Tigard’s class of ’44 — still close after all these years

The Tigard Union High School class of 1944 gathers for its 65th annual reunion

By Geoff Pursinger

The Times, Oct 29, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2

After celebrating their 50th anniversary, it was decided to step the reunions up to every other year, and then, finally, to once a year.

“We had lost quite a few people by that time,” Jensen said. “It just seemed like, ‘Hey, why don’t we meet more often?’”

Now, after 65 years, Jensen said that the reunions might be drawing to a close.

“I don’t know if we’ll have them again, I really don’t,” said Jensen. “It’s getting harder and harder for people to drive, and get together.”

Jensen said that a number of classmates already attend Tigard High School’s all-class reunion, held each summer at Cook Park.

“That might be our goal from now on, is to have people come there and get together,” said Jensen. “I just don’t know. If we could see each other once a year at Cook that’d be helpful.”

Those were the days

The class of 1944 lived in a much different Tigard than most residents would recognize today, Jensen said.

“For one thing, there’s paved roads.”

The Tigard that Jensen remembers was a time before Interstate-5 was even an idea. A time when children could sit on the corner of Main Street and not see a single car drive by.

“In those days, if you did after-school activities you probably didn’t have any way to get home, so you would walk.”

Jensen, who lived in Mapelwood at the time, said that it was not uncommon to walk everywhere you went. “Of course that wasn’t a big deal for us anyway, because there wasn’t any gas or tires (because of World War II).”

Many of the class did their part at home for the war effort, Jensen said.

“There was an old Methodist church across from the high school, and in the tower of the church was a watching station for planes,” Shute said. “You would sit up there with your telescopes and your binoculars and watch for planes.”

On the wall of the outpost was a chart, with the silhouettes of various planes, so that watchers could tell which were friendly and which were part of an invasion force, Shute said.

“I never could tell what any of them were, except for one,” said Shute. “An American P-38. They had plane-spotters for about four years there. I did that during my senior year.”

Jensen also worked as a plane-spotter during high school.

While Shute and Jensen said that they enjoyed their experiences serving their country, Jensen still remembers one important day during her high school experience.

“There were a few Japanese people who went to our school. And then, one day, they just weren’t there anymore,” she said. “They’d been taken away. People just didn’t understand all that.”

After graduation, many of the class joined the service to fight in World War II, including Jensen’s husband who served in the Navy on the U.S.S. Pine Island in the South Pacific.

The class of 1944 did not lose a single man in World War II.

“Of course, in 1944, things were slowly starting to wind down,” Jensen said. “Other classes might have lost folks, but we didn’t.”

But despite the changes that Tigard has seen over the decades, Jensen said that one thing has remained the same.

“They haven’t done a single thing to (Highway) 99W,” she said. “It’s still exactly the same as it was. But there’s a lot more traffic now.”

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2