SLHS and SPX alumni traveled from Oklahoma, New Mexico, Michigan, Vermont, New Jersey, Florida, Minnesota and Virginia, as well as from around the state, to continue old friendships, strike up new conversations, drive around to see the houses they grew up in, tour their alma maters and look back on their formative high school years.

For some, this was their first Saranac Lake high school reunion in the 50 years since they graduated. For others, it was their first in decades. The joint classes from the two high schools have held reunions every five years since graduation.

At one table, three SLHS graduates sat — Betsy Selvester and her husband Wayne; Ray Tuthill; and Patti Nichols. They had traveled from Vermont, Syracuse and Tupper Lake.

Tuthill and Nichols dated for a couple years in high school. Nichols said she brought a class photo Tuthill signed with a love note back in the day. They were all sharing laughs about their lives since graduating.

The classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X talk, laugh, catch up and reminisce at their 50th class reunion on Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

“What’s great about the reunions is that even when we were in school, people that I didn’t hang out with, now I got to know them,” Nichols said. “It’s actually a closer relationship now.”

She said the clique walls of high school had broken down over the years.

“We’ve all gone through the hardships of life,” Betsy said. “Now, we’re just thrilled that we can be here. We know how lucky we are to be here.”

Betsy said she’s only missed one SLHS reunion — for her best friend’s wedding.

Jane Wolfe (Osborn) created a tribute display for their classmates who have died and are missed, painting their faces next to their yearbook photos.

The classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X talk, laugh, catch up and reminisce at their 50th class reunion in the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge. (Provided photo — John Linfoot)

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced the Class of 1970 to postpone their big 50th year gathering plans, but reunion organizers merged their celebration with the Class of 1971. These years represent the final two graduating classes from the St. Pius X Catholic High School, which closed in 1971 after operating as a high school since 1959.

Ed Girard, an SPX graduate, said classes from the two high schools in Saranac Lake have always been very connected. Though they attended different schools, they all met at town hall dances and knew each other from around town.

Girard said he’s not on social media, so he was glad to catch up on life with all his former classmates. He lives in New Mexico now and hadn’t seen some of his classmates since their 20th year reunion.

Asked why he returned for this reunion, he said, “Because I’m still here!”

He said he was one of the last altar boys at SPX before it closed.

The Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X Class 1970 pose with teachers Glenn Pond and Reed Korrow at dinner during their 50th class reunion on Saturday. (Provided photo — John Linfoot)

“The nuns brought out the best in you,” he said.

Girard admitted he was an “underachiever” at St. Pius X. That was, until “Sister Thaddeus” got him into shape. He said she respected him, he respected her, and he responded well to that. With her stern encouragement, he got on the honor roll in his last year.

Girard only learned the sister’s real name on Sunday — Lorna Spearman. Spearman died last year, but this weekend, her now-grown-up students reminisced on the fascinating character she was to them, and how she influenced their lives.

Several students said she told them, “I’m not going to let you waste your talent.”

Teaching eighth-grade boys, she was pretty strict with their shenanigans. Doreen Tobin said she’d often be heard threatening them — “To the moon!”

SLCHS Red Fox Class of 1970 (Provided photo — Rose Linfoot)

“She was tough, but she was fun and fair,” Tobin said.

She remembered Sister Thaddeus hiking up her skirt and playing baseball in the field at recess.

On Saturday, Glenn Pond, a former biology teacher at SLHS, attended the dinner at the Red Fox. Rose Linfoot Anderson said she got goosebumps when student after student stood up to thank him for the life lessons he gave them.

She said Pond lit a fire under them, even when they didn’t believe in themselves.

“Some guidance counselors told a lot of people ‘You won’t amount to much.’ These people did amount to much!” Linfoot Anderson said.

The classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X talk, laugh, catch up and reminisce at their 50th class reunion in the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge. (Provided photo — John Linfoot)

Girard said he didn’t want to leave Saranac Lake, and ever since he did, he’s always wanted to come back.

He still accidentally turns onto Edwards Street, where his home was, out of reflex.

“I was crying because McKenzie’s Grille burned down just before we got here,” Girard said.

Girard’s 70th birthday is today, so he said he was going to get some Donnelly’s ice cream, as he has every day since he got back into town.

Judy Starkey-Hitchcock lives in Oklahoma with her husband Jim Hitchcock and was extremely grateful for her classmates, who had helped fund their way here.

Judy attended her first SLHS reunion in 2015. It was a whirlwind experience. She said she got to know many of her classmates from 1970 better. As adults, she said, “people are more relaxed.” When they were teenagers, they had a lot to prove to each other. Now, they could truly enjoy each other’s company. It was like becoming friends all over again, she said, and now that they were a bit older, they had a lot more to talk about.

Judy immediately knew she wanted to come back again. They started making plans. But when gas prices shot up earlier this year, a return visit towing a camper over 1,000 miles looked impossible.

“I just kind of settled it in my head that I wasn’t coming,” Judy said.

It was disappointing, she said. But she couldn’t afford to come. She said she has regular dialysis treatments, which cost her and Jim thousands of dollars. Still, she knew as everyone gets older, it gets harder and harder to make the trips to reunite.

A group of her fellow alumni each pitched in donations and pooled enough money to pay her way back to her home, and Judy said she was shocked by their generosity. She and Jim are camping here for a bit, enjoying the mountains again.

“It’s funny, because living here, I wanted to get out of here. You know, you want to see things,” Judy said. “And after I got out, I wanted to come back home.”

Judy said she’s missed the long-needle pine trees of the Adirondacks and fondly recalled the cold days, when everyone’s hair would get covered in ice waiting for the bus outside of Norman’s General Store in Bloomingdale. The girls, who had slight facial hair they never called attention to, grew ice mustaches, she said.

What she didn’t really miss was school itself. When SLHS moved to a new building in 1971, she said it felt like a prison. She tried to get out of school any way she could.

Judy said teachers had a special vendetta against gum chewing. One teacher kept a “gum jar” — holding years of festering confiscated gum wads. Once, she was caught, and when she spit her illicit chew into the jar, the teacher made sure she’d catch a whiff of the collection of old gum congealing in the jar.

Another teacher, she said, would make students stick their gum on their nose if they were caught. She recalled chewing at a ceremony when the teacher approached and asked, “Are you chewing gum?”

He caught her — or did he?

“I swallowed that thing so fast,” Judy said. “‘Nope!’ That was not going to happen to me.”

Judy said she was thankful everyone wore name tags — they all looked familiar, but different than when they were high school graduates.

Linfoot Anderson said a dog chewed up her yearbooks. She was touched when Betsy brought her a brand-new, 50 year old yearbook and passed it around to have everyone sign it.

“It was spontaneous. Nothing was forced. It was all done with class,” Linfoot Anderson said.

Linfoot Anderson said even the spouses loved the reunion. They’re often third-wheeling at reunions, but they told her they felt embraced by the local classes.

Dick Hurteau tended bar at the Moose Lodge all weekend and was glad the club could be home base for the reunion.

“I enjoyed this one here more than my 50th reunion,” Hurteau said.

Linfoot Anderson said at the SLHS and SPX 10-year reunion, everyone was bragging about their lives.

“Now, we’ve all been down the ugly part of life,” she said. “The school of hard knocks and whatnot.”

Linfoot Anderson the organizing committee got a lot of volunteers for the next reunion already.

Tuthill said they’re all ready for the 2025 reunion.

“Lord knows if we’ll be walking,” he said. “There may be a lot of wheelchair races.”

But as the former classmates shouted, laughed, hugged and closed down every bar they met at, it seemed the youthful energy of the SLHS and SPX classes of 1970 and 1971 was still strong as ever.

The classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X talk, laugh, catch up and reminisce at their 50th class reunion in the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge. (Provided photo — John Linfoot)

The classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X talk, laugh, catch up and reminisce at their 50th class reunion in the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge. (Provided photo — John Linfoot)

The classes of 1970 and 1971 from Saranac Lake High School and St. Pius X talk, laugh, catch up and reminisce at their 50th class reunion in the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge. (Provided photo — John Linfoot)