L.A. Is My Beat: Mini-Reunion

Click to enlarge this photo of Beverly Hills High School, 1928, Security Pacific National Bank Collection. One year after start of construction. The football field is in the foreground. You can see the infamous oil well to the west and the main school buildings toward the top of the photo.

This Saturday I'm attending a mini-reunion for three different classes of my high school. The classes of 1968 and 1969 have organized a casual get-together at Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills. Our class, the class of 1970 is barging in on this gathering. Last year, the Class of '69 held a similar event, pot-luck, at the park. Within that year, 3 class members who attended the 2015 reunion passed away. It seems we need to meet EVERY year for this very reason.

Beverly Hills High School, 1927, soon after completion of construction. Herald Examiner Collection

Beverly Hills High School was and is a special school. It serves the students of the City of Beverly Hills, a relatively small town. We have four elementary schools, Kindergarten through 8th grade, then 4 years of high school. Many of us have attended school with the same kids since kindergarten. I'm still in contact with a good deal of my old school friends. I was a member of the organizing committee for our 40th high school reunion. We found many old friends through the internet, especially Facebook. You may not like Facebook or social media, but it does have a way of connecting people.

It should be fun to see people from two classes ahead of me. Once you get to be our age, a few years doesn't really make a difference.

Beverly High, 1937. Photo by Herman Schultheis

I look forward to seeing everyone. These are the people that I grew up with. Even if we ALL didn't know each other, we had similar upbringing and the same experiences growing up in our small town. To learn a little bit about the history of Beverly Hills, check out the excellent movie, "100 Years, 100 Stories," by BHHS graduate Phil Savenick (Class of '69). There are video vignettes on the Facebook page for this wonderful love letter to our town on the occasion of it's 100th birthday.