Sunday, June 10, 1962
Girls’ Catholic Central High School — Detroit, Michigan
We were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and came of age in the 1960s, and our graduation year 1962 is now a long time ago. But memories retain a strong significance and continue to be placeholders of days gone by. Today, in our dotage, treasured high school moments anchor these memories and we recall them with remarkable clarity.
We first met as adolescent freshman classmates in 1958 when strict academic standards, as well as credos of the Roman Catholic faith kept our collective proverbial noses to the grindstone. But outside of our classrooms, there were welcomed diversions, e.g., books to read, movies to see in our neighborhood theaters, and hit records to purchase at the local record store. Rock ’N’ Roll was king and although the Motown Sound was a few years away, we were swooning over romantic ballads being performed by Sam Cooke and Johnny Mathis. And even though the Cold War was a presence in our lives, and America was still maintaining an attitude of indifference to the problem of racial inequality, there soon arrived a youthful administration in the White House that took action on behalf of the Negro race. A young leader, President John F. Kennedy, who reframed segregation as “a moral issue” and who later demonstrated his valor and shepherded us through 13 horrifying days during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Today, 62 years after my class graduated, our old school building is still standing proud and strong and serving Detroit’s growing senior community as St. Patrick Senior Center. And the classrooms we once occupied are still beautifully intact and being put to good use. Long may she reign!
HAPPY 62nd ANNIVERSARY! Class of ‘62!
Girls’ Catholic Central High School Wikipedia Page
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