Ortonville- Ortonville High School was torn down in 1964. Still, the memories remain.
Marilyn (Potter) Featherston and Shirley (Ruple) Pletcher recall taking their shoes off and climbing up the long fire chute at the two-story brick building with a basement, located at the corner of Schoolhouse and Ball streets in the village. They would take wax paper with them, to make a faster slide down the chute.
The friends graduated from Ortonville High School in 1947, along with 20 others. Now, 60 years later, they will celebrate their school memories and more with their former classmates, as well as the OHS Class of 1946, during a reunion set for 4 p.m., Aug. 12, at Kallaway’s, 595 N. Lapeer Road, Oxford.
‘We made our own fun,? says Featherston, who still lives in the area with her husband, Marv, a 1943 OHS graduate. ‘I wish everyone could live the way we lived. We had very little. We lived simply, but had so much more fun than kids do now.?
World War II ended while Featherston and Pletcher were in high school, but Featherston recalls many boys dropped out of school after their junior year and joined the military. At home, there was rationing of gas, sugar, shoes, nylon stockings and more.
There wasn’t much to do in the village and only a couple guys had Model A cars. Featherston remembers eight to ten kids piling in a car to go to the Dixie Spot, a drive-in restaurant in Clarkston.
‘That was the place to go if you were going on a date,? agreed Pletcher. ‘You’d get a hamburger and a malt.?
During their senior year of high school, a classmate’s father opened the 3-D’s Drive-in Restaurant where A&W Restaurant is now.
Pletcher concentrated on commercial classes, such as typewriting, shorthand and business math, while Featherston took classes such as chemistry and biology to prepare for college. She also recalls taking Latin, while everyone had to take the core classes of history, math and English.
Most teachers were female, or were older male teachers, because younger ones were serving in the military.
Featherston was editor of the first yearbook for the school and was a member of the Camera Club. Pletcher was a cheerleader for the basketball team (there was no football team).
‘They wouldn’t let me in chorus because I can’t sing,? remembers Featherston, laughing. ‘But I played flute in band.?
Junior and senior plays were at the town hall, with a dressing room in the basement, and junior and senior proms were also at the town hall. The junior class would use crepe paper to decorate for the senior prom. At the proms, the sound of big band music could be heard from a record player. The Glenn Miller Band was popular, as well as Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Some of the songs were ‘Gimme A Little Kiss,? and ‘It Had To Be You?
Pletcher recalls working in the drugstore all year, babysitting for 50 cents a night and holding suppers to raise money to go on the senior trip. Featherston cleaned apartments for teachers until the class traveled to Washington, D.C., New York City, Atlantic City and Watkins Glen, NY, all on the school bus.
When asked what the biggest difference is between high school kids now and then, Pletcher responds, ‘I don’t think they enjoy their classmates as much now. We knew all the kids in school.?
That number includes not just the 22 that were in the class of 1947, but all the kids in grades 3-11, who were also taught at the school. Kindergarten through second grade were taught where the Edna Burton Senior Center now is located.
‘We remember close friendships and carry them with us,? says Featherston. ‘We just want to get together.?