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Class of ’46 celebrates 70 years of Kits high memories

Despite turbulent era, former classmates recall 'wonderful time' at Kitsilano secondary

According to her Kitsilano high school yearbook, Ruth Enns (née Allison) is a tall, well-dressed brunette, known for her comical character. She lists “fussers” as her pet peeve and, as I learned firsthand, is not exactly a fan of community newspaper editors reluctant to give her a definitive answer whether they can attend and write about her class reunion.

After several increasingly blunt emails and phone messages launched in my direction, Enns decided to bring out the big guns for her persuasive argument: the promise of live music, a flagrant use of punctuation marks and a fondness for the caps lock on her computer’s keyboard.   

“WE ARE EVEN HAVING BAG PIPES!!!!!!!!!!!” she wrote me. “THIS is NO MICKEY MOUSE OPERATION.”

If you haven’t guessed, Enns is what you would call a “firecracker” — energetic, tenacious, unrelenting and charmingly quirky.

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Reta LeMaster (left) and Ruth Enns have remained friends since they attended Grade 1 together at Bayview elementary and later Kit silano secondary. Reta now lives in Cranbrook, while Enns remains in Kitsilano. Photo Michael Kissinger

It also explains why Kitsilano’s Class of 1946 has whooped it up every year for the past 20 and last week marked its 70-year “grand finale” with a modest luncheon at the Marine Drive Golf Club. Twenty-three Kitsilano graduates and guests walked, shuffled and rolled into a small banquet room at the posh private members’ club last Thursday, and Enns greeted them all with a hug, kiss, smile or quip. “Oh he’s a miserable old bugger,” Enns said of a classmate who wasn’t happy with the seating arrangements.

While Enns never stopped moving, her sharp dressed right-hand man on the organizing committee, Bob Kerr, maintained a more casual pace collecting the $25 admission fee from classmates.

“Ruth runs the show,” said Kerr. “Without her, we probably wouldn’t have this reunion.”

Kerr’s favourite memories of high school have nothing to do with education. When pressed for specifics, he mentions a classmate’s covert attempts at making bathtub gin and how he and his group of friends inexplicably decided to all wear pyjama tops to school one day, which resulted in a trip to the principal’s office.

The memory seems as a quaint as the nametags scattered across the reunion’s welcome table: Edith, Trudy, Gilbert, Vivien, Reta, Bernice.  

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The Kitsilano high school yearbook of 1946. Photo Dan Toulgoet

Of course, life for these former classmates wasn’t all quaint or without strife. Kitsilano’s Class of 1946 grew up during the Depression, lived through the Second World War and saw classmates of Japanese descent sent to internment camps, never to be heard from again. But when asked about their time in high school, everyone I talked to only recalled fond memories: the music of Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Sinatra, sock hops, paper drives, saddle shoes, bobby sox, Peter’s Ice Cream shop, lasting friendships and an abundance of jobs and affordable houses after graduation.

“It was such a wonderful time,” said Pat Edwards, a retired school teacher, like Enns, now living on the Sunshine Coast.  

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Pat Edwards (left) and Barbara, Jean Morray’s daughter, have a look at the old yearbook. Photo Dan Toulgoet

When a microphone was passed around the room for grads to chime in with their favourite memories, Vivien Sanford (née Parfitt) said, “All the boys,” followed by a chorus of giggles.

She then paused and got choked up. “So many memories,” she said quietly.

With the average age of graduates between 87 and 88, Kits’ Class of 1946 has, not surprisingly, steadily dwindled. Seventy years ago, they numbered 174 strong, but now only 48 remain, according to Enns who lives in Kitsilano after stints in Armstrong and elsewhere in the Lower Mainland. At the beginning of the luncheon, Kerr asked for a moment of silence in honour of the classmates who had died since the last reunion, including Helen Boyce (née Santos) who called herself the world’s oldest cheerleader and would gleefully lead a cheer at every reunion.

Enns then read a poem she had written for the event about her old high school, which began with the lines, “They ripped out her guts with those massive machines/but they could not tear out her heart/still sweetly, painfully throbbing/with teenage memories.”

A few minutes later, Enns pulled out her kazoo and everyone rallied around to belt out their beloved school song, “Hail Kitsilano.”

The song still gets performed at school functions and was written in 1936 by Sanford’s father, Ivor Parfitt, who was the high school’s music teacher. “How do you think all of us kids got A’s,” she said.

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The list of Kitsilano high school teachers from 1946. In a “fun vote,” the reunion class voted P.E. teacher Miss Gladys Munton as their favourite educator from that year, narrowly beating out math teacher Don McKenzie. Photo Dan Toulgoet

On the subject of teachers, in a “fun vote” held at the reunion, the Class of ’46 awarded P.E. teacher Miss Gladys Munton (all the female teachers were named Miss) as their favourite educator, narrowly beating out math teacher Don McKenzie. After the vote, Kerr confided he had voted for Miss Sellon — the French teacher. Say no more.

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The class of ’46 locks arms and sings “Auld Lang Syne.” Photo Dan Toulgoet

At the end of the luncheon, former classmates, reacquainted pals and lifelong friends joined arms in a circle to sing “Auld Lang Syne,” with Bob Gibb on pipes, before releasing helium-filled balloons in the school’s blue and gold colours in memory of those who died that year. As an emotionally stunted 44-year-old man, I have to admit that bagpipes and “Auld Lang Syne” are the closest things to Kryptonite for me. I’m just glad they didn’t sing “Danny Boy” for an encore, or I’d have been a snotty mess.  

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Former classmates from 1946 let balloons go at the end of their reunion. Photo Dan Toulgoet

“It’s a close group and seeing everyone for these luncheons keeps us close,” Kerr told me. “It’s a very happy time and it’s a sad time. It’s great to see everyone, but for some it’s the last time we’ll ever see each other again.”

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The group photo of Kitsilano secondary class of 1946. Photo Dan Toulgoet

I talk to Enns the next day on the phone to get some background information, but before I can say much she tells me, “I’ve got to say, that photo of you in the Courier doesn’t flatter you at all. I was expecting a much older man.”

Duly noted.

Enns says they still might hold a small reunion or coffee date next year for Kitsilano’s close-knit Class of 1946, but they wanted to go out with a bang while they still had some spring in their step. If they do hold a 71st reunion, there will be fewer in attendance. But I have no doubt Enns will be among them. I also expect at least half a dozen emails and phone messages letting me know.

@MidlifeMan1 

mkissinger@vancourier.com