We are Worthington High School’s (WHS) Class of 1957. There were 152 of us. Our home town is a farming community of ~10,000 located in Nobles County on the plains of southwestern Minnesota, 10 miles from Iowa and 40 miles from South Dakota. Nobles County’s soil is rich, there were hundreds of family farms in the fifties. Worthington is the county seat and the Turkey Capitol of the world. On Turkey Day, an annual festival, a flock of turkeys led the parade down Main Street. In those years, our town was dotted with stores named for their owners: Ahlf’s Drug, Wolf’s Department store, Rickbeil Hardware, Ehler’s Steak House, Albinson Lumber and Goldstrand Grocery. Many of the owners’ children were our classmates. There were two chain stores in town, A & W Drive-in and Ben Franklin.Dairy Queen arrived in our teen years. Worthington had two indoor theatres, a drive-in theatre, a roller skating rink, Lake Okabena, several city parks…one with a bandstand, outdoor ice skating rinks, two pool halls and one municipal liquor store.

Our fathers worked on farms, in clinics and offices, on the road and at Swanson’s Chicken factory. They raised turkeys and corn and ran businesses. Some worked as carpenters, teachers, mechanics, maintenance men, engineers, lawyers, salesmen, grocers, and gas station owners. Most of our mothers were housewives. Typically, we didn’t have TV until we were teenagers. Most of us had one car per family. There may not have been a dishwasher anywhere in town. Gas was 25 cents a gallon and bread was 25 cents a loaf. Cakes were made from scratch.

At the beginning of the 1956-7 school year, there were a total of 2,888 public and parochial students in Worthington. We were the last class to graduate from the old high school, which was built in 1909. Our high school had most activities available in the fifties including band, choir, boys sports (football, basketball, track, baseball, golf, wrestling), girls sports (GAA, tumbling), Future Farmers of America, Future Homemakers of America, debate, a monthly paper, junior and senior class plays and numerous clubs. At some point in our school lives, a free period was integrated into the school calendar for students whose parents chose to have them walk to their church for study. Some of us took busses to school, many went to country or parochial school until 9^th grade. Even when the prairie winds blew fiercely during blizzards and built up horrendous snowdrifts, school almost never closed. Sometimes school was nearly empty following a blizzard because the busses weren’t running.

Our education consisted of the three R’s and sciences along with other options such as speech, journalism, home economics, Latin and art. Favorite teachers included “Baldy” Nelson and Milt Osterberg, coaches; Joan and William Boyce, art teachers; Arnold Sexe, science; Virginia Hart, phy ed.; Donald Jenson, Math; Gerald Niemeyer, band and Kermit Otteson, choir. An ageless, rigid spinster, Miss Wick, a legendary English teacher, is remembered by every one of her students. Not one photo of her appeared in the yearbooks. Female teachers were mostly either widowed Mrs’ or single. There was no such thing as a pregnant teacher. WHS started a wrestling program and hired Coach Ron Malcolm our senior year, the third year of the sport. Malcolm went on to HS state wrestling history when he successfully coached Anoka (Minnesota) wrestlers to several state championships.

Our schools were drug-free, we did learn about cocaine in biology class. We never locked our lockers, but a series of thefts vexed us for a time in our junior year. We had strict dress codes in high school. The year after we graduated, eight sophomore girls wore slacks to school in defiance of the non-slacks rule, they were sent home to change. The rule allowed slacks to be worn only for athletic events (including Fridays) and in very cold weather. Jeans were not allowed under any circumstances. The rebellion was precipitated by the school’s cheerleader uniforms: slacks. Just prior to graduation, our class staged a rebellion as well. One of our classmates had married and was pregnant and our principal, Arnold Sanderson, stated she could not participate in the graduation ceremony. Our entire class attended a meeting where our class president Joel Goldstrand, and the principal led discussion. Speaking for the class, Joel stated that none of us would go through graduation if she were not allowed to be with us. The principal relented. Graduation went on as planned.

Some of the highlights of student honors and activities include the following. Carolyn Mork was Valedictorian, whose grade point average was 95.45. Wanda Kuhl was a close second as Salutatorian with a 95.22. Darlene Hodges and Daryl Roetzel represented WHS at Girls and Boys’ State, mock governments at city, county and state level. Darlene shared words of a speaker she heard: “If ever the world faced a time of decision, the time is now and the decision is yours...All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Bob Pfeil was selected to sing at an FFA convention in Kansas City. Our yearbook pictures him at the convention getting Rosemary Clooney’s autograph. Gary Seidel played the role of principal on the school’s first Student Government Day. The Worthington Daily Globe wrote an article about the event, the yearbook shows Gary with his feet on a desk. Esther Martin was honored as the DAR Good Citizen. Richard Saxon was chosen the year’s Future Farmers of America Chapter Star Farmer. Mary Lou Deuth was selected Homemaker of Tomorrow. Dave Gardner won a national prize from the National High School Poetry Association for his poem, “World Crisis”. Three prize winning essays on the City Charter revision were published in the Globe. The authors were Dorothy Eggleston, Ann Hubert and Marlene Bjerkesett. Janet Striepe and Peg Petersen were yearbook co-editors. Gwen Watts was Editor-in-chief of the school paper the W Hi Star and Sonnie Albinson did art work including cutting wood blocks for illustrations. Our senior royalty were: Football, Sheryl Strom and Larry McKeever; Basketball, Patsy Spieker and Dick Saxon; and Track, Jane Thompson. Senior cheerleaders were Margie Thiner, Marilyn Roberts and Dorothy Eggleston. John Willemssen was selected for the all-state football team.

Our teen hangouts were the A & W in the summer and Bill’s Confectionery (“Arnold’s”) year round. Those of us lucky to have jobs at those hangouts found the work and socializing great fun. Other jobs included corn de-tassling, delivering newspapers, and working at Swanson’s chicken factory.

We played simply in the fifties. We went to summer softball games and band concerts at Chautaqua Park; bicycled downtown, around the lake and into the country: went fishing and water skiing: took and taught Red Cross swimming lessons at Chautaqua Park: went roller skating; played tennis and softball; attended high school games and dances and participated in church youth groups. Rob Kramer was well known for his dancing skills. The “Y” was also a gathering place. The YMCA held activities in a church until our high school years when a new “Y” was built. We cruised around town in cars when we could get a vehicle. A hot rod club, “The Lobes” was formed by some of the boys who liked to work on motors.

Rock and roll was born in our time. We loved dancing the Lindy “rocking around the clock”. In that time, Elvis Presley became a big star. The October, 1956 Hit Parade listed the three top tunes as: 1) “Don’t be cruel” by Elvis Presley; 2)”Canadian Sunset” by Eddie Heywood, and 3) “Tonight you Belong to Me” by Patience and Prudence.

We wandered around safely and grew up without fear. In Worthington, if you took a ride on the back of a motorcycle, someone would see you and call your mother to ask if she knew what you were doing. We were bold, shy, quiet, loud, serious, playful, friendly, goofy, athletic, klutzy, devilish, angelic. Today, as mostly-retired senior citizens, we have come to appreciate our diversity. We value every classmates’ life and individuality as well as our Worthington heritage.

We grew up in a time of nuclear attack paranoia. Newspapers wrote about families building personal bomb shelters and keeping a stock of food and water in case of Communist attack. Some of our class volunteered to do watches for the Ground Observer Corps, a 1950’s version of air defense. The watches were done on the roof of the “Y”. Vance Huntsinger, Norm Grunstad and Sandie Heyl were three of many who volunteered. It was a time of the infamous McCarthy hearings, a milder version of the Salem Witchcraft trials. Our senior year was a presidential election year. The November issue of the W Hi Star encouraged students to get their parents to vote. It had a two-page spread on the candidates, Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. A mock election was held. The students elected Ike and voted for a municipal pool.

The senior edition of the W Hi Star was produced by and for the graduating class. For the most part it was light, humorous, and historical. Doug Fiola wrote a letter for that edition that rings melodic through the decades. Somewhat prophetic, his message underlines the milestone we had reached. Doug spoke of our lives at the time and in the future. He used a river as a metaphor and spoke of the beginning and growth of a river as brooks travel, bend and turn, meet obstructions and pass them. He noted that each of us was put on this world for a purpose, and each has a mission. He spoke of our journey and that we seniors had arrived at a great curve in the stream. He summarized: