remarked on the special and unusual degree of camaraderie felt within the group. Some described the class as atypically small for the times (150 graduated that year) and that, due to this, most everyone knew one another.
As there were “no cell phones, internet, computers … the summer events were always the highlight of the year,” said Morrow of the Jamboree. “It was magical to attend the carnival at night — the lights on all the rides, the smells of hot dogs and cotton candy.” She remembers the “thrill to ride on the back of a convertible in the parade and wave to everyone.” Scherer said her Jamboree memories were of “strolling the midway, playing [carnival] games and rides that made me sick” but were all just “part of the fun.”
With at least 36 classmates planning to attend from as far away as Michigan, Arizona and California, the group has a variety of events planned to coincide with the Jamboree’s festivities.
Tours of the former Silver Lake Elementary School (now First Lutheran Church) and Immaculate Conception School, will take place on Friday, June 28 before the parade, as will a tour of the former Salvation Army Camp on Silver Lake, now Silverwood Park. After the parade the group’s schedule includes the carnival and beer garden.
Saturday includes a tour of the “new” Columbia Heights High School (the class of ’59 was one of the last classes to graduate from the former high school at 41st and Jackson), heading to Ramsdell Park for a catered lunch and later to Rail Werks Brewing Depot for dinner.