They came from places like Kansas and Utah. Their hair styles and clothing were obviously different than their younger years, when gas was 31 or 32 cents per gallon, bread was 21 cents a loaf, a first-class postage stamp was five cents, and they listened to songs like “Wooly Bully,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” and “California Dreamin’.”
Yet the timeless tradition known as Panther Pride – and the friendships they formed a half-century ago on Cherry Hill – shined as brightly Saturday night inside West Valley Inn’s Garden Room as when the classes of 1965 and 1966 graduated from Johnston High School.
From the time Vinny Langella greeted guests until DJ and emcee Rick Lyle played the final song, the combined 50th class reunion turned out to be what chairman Dennis Quaranta ’66 called a “great, great night.”
Quaranta was one of 17 former Panthers who made the reunion happen. The night included class photos, raffles, a photo booth, dinner, and dancing.
At the outset of the event, Quaranta requested a moment of silence and led everyone in “paying our respects to those who completed life’s journey before us.”
Saturday’s reunion also included the announcement that some of the night’s proceeds would be donated to the Johnston High School Scholarship Fund.
That was greeted with as much enthusiasm as when it was announced that Deborah Palazzi Devine, who lives in Salina, Kan., and Raymond Godin, who resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, won the prize for the alums who traveled the farthest to get to Saturday’s combined class reunion.
The class of 1965 edged the class of 1966, 58-52, for the night’s most attendees. The program noted: “Thank you to June (Costellese) Albanese for recreating the original Panther logo she designed for Johnston High School many, many moons ago.”
The organizing committee, which was introduced during the combined class reunion, included Carmena Cambio Pezzillo, Virginia Cerullo Bowry, June Costellese Albanese, Marie Ferra Lisi, Marilyn LaFazia Graham, Vincent LaFazia, Patricia Langella Quaranta, Cheryl Macera Carnevale, Gina Mollo Pistachio, Charlotte Pimental Becher, Sylvester “Buddy” Pistacchio, Dennis Quaranta, Dorothy Rapone Whelan, Lorraine Simonelli Iafrate, Judith Van Orden Kenney, and Carol Waterman Ferreira.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here