LAYTON — The talk around the lunch table was about rattlesnakes, fishing and general good times.
This group of Davis High graduates, at age 90 and 91, meets each month to socialize and enjoy a good meal together.
On Jan. 10, the group met at Red Lobster in Layton.
While there is nothing unusual about former classmates delighting in each others’ company, this group doesn’t know who will be able to join them each month.
But the members of the graduating class are still quite active and look forward to spending time together.
Clyde Willey of Bountiful joked about why they get together, and said, “The main reason is because we are hungry.”
When the Davis High School class of 1939 held its 60th reunion they made plans to get together for lunch once a month.
“We decided to have lunch on the second Tuesday of each month,” Willey said.
Ken Nessen said he made the suggestion to meet at a different restaurant every month. The members of the group live in both ends of the county but the luncheons are held in the north part of the county.
“Some of the wives are not quite 90. We feel we are doing all right. We used to go as far as Salt Lake, and up to Maddox (in Brigham City), but now we stay close to home,” Willey said.
All were classmates at Davis High in Kaysville at a time when Davis High was the only high school in the county. Most of them boarded the Bamberger train each morning to get to school.
Kaysville resident Rosella Burton Smith grew up in Clinton before Clinton was even a town.
“Clinton is a city now but it sure wasn’t then,” Smith said during a phone conversation.
Although she was looking forward to the event at Red Lobster, she was unable to attend because she had slipped and fallen on black ice the evening before.
“I grew up working in farmers’ fields but it was fun,” Smith said. “It was during the Depression so kids had to get out and help. It was hot so we had to rest for two hours after lunch. My father was a carpenter, they didn’t build homes during the Depression, but he taught us how to work.”
Clyde Page and Wayne Mason have been friends since third grade and they are neighbors now. They remember riding the Bamberger to high school and some of the pranks students used to play.
One classmate talked of a time when the train conductor stood on the steps of the train while it was moving slowly. Someone pushed the conductor off the train and he had to run to get back on it.
Lowell Steed and Ken Nessen grew up close to each other so they used to go hunting and fishing together. Steed came from a family of 13 children. His dad had 10 children when he married Steed’s mother and three more children were added to the family.
“I’m the caboose,” he said. “My oldest half sister was 110 when she died. She married my mother’s brother so she was also my aunt.”
Among Meg Williams’ high school memories is marching in the Posture Parade wearing black satin shorts. She tells stories of her dad packing as many students into his car as he could to take them to the out-of-town ball games.
When she was a senior in high school she was offered a job at the county courthouse in Farmington.
“I told them I had to finish high school but they said they had already talked with the principal and I had enough credits to graduate. I left school early to work,” Williams said.
She joined the Marines and served for three years. Later she married Bus Williams who became the head of the athletic department at Utah State University.
“I’m just enjoying my life even though I am single,” said Williams who is a widow. “I’m a golfing fiend. I love golf.”
Williams and many of her classmates served in the military.
“We are all World War II veterans,” said Willey.
Willey is retired military who also served on the board of directors at America First Credit Union for 38 years.
Mason was in the Air Corps and was post master in Bountiful. And Page served as an Air Corps photographer.
Nessen joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and became a pilot in January 1949. And he served as a pilot instructor.
“I was sitting in the port when the war ended,” said Nessen, who retired from the military in 1965 then worked at Hill Air Force Base and also served 10 years in Germany.
Nessen served three missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and worked in the temple for 17 years.
“Other than that I just goof around,” he said.
Those who attended the January luncheon are: Clyde and Marjorie Page, Ken and Doris Nessen, Clyde and Nora Mae Willey, Wayne and Lucille Mason, Lowell and Marjean Steed and Meg Williams.
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