Paradise alumni gather to share memories

Being almost 100 years old didn't seem to slow down Betty Meyer and it certainly wasn't going to prevent her from attending the Third Annual Student Reunion for the Paradise School, held last weekend at what is now the Paradise Center.

Meyer, who turned 99 on June 12, said nothing was going to stop her from attending the reunion or getting up to the third floor, where the center set up a typical classroom display with photographs, books, team pictures, desks, chairs and other artifacts from the 114-year-old schoolhouse. Mounted on the wall, the classroom even has an old U.S. flag attached to one of the school's earliest wooden flagpoles, complete with bullet holes in the ornamental copper ball.

"I had a lot of good memories here," said Meyer, an Army veteran of World War II who attended Paradise Grade School from 1930 to 1939, including two times in the first grade. Meyer was one of almost 50 Paradise School alumni and about 30 family members to participate in the two-day reunion celebration.

"It went great. We had a good time," said Dave Colyer, the main coordinator for the all-class reunion. "It's a chance to get reacquainted with classmates they haven't seen for years," said Colyer, who estimated there were about 35 people there on Saturday. "There were people in here talking and visiting until after six o'clock on Saturday," he said. With family members and friends, the numbers nearly doubled on Sunday, when for the first time they had a potluck lunch in the school's old gymnasium. Colyer believes there were four first timers at the reunion this year. Some attended both days and many had been to the reunion all three years.

"I think the older our visitors are the more they enjoy time spent together," said Colyer, a Paradise student from 1962 to 1970. It was Colyer who came up with the idea of having a Paradise School reunion. His sister, Jackie Colyer, a student from 1959 to 1967, has helped coordinate the event all three years.

"It was a good day at the center. What took place today is exactly how I would have wrote a script for the day," said Colyer, who is also president of the Paradise Center, a nonprofit organization that houses a community center, visitors center, and an arts center. "Good times and good memories," said Colyer, who was happy that his old school wasn't just sold and leveled, but still has a useful purpose in the community.

One of the popular gatherings of the reunion was the old classroom, where the center staff posted a list of the 126 school teachers from 1907 to 2013 - Shana Smith and Karen Willoughby - the year the school closed. The former students went up and down the list recalling good and bad times with their teachers. "The only time I got mad at a teacher was when a boy hit me and I hit him back," said Meyer, who added that unfortunately the teacher, Ruth Cashow, didn't see the boy strike first and she had to stay after school. In spite of her punishment, Cashow and Catherine Leary were two of her favorite teachers.

Darrell Sorenson, a student from 1965 to 1972, reminisced with Randy Arnold, a Paradise student from 1963 to 1972, about the punishments teacher Elsie Soule used to give out. Once, said Sorenson, she made all the boys in the class - no girls were involved in the punishment - put their noses on a dot in a circle on the blackboard. "It was always a little higher so you had to stand on your tiptoes," said Arnold, who admitted he got into trouble on a regular basis.

Three of the school's final five students attended the reunion for the first time. "It looks a lot different inside, but I like what they did to the classrooms," said Conrad Vanderwall, who was there with his grandfather, Mac Hall, a board member at the Paradise Center. The 20-year-old Vanderwall was a fifth-grader when the school closed 11 years ago. His brother, Brenden, the youngest alumnus at 16, was a first-grader at the time, and Josiah, was in the sixth grade of the final class.

Several at the reunion were able to utilize the center's new handicap elevator lift to get to the third floor, including Karval Pickering, 84, who has a longer association with the school than anyone. She was a student from first grade in 1944 to eighth grade in 1952. She was a substitute cook in 1963 and after that she served as the school clerk for 30 years, followed by several years as chairperson of the school board. "When they closed down the school, it just broke my heart," said Pickering. "I'm so grateful they made this what it is today," she added.

Meyer said her favorite times at school were during Christmas, when Santa came to the school to visit and the kids put on a Christmas play, and at Easter, when they had an Easter egg hunt. "We'd find eggs that were left behind for months," said Meyer, who loved school at Paradise. Kathy Gorham, Meyer's daughter, spent only one year at Paradise, 1950/1951, but she still has fond memories of her time at the school. "The experience going to a small town school is something every child should have. We all seemed to get a long and I don't remember any bullying going on," said Gorham. She has attended the reunion all three years, but especially liked the idea of having the potluck, which enabled people to catch up on each other instead of a fleeting conversation while passing in the halls.

Attendees also had the opportunity to take home some of the school's old sports paraphernalia, such as boys and girls Paradise Bomber basketball, track and cheerleader jerseys, basketballs, soccer balls, a dodgeball and a bowling pin, which Colyer said he found in the box of sports stuff. People could have the sports equipment and clothes for a donation. Laura (Allen) Crawford, who graduated from Paradise in 1971 and now lives in Ronan, donated her cheerleader outfit from the 1969-1970 season. Colyer said they'll purchase a shadow box for it and display it at the center.

Colyer said the old Paradise Bomber basketball uniforms are all gone and they have only a few basketballs left. He said that about 70% of the donations will go to the center; the rest will go toward the next reunion, scheduled for July 6-7, 2024. He said that people at the reunion said they'd like to donate railroad items to the center, as well as items from the old hotel at Paradise. The center received between $750 to $1,000 in donations.

The reunion included a silent auction of about 20 items, including six old post office combination lock panels and two "mystery" bags. Colyer said they hadn't totaled how much they raised in the auction.

Most of the former students reside in the local area, but there were some who traveled from outside of Montana, including Bobbi Jean (Parrish) Oberst, a student from 1945 to 1953, who traveled from Lacey, Wash., for the reunion.

Darlene (Gingery) Jolly, 86, still a Paradise resident, and Bob Proctor, 89, a Missoula resident, were the only two from the Class of 1949. A few of the visitors added their names to an autograph wall just outside the basement. Benita Jo Hanson, a student from 1952 to 1961, was there both days and served as a tour guide speaker in the center's railroad display room.

Jackie Colyer, Dave's sister, said the students were a very close knit group, possibly because the classes were comprised of multiple grades. As a student one of her favorite memories was playing baseball at recess. "Baseball was huge. We weren't allowed to run in school," said Jackie, "but when we hit that door we were off and running to get to our favorite position."