First class pictures (Courtesy of Gaby Ejercito)
From Oct. 6-8, Aragon’s class of 1963 hosted a joint reunion with San Mateo High School, including a cocktail party the first two nights and a dockside brunch farewell party on Sunday morning. Approximately 140 attendees flew in from across the country to attend.
“Everyone loved it, [and] I did not hear one complaint,” said alumnus and reunion chair Phil Abrams. “Everybody said Friday night was fun, seeing old friends. We had a band that played all the Kingston Trio songs, which are folk songs of the ‘60s. My friend Harley is a collector and had all this memorabilia, [so] we had a table 30 feet long with all [these] things that were made in 1963.”
Alumni spent the weekend catching up with old classmates, sharing their life stories and reminiscing about history and old memories from Aragon.
When Aragon first opened in 1961, the school only consisted of freshmen and sophomores, from San Mateo and Hillsdale high schools. Many students were initially hesitant to leave their former schools, especially since they had to transfer midyear.
“It’s hard to leave a school in the middle of your sophomore year,” said alumna Diane McClain. “We were crying, but we had no choice. Those years, people didn’t really fight things; you just did what you were told, and so off we went. But when I look back, that was one of the best things that ever happened: we got to create a school from scratch.”
Other alumni echoed this idea of developing school spirit and a sense of identity over time.
“As we were there and we were building our own school, and [being] the upperclassmen the whole time, it felt like, ‘this is our home, our school, we ‘own’ it,’” Abrams said. “And as the first class, everybody after us was following in our footsteps. [We felt like] it was really our school, and it was a part of us from that point on.”
Moreover, many alumni discovered their passions at Aragon. Carole Donahoe, for instance, pursued a career in city planning after participating in student government. Kathy MacDonald started her own bakery later on after taking a home economics class, and McClain became an English and journalism teacher after joining the school newspaper.
Alumni also reflected on the changes since high school: both in the world, with so many technological advancements, but also in Aragon. Many described instances of classism and sexism during their time at school, as well as a lack of racial diversity.
“Someone was telling me how there was a boundary between certain types of students, like those who lived behind the freeway in Shoreview versus the people who lived in Hillsborough,” said senior Gaby Ejercito, a volunteer at the event. “She was telling me that people would make fun of [others] for taking the bus because they didn’t have a car [and] they would hang out in two different areas of the school.”
Abrams shared a similar perspective.
“When we went to Aragon at that time, it was [about] 95% Caucasian,” Abrams said. “I lived in the Baywood area, [which is] a little more expensive. [I had] some friends [who] used to joke that when they lived in Shoreview, there was a dichotomy of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’”
Besides the racial divide, one other major difference was the strict dress code of the 1960s.
“Girls had to wear flat shoes, dresses below our knees and we had to wear our hair a certain way,” MacDonald said. “There were a lot of rules, and when we finally graduated, it was in the boys’ gym.”
Despite this, Aragon’s class of 1963 largely cherished their high school memories, with some maintaining close-knit friendshpis throughout the years.
“The real thing that you take away as you get older are the relationships and connections that you made when you were young,” Abrams said. “So many [of us] have kept those same friends, and I think that’s a little unusual. [It] might be because we were the first class, [or] because we went from one school to another together [and] lived [through] that change.”
Reflecting on their lives, many found that attending Aragon was an integral experience because of those relationships.
“I’m 77,” Abrams said. “If [you] had to wave a magic wand and say what would you want for the rest of your life, you would want to keep old friends, people you’ve respected [and] people you’ve liked, with you. And in the case of Aragon, we have those friends from [our] school and San Mateo.”
