I have recently come to the realization - with reasonable existential horror - that this spring marks a decade since my high school graduation. Which may not seem like much, but I distinctly remember watching the John Cusack film "Grosse Pointe Blank" around graduation time and thinking to myself, “A 10-year high school reunion? They’re all so old!”
Oh, how the tables have turned.
As far as I am aware, the Hart High School Class of 2016 has not planned a 10-year reunion, or at the very least, I haven’t gotten an invite for one (not that I wouldn’t come up with an excuse to ditch it). To be fair, I think that 10 years is not a long enough time to want to reconnect with anyone, especially since social media makes it pretty easy to keep up with what everyone is doing. Of course, this was not always the case. Older generations took great pains in organizing often - sometimes yearly - events to gather their classmates.
Our postcard this week features a snapshot of early 20th-century sporting events, namely a “Track Meet. Ludington vs Shelby. 5-13-11” as it was captioned by local and prolific photographer Harlo Elliott.
The track meet shows a portion of the route, which leads through a sunny countryside field, with farmland fading into the distance. Cordoned off to the left are bleacher seats, crowded with spectators looking away from the camera, anxiously anticipating the arrival of the athletes who are, as of yet, still unseen. Despite the May dating in the caption, many are properly outfitted in buttoned-up Edwardian fashion, with wide-brimmed hats aplenty. From the handful of Shelby pennant flags, it's clear to see their allegiance. In the foreground is a single parked automobile (and we all agreed I’m not going to even attempt to guess the makes and models of old cars, right?). Beside the automobile is the lone attendee who noticed the camera, a young boy in his suit and cap hanging on the roped perimeter of the track.
Judging by the sheer school spirit oozing from the photo, it's no wonder why the sender chose it to carry the content of their message. The card is postmarked May 23, 1911 at 9 p.m. (just 10 days after the original photo was taken) by the Shelby Post Office. It is addressed to “Miss Ada Kellogg” of Ferry.
“Dear Ada,
We (program committee for alumni banquet) decided you would be just the one for a toast – ‘Alumnus Return.’ How about it? Have you the time? Let us know.
Agnes Anderson”
Agnes Anderson (born in 1892) was an alumnus of the Shelby High School Class of 1910, and seeing that she was already helping plan alumni events one year post-grad really illustrates the social significance of these events. Agnes didn’t stick around town too long, as by 1917 she married Otto Beckstrand and moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he served as a Lutheran pastor and she raised five children. Agnes died in 1987.
The recipient of Agnes’ 1911 postcard, Ada Kellogg, was a member of Shelby’s Class of 1908, making her a classmate of Agnes, though two grades ahead. Ada stayed in the Oceana County area and had an active list of commitments throughout her life. She was a teacher and principal for nearly two decades - both locally and statewide - as well as an insurance saleswoman and a community correspondent for various papers and magazines. Her final gig before retirement was at the Oceana County Bureau for Social Aid. Ada married G. Leslie Hunter in 1921, and they were together until his death in 1944. She died in 1972 at the age of 82.
With an education and resume such as that, I can understand why, even three years after her graduation, Ada was being singled out for a toast at an alumni banquet. Part of me suspects that this wouldn’t be the last time she was asked.
Whether or not you enjoyed the experience, high school is an undeniably significant time in our lives, and our classmates take up far more real estate in our minds than we’d like to admit. This snapshot of Agnes and Ada portrays this dynamic and is not too different from the dispersal of graduating classes as experienced in later generations. Some of us stay where we grew up, and some cross state borders to find different pastures. Some of us take on every professional opportunity that comes our way, staying busy, while others revel in quiet, domestic lives. Sometimes it’s a little of both or skipping around that spectrum at different stages in our lives.
What stays the same is that you’ll eventually get a postcard (or in the case of the 2020s, a Facebook message) inviting you to talk all about how the intervening years have treated you at a class reunion. Though, to be fair, no matter how fun your last high school reunion was, it probably didn’t have as good of a soundtrack as "Grosse Point Blank."
