Their lives kept some close to home, others were scattered across nation
OCEAN CITY – The Korean War was coming to an end. Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his first term as president. “From Here to Eternity” and “Shane” were in movie theaters and Perry Como’s “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” was near the the top of the radio charts. The first Corvettes were rolling off the assembly lines and the average family income was $4,200.
That was life when the Ocean City High School Class of 1953 was about to graduate.
Members gathered recently in Somers Point, some of them traveling a few miles from across town and others from halfway across the country to visit with their old classmates. They have had a range of experiences over the past 70 years. They enjoyed reminiscing over a long lunch at the Crab Trap restaurant.
For some, life had taken them far. For others, they remained close to home.
Alonzo Capito served as a U.S. Marine and then went to work in the soda business with his classmate, Conrad Lea.
“We owned our own trucks and we were responsible for everything,” Capito said. “We made a lot of money and then management made some bad decisions we both saw coming and we left. I don’t know what Connie did but I went to work for the telephone company. I climbed telephone polls for 30 years in spikes, and drilled holes with a brace and bit.” (A brace and bit is a hand-operated tool.)
Capito said he felt safe during those decades with the phone company. “I never thought I was in any danger. We ran up and down the poles and didn’t give it any more thought than you do walking down the sidewalk or walking across the street. It was probably safer than walking across the street.
“I worked all kinds of weather, all kinds of storms, everything imaginable, and retired in 1989. I did a little something here and there but have been retired for 33 years,” Capito said. He lives in Egg Harbor City.
Lea worked for Abbots Dairies for 25 years, at Drake’s Cakes for 15 years and the Ocean Drive Bridge Commission for 21 years. He had a short commute to the reunion; he has lived in Beesleys Point in Upper Township for 58 years.
Lea was born in Upper Township. He said he didn’t stray too far.
Eleanor Migliaccio went to Washington, D.C. and worked for the Navy after she graduated from OCHS. She typed congressional letters and letters that had to go to parents when Navy personnel passed away. After that she got married and moved to Wyoming.
When told that Wyoming is beautiful, Migliaccio demurred, saying, “Well, that’s a matter of opinion.” When told that may depend on the location in Wyoming, she laughed. “Or the person you’re with, too.”
Migliaccio worked in Wyoming, including around the house. She now lives in Boise, Idaho, a classmate who traveled far for the reunion.
“I always like to come back and visit with the class. I don’t see them but when we have these. And it’s interesting. I enjoy it very much,” she said.
Louise (Brown) Cottrell became a registered nurse after she graduated and worked at Shore Medical Center for 37 years. She enjoyed her career and likes attending the reunions. She may win for shortest distance traveled. She lives in Somers Point. “I’ve been here for over 50 years,” Cottrell said.
Two other classmates also stayed local.
Cheryl Colllins first raised her family and then began with a part-time job at the Egg Harbor Township Municipal Building, in the tax assessor’s office. When the tax assessor ran for office as Atlantic County executive and won, she followed him. She lives in Egg Harbor Township.
Barbara Lauer now lives in Egg Harbor City. She worked for Prudential and Medicare for 16 years, then at Target.
Classmate Bruce Taylor came a long way for this reunion.
He spent 30 years with the Food and Drug Administration. He retired and now lives in Houston, Texas. “I was expecting a bigger showing,” he said, but was still glad to see a number of his classmates. “It’s good to see them all.”
John Smith said everyone knows him by his nickname, Jack. After high school he joined the Naval Reserve, then “jumped” to the Air Force where he served for 27 years as a pilot with service during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He retired as a lieutenant colonel.
“If I had to do it all over again,” he said, “I’d go all the way. I’m proud to say I served my country. I had four years in Vietnam. I had 27 combat missions over North Vietnam and I’m still here. Thank the Lord.”
Smith said he ended up flying C-5s out of Dover, Del. That’s where he retired and still lives with his wife, Diane.
“When I graduated from high school I got married to Jack,” Diane said. “We went to Panama and spent two years in Panama and then we came back and raised our daughter.
“When I was 45 years old, I got my bachelor of science in nursing. I went as a full-time student and Jack got me through it,” she said.
Diane worked for the state of Delaware for 20 years as a public health nurse. She also did a lot of counseling. “She put up with me for 68 years,” her husband said, including 66 years of marriage.
Asked if she had to use her skills as a nurse to deal with Jack, he was the one who replied. “The answer is yes,” he said, eliciting a smile from his wife. “She was a psyche nurse,” he explained.
“When I was a senior in college, I wanted to get a master’s degree in psyche because I love psychiatric nursing but a job came by with the state, in pediatrics to begin with, which I couldn’t turn down,” she said. Although she went on to other fields, she did get to retire as a psyche nurse. “Some people don’t find that interesting, but I loved it,” she said. “I like counseling.”
Merritt Brown went into the Coast Guard for four years after graduation “and then did what everyone else does – nothing special. I worked for Sears Roebuck and they transferred me out of the state.
“The rest of the time I just wandered around,” he said, laughing. “When you look back sometimes, it would be better if you could say, ‘I developed this’ or ‘I developed that.’ I just developed me.” (His fellow classmates were amused by that.) “I’m satisfied with that.”
Brown now lives by Cape May Court House.”
Asked if he likes to see his old classmates, he said, “I don’t feel so bad about how much I’ve changed when I see how much they’ve changed.” (That also amused his classmates.) “It’s also good to see there are (more) of them so it’s not just two people sitting here.”
Howard Woolley went to work for the City of Ocean City after graduating with the rest of his Class of ’53. He was a custodian at the elementary school and then he went into the lawn care business for 50 years, “plus I worked at Bayside State Prison and I retired from there in ’98 as a stationary engineer. I operated the steam boilers.”
Woolley now lives in Pharr, Texas, eight months a year, but spends his summers in Tuckahoe.
“I’ve been retired for 24 years and I enjoy every minute of it,” he said. “I’m as far south as you can get. I’m only 12 miles from Mexico, eight miles from the Rio Grande (River).”
He said he loves living in Texas, but comes back to Tuckahoe in the summertime because “it’s hot there” and he spends the other months locally while avoiding the cold weather here.
Woolley said he’s been to every reunion. He has good memories “that I won’t state.” He noted while living in Arizona in 1979 he came back for one of his class reunions. “I had a full weekend with this (group) with a little added on,” Woolley said, fondly recalling that memory.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff