Coraopolis High's Class of 60
Cory60.com
Your Online Class Reunion
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Coraopolis High's Class of 60 Cory60.com Your Online Class Reunion
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| Committee Announces 60th Reunion Plans |
| For details click HERE |
| Can you believe it has been 60 years --- 60 YEARS !! --- since we walked the halls in Coraopolis? In some ways it seems like only a dream, like something that must have been in a different universe. In other ways it seems like just yesterday. Our memories begin before high school. We began in kindergartens at Lincoln, McKinley, or Central, came together at the Junior High, and moved to high school for 10th grade. Memories also extend beyond schools. We had great experiences at the YMCA, at Dravo Pool, and in Scout troops. We played Little League Baseball down at Ewing Field and took part in Summer Camps under Frank Letteri at Coraopolis Park. We played in the woods above town and fished, canoed and even swam in the Ohio River. We grew up in a Norman Rockwell town, our own special kind of Disney World. Kids elsewhere didn't have our advantages, and, now, kids in Coraopolis no longer have them, either. The photo at right was taken in May 1960 so we are only a few days from graduation. You're probably in this photo. |  |
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Coraopolis Schools exist today only in memory. A decade after we graduated, the schools merged with Neville Island to form the Cornell School District. The high school, junior high and Y are now apartments. Lincoln, Central and McKinley were bulldozed. The hilltop stadium was dismantled. Dravo Pool closed. Scout leaders retired, and no one took over. The Girl Scout Lodge decayed and was removed. Coraopolis Park is gone. Our woods are still there but kids are home playing video games and watching tv. The only vestige of our era to remain is the Little League Program, but participation is way down as baseball has lost popularity. Even The Coraopolis Record and Pittsburgh Press, which recorded our successes great and small, are out of business. So as we gather for our 50th Reunion, we represent more than a long ago bunch of kids back to share memories. We represent the Golden Era of a town at the peak of its prosperity. Those football and basketball championships, FHA national presidency, science fair and spelling bee state titles, and other successes, were more than milestones in our own lives. They were the high water marks of a town and a school system that have not matched them since and are not likely to ever again. |
| For most of us, our YMCA was as much a part of growing up as our schools. We learned to swim, dance, bowl and play pool, tennis and ping pong there. Those of us who were not in Scouts went to Y summer camp. Boys lifted weights there. Many of us participated with our Dads in Indian Guides. Junior high romances started at Friday night dances there. Those of us wanting to work as lifeguards at area pools got our lifesaving certification through the Y. Football Mothers hosted a spaghetti luncheon there every Thursday during Septembers and Octobers. We learned archery and skeet shooting there. The annual YMCA Fair was one of the major events of the year. The junior high intramural basketball program kept a pool of boys playing, many of whom went on to play on the high school teams. The Y's swim team was one of the best in Western Pennsylvania and its grade school boys gymnastics team won numerous awards. We had no idea how lucky we were. |  |
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We went to a small school in a small town where everyone knew everyone by first name. Yet there were so many things going on, and we all gravitated to different activities. We read a story in Sophomore English about the blind men and the elephant, where six blind men came upon an elephant and each tried to explain it. One thought it like a wall, one like a rope, one like a tree, one like a hose, one like a curtain and one like a broad leather sofa. Each man came away with a very true idea, but no one saw the whole picture. We were kind of like that. Some of us think back on the sports programs, some the band, some the advanced classes, some the Scout troops, some the Y, and so on. We all had great times, but our views of the elephant are quite different. One of our goals with this website will be to tie all these different threads together. That won't be easy. We did not carry around little cameras and photos of some of our activities may be hard to locate. We've also noticed that names have changed. We now have Jay, Tony, Jacqie, Corey, Margie and others as people have shifted to middle names or nicknames. |
We use only first names and most photos are uncaptioned. That is because search engines will index these pages. If someone typed your name into a search box, information from this website might come up. People also search for images and your names would be attached. For those of you with privacy concerns, we will avoid this by not using last names. A committee planned this website but it is not theirs. It is yours. We need your memories on our message board, your photos in the photo section. So enjoy browsing through our pages, looking at the photos, chuckling or wiping away a tear over the memories, and reading the text and message board. Then post your thoughts, and send us your photos. These pages were planned by the Reunion Committee and programmed by Danny Omlor with Dreamweaver software on a MacBook Pro and is hosted by Network Solutions. The site is administered by Danny. Anyone with photos should email them to Danny at CoraopolisRecord@aol.com. If you don't own a scanner, Kinko's or a similar outlet can scan and email them for you. Any questions about the site should be directed to Danny at CoraopolisRecord@aol.com. |
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| Please email your photographs to CoraopolisRecord@aol.com. We especially need photos of the Friday Night Club, various scenes at the YMCA such as pool, pingpong, swimming, weight lifting and the gym; junior high football, basketball and cheerleading; classroom scenes in elementary or junior high; students' cars; school holiday decorations such as Christmas trees; and field trips. We need photos with recognizable faces. Do not send original photos by mail; they are too valuable and it is too risky. |