By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
It was serendipity for former Osoyoos resident George Nielsen as he picked up a copy of the Times Chronicle a few weeks back and, turning to page four, found himself staring at his own, ‘slightly’ younger self.
In our regular history column that particular issue featured a photo of the 1952 graduating class of Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) which, as it turns out, was his graduating class.
The 1952 graduating class of Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) pictured in June 1952. Back row: George Nielsen (2nd from left) and Jim Pendergraft (10th from left). Second row from back: Terry Schorn (2nd from left), Danny Roberts (4th from left) and George Fraser (6th from left). Front row: Ruth Alexander (9th from left), Joyce Zarelli (10th from left), and Yvonne Venbles (12th from left).
“I saw the Time-to-Time image in the newspaper and thought this would be a good follow-up, so that’s what inspired me to get a hold of eight of the graduates and their spouses. Out of the 52 that’s all I could round up,” he says.
Joining the former schoolmates at their reunion lunch I went to hear some of their stories and favourite memories, as the group laughed like teenagers again, filling the air with a sense of timelessness.
And as for the stories, they of course obliged in spades, with Nielsen kicking it off with a beer-drinking story which seemed a suitable starting point.
“My buddies and I were drinking beer at the pub in Osoyoos, we were in our early 20s I guess, and the beer parlour closed at 11 o’clock, so when it closed we said let’s go across to Oroville.
“And our friend Joe said, ‘Oh I can’t go, I haven’t got my papers’. So we said no problem and we put him in the trunk of the car and drove across. You’d never do that now!” Nielsen laughs.
“We’ve always had reunions every five years, and then in the later years we tried to have it every year,” he says, adding that it was about three years ago they had the last one because of the pandemic.
Nielsen said his family moved to Osoyoos from the prairies in 1946 where he began going to school before heading to high school in Oliver. After that, he went to UBC and later worked with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for 35 years.
And for George Fraser – someone who could never be dismissed as a ‘newcomer’ to Osoyoos, having been born here – these reunions hold “bitter-sweet memories.”
Fraser notes the old school burned down nearly a decade ago, and while “they rebuilt it and it’s really nice, the old one was unique and there were only two of them built like that in the province,” he says. His connection to the school is special as he returned to be a teacher there many years ago.
George Nielsen holds a June 9 copy of the Times Chronicle showing the Class of ‘52 graduation photo (courtesy of the Oliver Archives).
Don Urquhart photo
Another long-time Osoyoos resident whose name might sound familiar is Jim Pendergraft. He arrived here 88 years ago from Alberta with his parents at the tender age of one. He relates the story of his dad working for seven and a half cents an hour during the Great Depression.
“He came home one night and said he heard in B.C. they were paying 25 cents an hour, so my parents packed up the house and my mom took the train to Vernon. Dad and his father went around through the US because there was no road then because there were too many muskegs. That’s the way it was back then,” he says.
Pendergraft’s name might ring a bell as RDOS director Mark Pendergraft is his nephew, and two others are land surveyors in town.
And for Terry Schorn, “it’s so nice to be back with everyone again,” he says, adding that it was unfortunate to not have more of the original 52 attending.
“Some are not available and some live farther away and we’re at the point where a lot of us don’t travel far distances anymore but it’s really great to meet everybody again and talk old times.”
Schorn says the group will chat for a couple of hours and “it feels like we’ve never ever left,” he smiles.
“I started out here 88 years ago,” after being born in Bridesville, Schorn says. He stayed in Osoyoos during his schooling years and then got into the mining business, mining for uranium.
“I worked in six countries, six provinces and six states. Now I’m back in Osoyoos. It’s good to be back, it’s just the right size town,” he says.
For Yvonne Moore, Ruth Lakatar and Joyce Thomson, the trio were enjoying not just the first chance to catch up since before the pandemic, but they are also relishing the fact they didn’t organize the reunion this year.
“This year we’re taking it off,” they laugh, leaving me wondering if perhaps some gender equality has caught up with the group this year.
One of the many memories that bubbles out is basketball. All three were on the basketball team and they recall many happy times including scoring the winning goal from the centre line in Princeton.
Another time they travelled to a basketball tournament in Trail. This involved being driven to Rock Creek to catch the train to Trail where they were billeted with families. And this wasn’t just any train, mind you, it was the Kettle Valley Railway. Some pretty big excitement for small town girls, they agreed.
As teenagers, Osoyoos and Oliver were a world away from today. No cell phones for amusement, just fields of tall grass, big trees and lush irrigation ditches providing their entertainment. “You had to be careful of the rattlesnakes,” Yvonne says, adding that it was cooler back then.
“It was a really good place to grow up. We spent a lot of time outside in the fields and that’s how we became such good friends because there’s nothing else to do,” in terms of socializing, they laugh.
The other thing these three agree on is the special bond they all share.
“What is unique about us is that we honestly like each other, we all get along so well, there were 50 of us, one big happy family and our parents are gone so this really is our family now. The last couple of reunions we had a lot of us that were single again because we lost our spouses,” they say with a discernable touch of melancholy.
