For Pollman, class of '43 and one of the many THS alumni returning to town next week for the All School Reunion, memories of his days as a youngster in Telluride include plunging into Cornet Creek and catching fish to bring to his uncle's cabin above old Ophir.
Jean Meacham, class of '51, and his brother Glenn lived alone in the New Sheridan Hotel during their years at THS, playing football, basketball and baseball while holding jobs at the Nugget Theatre and the Telluride Mine to pay for their room and board.
1982 graduate Tony Padilla remembers being able to ride the school bus carrying his .22 rifle on his way to an in-school hunter safety class.
Since then, new school buildings have been built, graduating classes have grown and the passage of time has transformed the Telluride High School experience, but the essence of going to school in a small town remains unchanged. Sharon Albin, class of '64 and member of the Telluride All School Reunion Committee, perhaps put it best: "It's about close ties between families and friends. It's not about who has what, it's about the caring and concern offered by your classmates and community on a daily basis."
Albin and other members of the reunion committee are gearing up for a two-day celebration scheduled to begin Monday and continue throughout the Fourth of July holiday. Nearly 1,100 alumni from all classes have been invited to celebrate Independence Day in Telluride with their classmates as part of the 2006 All School Reunion, which this year is focused on documenting school memories.
Jenny Patterson, Telluride R-1 School District board member and All School Reunion Committee member, says the reunion event will stress the importance of maintaining historical accounts of education in Telluride.
"There is 120 years of very cool school history in the Telluride region," she said. At the turn of the century, for example, there were more than 800 students in the Telluride school district, many of whom received their education in small schoolhouses in now-abandoned neighborhoods like Sam's Town and Leopard Creek. By comparison, there are 600 students in the school district today.
"The emphasis is really to try and hold onto some of that history, because there is a growing concern that much of it will disappear if we don't do anything now to preserve it," said Patterson. "There are so many students now who have walked through these buildings and have no idea what the history here is."
By bringing a large number of alumni together, Patterson and other committee members hope to preserve school history. Throughout the reunion, THS graduate James McCutcheon will be recording oral histories from alumni for a Telluride School Days CD. Any school photographs alumni bring to Monday's registration will be scanned and uploaded onto the Telluride R-1 School District website. Albin has also compiled written memories for a THS Memory Book, which will be given to each registered reunion attendee.
Lifelong Telluride native Twylla Mahoney, who graduated from THS in 1948, has been a part of the All School Reunion Committee for nearly 20 years. "It's a chance to bring people back to Telluride who have been away for a while, and an opportunity to see some of the people you went to school with so long ago," she says of the event.
Mahoney, along with husband Bill "Senior" and other Telluride-based THS alums, have been helping to keep the All School Reunion tradition going throughout much of the last two decades. The last reunion was six years ago. As of Tuesday, there were 110 THS alums registered for this year's event.
While the reunions have been popular events throughout the last decades, Patterson and Mahoney agree that the time is coming to pass the reunion torch.
"With classes being so big these days, I don't think we'll see too many more All School Reunions like this one," Mahoney said, adding that her graduating class of 18 was considered big in the 1940s. Now, classes of nearly 50 are not unheard of.
"We're probably going to start to see the individual classes holding their own reunions," she said, "but it really is nice to bring people from different classes and generations all together."
The reunion committee has partnered with the Telluride Historical Museum to offer special exhibits and events throughout the event, including a special School Days exhibit at the museum. At a special forum on Monday at 2 p.m. at the Michael D. Palm Theatre, sponsored by Idarado Legacy and the museum, Telluride miners and their spouses will talk about life in Telluride before the ski resort existed.
Later that evening, the committee will host dinner and dancing to the Anders Brothers Band at the Conference Center in Mountain Village. The dance is open to the public for $10 per person, and will be reminiscent of the "old fashioned" July 3rd dances that used to take place in Telluride.
On July 4, all THS alumni will have their photo taken on the bleachers in Town Park at 2 p.m. to commemorate this historic occasion.
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