It’s an irrefutable fact that no matter how much we’d love to, we can’t slow time in order to truly savor major life experiences like the birth of a child, a wedding, or a graduation. That’s why photos and videos wind up being so important to so many folks, so we can place ourselves back within precious moments as much as is possible.
But the Londonderry High School Class of 1983 took a crack at stopping time – just for a few hours mind you – when it celebrated its 40th anniversary at the Londonderry Country Club on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Members of the class jetted in from as far away as Germany, Florida, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania as well as local and regional towns to (try to) recall the past, renew old friendships and acquaintances, talk about how their lives have unfolded, and remember fellow class members who were lost far too soon.
The LHS Class of 1983 was the second group to go all four years after the opening of the new high school in 1978. Longtime Londonderry High teacher and present case manager Sue (Presley) Spinney was a member of the first LHS class to go all four years. So when the high school officially opened in 1978, the members
of the Class of ’83 were still middle school kids in grade eight but attending classes in the high school, which had been massively expanded southward from the oldest phases of the building which were the middle school until 1978. The Londonderry Middle School wouldn’t appear for a few years yet.
The class of 1983 had some 185 graduates, but over 200 folks – including teachers and friends of the group – were invited to the reunion, which was spearheaded wonderfully by class members Meg (Hume) Tripp, Laurae (Smith) Richards, Kathy (Foley) Flegal, Diane (Fortier) Rice, Heidi (Wing) Caruso, Maria (Mirulla) Stein.
As one would expect here in 2023, unfortunate concerns of today – like Covid and travel woes – kept some class members away from the celebration. But 42 made it and savored an evening of good food, music of their favorite and most memorable era (now known as oldies!), and wondered (sometimes aloud) how all these old people graduated from high school with them! Including spouses and significant others along for the Ford Pinto ride down memory lane, upwards of 60 people enjoyed the memorable reunion event.
A dozen members of the Class of ’83 have died in the ensuing years, with Bill Cummings passing on while a freshman at Northeastern University mere months after the LHS high school graduation, and the much-beloved Doug Kilgore having his battle with cancer end just a month before the 40th reunion. His wife Lucy Lu attended the celebration, however, so Doug’s spirit was very much in the room.
The reunion drew high marks on social media from folks who attended and from those looking at photos and comments from afar.
“We’re pleased,” said reunion co-organizer Tripp, whose husband Jon is also an ’83 grad but was kept home in Florida by work, for the organizing crew.
Stein added, “We had a great time, and gosh it was just so wonderful to see everyone.”
