A 60th Reunion and a Look Into Life’s Mirror
Members of the Rochester East High School Class of 1964 hold their 60th reunion
By John Addyman
When you look in the mirror, do you see a 17-year-old staring back at you?
Is the image smiling or pensive?
Are you unsure of the future or confident you’ll go boldly into life?
Do you wonder if your dreams will come true?
Are you thinking about friends that know that face? Your face?
It’s a moment that more than 100 members of the Rochester East High School Class of 1964 spent in June before they gathered for their 60th reunion with their classmates.
Getting out of their cars in the parking lot at East High, careful to be wearing a yearbook photo badge with maiden and married names, every graduate looked serious for 10 seconds, then broke into a smile of recognition and, well, love.
So many smiles. So many happy hearts.
The weekend had started with a gathering on Friday night. Now, on Saturday morning, people were ready for a big day, full of exploration and get-together — a tour of the newly refurbished East High, a golf outing and, finally, a big dinner.
Joose Ong didn’t look a bit jet-lagged, but she had come to this special event from Singapore. In 1964, she was a foreign exchange student from Malaysia. The last reunion, the 55th in 2017, took her 19 ½ hours of airtime to get here.
“These are my friends,” she said. “I love coming here. But this time, I did a more leisurely trip. I flew to England and rested for three days and then flew to Boston and then to here.”
She had left East to attend university in Singapore, earning degrees in political science and public relations and linguistics. She has been a lecturer at Singapore Technological University.
“Last night was so much fun,” she said. “Everyone was so happy.”
Lenore and John Harman were high school sweethearts at East. John graduated in 1961 and Lenore finished high school in 1964. He went to Clarkson and became an accountant. Together for 59 years, they have three sons, five grandkids and five great-grandkids.
In truth, Lenore had to be talked into attending this reunion. “I was at the 10th reunion,” she explained. “There were so many divorces and deaths. I didn’t want to go back to another reunion.”
Peggy Laws Germano and husband, Nick, have also been married 59 years. Now living in North Carolina after a career in bank management, Peggy had feelings similar to what Lenore Harman voiced.
“This reunion was sort of bittersweet because we had so many classmates whose spouses had died. I just spoke to two of them,” Peggy said. “The reunion committee also sent out a list of those who had died and there are still so many of our classmates they couldn’t find.
“I was torn about deciding whether to come or not. I knew this one is really the last one I’ll ever get to, considering my age. I’m not sure if I’ll be around for another one. But it’s been wonderful, full of hugs and a wonderful experience for me.”
She was surprised to see “how people had aged so. You think of them as they were in high school when we were 17, 18 years old. Or even some other reunions where people hadn’t aged much. But this one is like,
oh my gosh!
“I think people do look really good but there are others who are suffering from different ailments. That really bothers me. You just kind of think it’s never going to happen to you.
“There’s been a lot of hugging, yes. I’m a hugger by nature. Everybody just hugs when we see each other. It’s been wonderful to see them.”
Tom Allen saw an old classmate come in the door for the dinner on Saturday night at the Italian American Social Club on Buffalo Road. She did not know her own name. She had an aide with her.
“It’s tough to see some of my friends like that,” he said. “Five years ago, at the last reunion, she was bright, beautiful.”
Remarkably, the woman who had trouble with her own name was picking people out of the audience — by name — as she walked from table to table. She was supposed to stay for 30 minutes or so; she was there well past an hour, smiling the whole time.
“She wanted to be here ‘to see some of the kids,’” Allen said, “some of her classmates.”
Allen has had a career in teaching from grade school through collegiate grad schools and has his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. Gregarious and accommodating, he had fun and others had fun with him.
“Life is connections,” he said. “You have to stay connected. You have to see people. You have to touch them; you’ve got to talk to them. You’ve got to do those things.”
His early years in Rochester were definitely formative and he has a special place in his heart for East. “Sports-wise, we had some good teams,” he said. “The influence of your peers can’t be overstated in terms of who we are. I hung out with a lot of jocks.”
Fellow grad Marilyn Gattelaro Spampinato pointed out that when East opened as an 8th grade through 12th grade junior – senior high school in 1959, the future Class of ’64 would be the first group to experience every grade offered. She described East as a “neighborhood school” with 533 students graduating in 1964 at the Eastman Theater.
“We came from diverse neighborhoods and used to walk or ride the bus to school: such a different time,” she said. “Our hang-out spots were the ‘Orient’ across from East, ‘Critics’ on Goodman and Main streets, The Goody Shoppe on Clifford and Goodman, Carvel at Main and Culver. Just about everyone knew each other since we all lived in the surrounding area.”
East has changed
For the Saturday tour, a classmate and former principal, Eddie Mascadri, welcomed everyone in the door — past the metal-detecting machine — and into a broad well-lit lobby. His youngest son, also Eddie Mascadri, is now the principal of the high school, finishing his first year.
The elder Mascadri promised, “For a slight fee, I can get all your records changed.”
“So it isn’t too late to change my grades?” Class of ’64 grade Gary Rivoli asked the young Principal Mascadri.
Both Mascadris laughed.
Claire Howell, in from Boston, underlined why it was important for this group of graduates to tour their old high school: “We walked through these doors together,” she said. “We walked these halls with our friends.”
Principal Mascadri led the group on the tour. In the auditorium, which is due for renovation, he explained that nine years ago East was graduating 32% of its seniors and was in state receivership as a failed school. Since then, through a partnership with the University of Rochester Warner School of Education, East High has been reborn. He expected 81% of the class of 2024 to graduate, for starters.
He pointed out that East is now a “community school” where many of the services kids and families need are right there — a doctor on staff full-time, a dentist, mental health professionals, a food closet and a barber shop.
“A significant amount more money was spent here than in other schools to support our program,” he said.
“We’ve had visitors from U of R on a daily basis,” he added. “East is the most-used building in the district because of the music, bands, choruses and special programs here. No cell phones are permitted onsite.”
Mascadri spoke about the 9:15 a.m. “family meetings” in classrooms that cover a range of needs and issues and news important to kids. The school provides so much of the community within its walls there are few remaining needs for kids to leave the building.
In the high-tech modern “collaboratorium” room, Mascadri explained how the room is used for staff meetings and professional development classes. Questions from the graduates, who were obviously still deeply invested in their old school, included those about continued funding and further improvements here.
For these folks, East pride runs deep.
“I was so happy to see all those changes,” said Janice Corea. “The building looked really good and again, I’m one of those people who have heard the bad press the city schools were getting, East High in particular. I also heard about the changes that happened when the U of R came, so, I was very hopeful.”
“Also, these changes are a progression, things needed to change in East High,” Corea added. “Even in my neighborhood when children were growing up, a lot of parents still sent their kids to East High because they could take AP programs and that’s why I asked a question on our tour if there are programs like that. But now there are not many. The Regents and some AP classes are there, but their goal is to really build a community in that school, which I feel is so important.
“What really impressed me on the tour was when the principal spoke about the 9:15 to 9:45 ‘family’ meetings. My heart bleeds to think about how the neighborhoods have changed and the stresses families have had. And the poverty in Rochester: it’s really so overwhelming. That’s why I felt so good when he talked about offering an optical (spectacles) program, we’re offering a culinary arts program. The kids can come and get dental care here. We have a doctor on staff. These students really need emotional support because I feel that’s truly what could be lacking in their homes.
“I remember when I was in school the first few years at East I was very shy and I wasn’t a cheerleader or anything like that. I started taking art classes and drama classes and those were the classes that brought me the greatest pleasure and sort of brought me to life at East High.
“My art teacher was very inspiring to me. He wrote in my yearbook, ‘Do something with that talent you’re loaded with.’ I’ll tell you, I had never had anyone say that to me, so it took me a while. I worked for a year, then went on to RIT to study art and design and I did have a career in the arts as a graphic artist. Thank goodness a teacher said that to me.”
Jacquelyne VanAs Greene was captain of the cheerleaders 60 years ago and still charms with a great smile. She had a career as a nurse and was the director of nursing at St. Ann’s Community when she retired.
“It’s the camaraderie of everyone,” she explained as the important thing about reunions. “Keep everyone happy and alive. At our age [average78.5], we’re not young. This reunion is about getting to know each other all over again and seeing people after all these years. Of course, people have changed, but it’s amazing how much connection you have because we all went to school together: the connection is there for life.
“Our class was big but I had a lot of friends in a lot of different areas. I was blessed with friends,” Greene added.
Peggy Germano added a story about the welcoming get-together on Friday night: “There was a couple who didn’t have name tags on. But then I watched them while they were talking and said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s Gene Duffy.’ I didn’t see a name tag on him, but a lot of people I just recognized immediately.”
“This, for me, may be the end of the story,” Germano added, getting an apologetic, sad look on her face. “I don’t know how to say it, but I’d rather not just come back again. There was so much where my heart was aching when I heard about so many classmates who were sick or died. I’d rather leave it at this because it’s been such a wonderful, peaceful reunion.”
An anonymous quote helps reflect on why a reunion is important: “When the mirror becomes your enemy, nostalgia becomes your friend.”
Most of us have a little trouble wrapping our consciousness around a 59th wedding anniversary, much less a 60th high school reunion.
What the East High School Class of 2024 shares, all those veteran married folks and long-ago students, is heart for one another, pride in their school from 60 years ago and now into the future and the feeling that they were a special bunch the likes of which Rochester may never see again.