EVENTS: A China school reunion planned for July 18

photo source: JMG.org

by Bob Bennett

As we all know, history cannot be changed and, sometimes unfortunately, it can be repeated in a negative sense. But most important of all, it must never be forgotten. This is one of the primary goals of our now, solidly in place, China Historical Society, and to follow that path we are going to coordinate an event with our annual meeting on Thursday, July 18. Since this is the 75th anniversary of the opening of the consolidated China School, we intend to hold our meeting at the present Middle School, on Lakeview Drive, and follow that event with a reunion of China students who attended the school from as far back as we can find them up to and including the present day.

While some of the fine points of this plan still need to be worked out, it is receiving strong support from RSU #18. While we realize that folks who switched to the school when it opened in 1949, from the numerous “neighborhood” facilities, are pretty well along in years, we hope there are a few who might be willing to share their memories of this change, which must have been dramatic to say the least.

Even though my personal ties to China only go back 42 years, I know several folks who started their education, as did most of us, at age 5 or 6, here in town in the early 1950s. Richard Dillenbeck, of the first class, is one of those and he has agreed to be the featured speaker for the discussion. If you readers have knowledge of other individuals who might be willing to share their memories and experiences in the new building, please inform them of our plan and have them reserve the date and a time frame of 6 to 6:30 p.m. We also would like to do a tour of the Middle School to allow those earlier “residents” who haven’t been inside for a while and all others to see the huge changes that have occurred in the five room original structure with a kitchen in the basement.

So, in conclusion, we will use The Town Line and social media sites related to China to keep everyone up to date and work to make this a memorable activity; stay tuned!