Alumni of Salem High School Class of 1944 break Guinness World Record

The Salem High School Class of 1944 have set a Guinness World Record for the longest-running reunion. As first reported by the Statesman Journal, Trudie Meier Gavette and Gayle Crozier Priem have taken over the organization of the now annual high school class reunions. The first event was the 10-year reunion in 1954. But after their 75th a few years ago, alumni decided they should hold the events annually.

Last year, they decided to look into the Guinness Book of World Records for longest-running reunion. Gayle’s daughter, Shannon Priem, took the lead on submitting the documents and getting witness statements and other requirements. The news of the world record will be celebrated June 17 at the 79th reunion on the Willamette Sternwheeler in Salem.

Gayle and Shannon Priem joined us along with Trudie Meier Gavette to talk about the recognition and what the tradition means to them.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. The Salem High School Class of 1944 has set a Guinness World Record for the longest-running reunion. As first reported by the Statesman Journal, members of the class held their first reunion at the 10-year point. That was 1954. Next month a handful of classmates are going to be gathering to mark 79 years since their graduation. Gayle Priem and Trudie Meier Gavette are going to be there to celebrate. They join us now along with Gayle’s daughter, Shannon Priem, who led this effort to get the Guinness Book’s recognition. It is an honor to have all three of you on the show.

Trudie Meier Gavette: Thank you. Nice to be here.

Miller: Gayle first. What were your high school years like? What was it like to go to high school in 1942, 1943, 1944?

Gayle Priem: Well, we didn’t have buses of course, so I always came to school when my dad went to work. He’d leave me off on 14th Street. I’d walk from 14th Street to the school early, and the first stop would be the library. That’s where I’d spend a few minutes before school every day.

Miller: Because this was before the school day started, because that was your dad’s schedule.

Priem: That’s correct.

Miller: And you would just read books and… What would you do?

Priem: Well, we’d sit around the table and chat with my girlfriends. We weren’t studying, we were just chatting…

Miller: Just having fun…

Priem: Yes.

Miller: And then the school day would start eventually.

Priem: Yes, yes.

Miller: Trudie, what about you? What was high school like for you?

Trudie Meier Gavette: Oh, I loved it. It was the prime thing of my life.

Miller: Really?

Meier Gavette: Yes. I only went to Salem High for two years, junior and senior year, but I made the most of it.

Miller: What made it one of the most fun things of your life?

Meier Gavette: Oh, the activities, we were able to play basketball and track and just socialize and meet kids. I just love people.

Miller: I mean, that struck me immediately when I met you 20 minutes ago as we were getting into this studio. So that is something… And you’re 96 right now?

Meier Gavette: I’ll be 98 Christmas Day.

Miller: I’m sorry, I stole a year.

Meier Gavette: That’s alright.

Miller:  You’re 97– wait. Christmas Day? You’re a Christmas baby.

Meier Gavette: I’ll be 98 Christmas Day.

Miller: So, back when you were 17, you were also a very social person?

Meier Gavette: Yes.

Miller: Gayle, your high school commencement was just five days before D-Day. How did the war affect your high school years?

Priem: Well, they affected me a lot because at the time I was engaged to my husband. At the time I was just engaged to him. But he was overseas, so I spent most of my evenings, and maybe lots of homeroom classes, writing letters.

Miller: So, when you were in high school, you were engaged to be married.

Priem: Yes.

Miller: And your fiance was already in the service.

Priem: Yes. Yes, he was.

Miller: Where was he serving?

Priem: He was in the Eighth Air Force, and he flew 26 missions in a B-17 over Europe.

Miller: You were a 17- or 18-year-old. You were in high school. At a time when kids now might be thinking about prom or studying for some AP class or just dreaming of just being done with school, you were writing letters to somebody who… Is it fair to say you sometimes worried you would never see him again?

Priem: Well, of course. And I was always lonesome for him. I didn’t date in high school because I was pretty loyal to him. So I didn’t go on any dates or dances like most of the girls did. Had lots of friends, of course, mostly girlfriends. But I spent a lot of my time studying.

Miller: Did he come back?

Priem: Yes, he did.

Miller: And did you get married?

Priem: I sure did. There’s the result. [laughter]

Miller: Oh. Okay, there’s proof.

Priem: The daughter.

Miller: Yeah. And how long were you married?

Priem: We were married for 43 years, and he’s been gone for 35.

Miller: I’ve read in the Statesman Journal, Trudie, that nine boys in your class – or nine young men – they didn’t attend commencement because they had already left for the war. Did others join up even after that?

Meier Gavette: Oh yes. Over 100…

Miller: From your class alone? Three hundred something total people and 100 boys…

Meier Gavette: That’s what I understand. Uh-huh. I wrote to a lot of them. I wasn’t engaged like Gayle. I was still…

Miller: Writing as a friend or a penpal to boys you’d known.

Meier Gavette: Writing. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Miller: And then I understand that you eventually became a nurse cadet. What does that mean?

Meier Gavette: Right out of high school I wanted to go to college – I did go to rush week to Oregon and Oregon State – but my folks couldn’t afford it. We heard about the cadet program at Emanuel Hospital, where they paid you $19 a month to go. So that’s where I went and became a cadet nurse.

Miller: And what did that job entail?

Meier Gavette: Oh, it was wonderful. We folded diapers. We made Q-tips. We had 10 patients…

Miller: You made Q-tips?

[laughter]

Meier Gavette: Q-tips.

Miller: I guess I didn’t know that… I mean, this is just so many things that…

Meier Gavette: We rolled the cotton on a little…

Miller: Life is different.

Meier Gavette: Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh-huh, and folded diapers… yes.

Miller: And you got paid for it instead of paying to go to school.

Meier Gavette: Yeah, and we were considered [inaudible] and got the niceties, the same as the servicemen.

Miller: This reunion, the 79th… Just that number keeps blowing my mind. This is gonna be on the Willamette Queen Sternwheeler – a big boat, in Salem. Where have you normally been meeting up for reunions? I mean, Gayle, where have you gone in previous years?

Priem: Well, for the last few years we’ve always gone to Denny’s restaurant.

Miller: Do you have a private room there? A special room?

Priem: Yes, there’s a small meeting room where we can be by ourselves.

Miller: And why this particular Denny’s? What’s special about it?

Priem: Well I think, because of our age, it’s easy to get into, no steps to climb to get into the restaurant and there’s lots of parking. So it just kind of became the place we would always go to because they always welcomed us.

Miller: Homey. And easy to access.

Priem: Easy to access.

Miller: Do you have a particular order at Denny’s?

Priem: No.

[both laughing]

Miller: Okay.

Priem: Off the menu mostly.

Miller: Right.

Shannon Priem: [in the background] Sandwiches.

Priem: Yeah. Soup and sandwiches.

Miller: And, Trudie, what normally happens at a reunion?

Meier Gavette: Well, I call the manager, Pedro, in January and make a date of when we can come because that’s when he puts his calendar out.

Miller: The very first month of the year, you say, ‘Pedro, we’re gonna be coming in June’?

Meier Gavette: Yeah. Then I call him back about – That’s what he told me: ‘Call me at the first of the year.’

Miller: So to make sure you can reserve the date.

Meier Gavette: Yeah. So then I call him…

Miller: …a little bit sooner to the day.

Meier Gavette: …and keep him in [inaudible] on how many are coming. Uh-huh.

Miller: Does that number change from year to year?

Meier Gavette: Oh, yeah. But lately it’s been pretty well seven of us.

Miller: And then what normally happens at a reunion?

Meier Gavette: Oh, we just, ‘Oh, how are you? How have you been? How many doctors are you going to?’ [laughter] ‘I hope you’re well. You must be, you’re here.’

Miller: You’re here.

Meier Gavette: Uh-huh. And we look at our memorabilia. I usually write a– Well, I have written a poem three times.

Miller: And you have one with you right now. You brought the poem from the 75th reunion.

Meier Gavette: Yeah, I brought the one from the 75th and the 20th and… Yeah.

Miller: Could you read the poem you wrote…

Meier Gavette: Yes.

Miller: …for your 75th? This was four years ago?

Meier Gavette: I’d love to.

Miller: Okay.

Meier Gavette:

As we have matured through the years and face those daily challenges,

we learned from every experience never to doubt for a positive ending.

For our life was given us an upbeat note,

making us responsible, yet shielding us from harm

should we falter and miss the boat.

Maintaining a good sense of humor despite our age,

keeps us on our toes as we add another page.

Our chapters grow in numbers as the years go by,

but when we maintain that balance, we end our book with a smile.

Reading some pages might bring on a frown,

so we hurry to the next one before we put it down.

Life’s lessons need to be heeded as we re-read through the pages,

noting our mistakes and correcting future errors will result in a satisfied ager.

We do have that sense of humor, and we’ve evaluated the contents.

Our Book of Life is full and complete.

The very last page must not end in defeat.

Miller: That’s Trudie Meier Gavette. Gayle’s daughter, Shannon Priem, is with us as well. She is the one who led the effort to get the Guinness Book’s recognition. Shannon, when did you get the idea to seek out this recognition?

Shannon Priem: Well, when they were meeting last time, we all thought, ‘Gee, I wonder how many other classes have gone this far?’ And Trudie said, ‘Well, I bet we have the record.’ I was standing there taking pictures with Capi Lynn. She’s a reporter…

Miller: A reporter for the Statesman Journal.

Shannon Priem: Yeah, a reporter for the Statesman Journal. And she said, ‘I bet we could do this.’ I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ I just said that I was gonna start doing this, and we did. She found me a link, and then I pursued it from there. It’s quite a lengthy process, but you do it all online. Thanks to my mother who keeps literally everything on paper, I could snapshot things of all the different reunions and the emails and the photos.

Miller: Because the Guinness folks, they wanted documentation.

Shannon Priem: They wanted documentation.

Miller: They’re serious.

Shannon Priem: Oh, they were serious. And we spent a lot of time uploading all this stuff. I had to find three witnesses. Capi was one. The registrar at the high school was one because I worked with her to get the data and some of the copies of the documents.

Miller: What about Pedro at Denny’s? It seems like he knows a lot.

Shannon Priem: He did. He was already gone. I asked him, and he had already left. But they said, ‘Oh no, we all know this so we are on it.’ So they gave me a witness statement saying, ‘We love this group. We want them to come back year after year, as long as there’s just one of them left or whatever.’ So I uploaded it all, and then I waited, and then I waited. And I found out that they declined it. Can you believe this?

Miller: No. I actually didn’t realize… [laughter] I didn’t know that happened. I thought the whole reason we were here…

Shannon Priem: Yes. [laughing]

Miller: …is because this has been established. [laughing]

Shannon Priem: No, they put us in the wrong category.

Miller: Okay.

Shannon Priem: I said, ‘No. No, I know this is true. We have a record.’ And they said, ‘Oh, I think you’re in the wrong category. We’re gonna put you in the Longest Running Reunion, unless you’ve had a reunion every single year.’ And I said, ‘No, they don’t do that.’ So, I switched it.

Miller: Oh. So it’s more like…

Shannon Priem: The length of the continuous…

Miller: …continuous ones as opposed to…

Shannon Priem: Yes, continuous.

Miller: …as opposed to the one that is furthest away from the moment, which is what you sought.

Shannon Priem: Right, 1944 to… Yeah.

Miller: Okay. Man they’ve got a lot of categories.

Shannon Priem: Yeah, they had about three, and I just was put in the wrong one. And then they said, ‘Oh, let’s do this.’ Because they really wanted– I could tell they wanted us to win. So we did it. And then within a few days they said, ‘We just need one more set of documents.’ That would be the photo IDs of all of the people that attended the last reunion, which were seven of them. Can you imagine a strange lady calling these elderly people? ‘I want your photo ID.’ It sounded like a scam, right? So my mother – bless her heart – she called them all and said, ‘We just need your driver’s license to prove that you are who you are.’ I got all that, and then I submitted it. Within two days, they said, ‘You are the winner.’

Meier Gavette: And me, ‘and how old you are, not teenagers.’

Shannon Priem: Right. Yes.

Miller: So, what does it mean to you, Gayle, to get this particular recognition? Do you care about the Guinness World Record?

Priem: I think it’s pretty important. I think it’s made our class and all of our students pretty special to be able to stick together for so many years.

Miller: What do you think has made that happen? Why have you stuck together all these years?

Priem: Well, I want to give particular credit to Trudie. Trudie is the one who says, ‘Well, we’re gonna have reunions until there’s only one.’ That’s been her byline for several years.

Miller: Do you mean that Trudie? You’re going to keep going until…

Meier Gavette: Yep.

Miller: …let’s say it’s just you.

Meier Gavette: I’d do it by the Pony Express.

Miller: So how do you get in touch with people? You write... letters to people?

Meier Gavette: I write a poem. I say, ‘Hey, you alums. It’s time to get together!’ [laughter] Or ‘What time is it? It’s reunion time.’ I try to make it funny.

Miller: You said in recent years, there have been seven people going to reunions. Are you expecting seven this year?

Meier Gavette: I think we’re gonna have nine.

Priem: We’re going to have nine this year.

Miller: You brought in two more people who’d been reluctant.

Meier Gavette: Yes. All of a sudden they called me and said they want to come. I said, ‘Well, the reason I haven’t written to you is because you didn’t answer me.’

Miller: So you might hear some new stories this year.

Meier Gavette: Yeah.

Miller: With some young blood.

Shannon Priem: More doctors. [laughter]

Miller: How much do you end up talking about the old days when you get together as opposed to talking about your lives now? I’m curious how much of it is about reminiscing?

Meier Gavette: For me it’s reminiscing. I like to talk about what happened in school. Oh. Do you remember that? You remember that football game? And you remember this? Yes.

Priem: Or the teachers that we had, of course…

Miller: Teachers you liked or didn’t like?

Priem: Mostly the ones we remember, I guess, are the ones we really like, I think.

Miller: Have the two of you been friends? Were you friends in high school?

Priem: We weren’t really close friends in high school.

Meier Gavette: No, I knew Gayle.

Priem: I think the thing that kept us closer all these years is the group of women that got together every month. We had luncheons every month. It was that group of women, who stayed together over the years, over 50 or so years, that really stuck together, that made this group cohesive.

Miller: That was the core. What did those friendships mean to you over the years? To have those long-standing friendships?

Priem: Well, they meant a lot more as we grew older. In high school, you have cliques. You have certain groups who always get together, and sometimes you aren’t even friends. But as the years go by, those cliques disappear, and we’re all peers. We all have the same friendships and feelings in regards towards one another as we grow older.

Miller: I’m curious, Shannon, what’s it been like for you? What have you taken from these long-term friendships and relationships that you’ve seen, that your mom has modeled for you?

Shannon Priem: It gives me hope. I see that, if you do this kind of relationship building, you’re going to live longer because…

Miller: You see a connection…

Shannon Priem: Yeah. I see…

Miller: …between living and friendship in that sense.

Shannon Priem: Yes. Living well and having a bright brain and an enthusiastic heart. I see this year to year. It gives me inspiration to, ‘Oh, I know the secret of living long’ is to model some of these things I see in the elders because the ones that are…

Miller: To stay socially active.

Shannon Priem: Yeah. The ones that are left have happy minds and happy bodies. Despite all the doctors they see, they always do it in a positive spirit.

Miller: Trudie, you’ve been nodding here. Do you think that part of the reason that you’re here is because of friendship?

Meier Gavette: Oh yes. And overwhelmed [by] the award that we’re getting for staying together. I never dreamt in getting them together that we’d get this award. The kids, I call them kids because they are because I’m old, the oldest almost.

Miller: Oh, you mean the ones who are only 96? They’re the kids. [laughter]

Meier Gavette: Yes. Yes. Uh-huh.

Priem: I’m one of the kids. I’m 96. [laughter] Trudie is the elder. She’s 97, going on 98. And there’s one more gal who’s coming, who’s even older than Trudie, six months older than Trudie. We’ll be having her birthday on our reunion, 98 years.

Miller: I’m curious. Trudie first, if you were going to give a speech at this year’s commencement at North Salem… It’s now called North Salem High School. Ten years after you left, a new high school was built. South was built, so yours became North. But what advice would you give to this year’s graduates? The people who are 79 years behind you?

Meier Gavette: I mean, I would tell them that, if you’ve enjoyed your friendships in high school, then continue on as you age. Remember that you were a kid once. Remember your parents, and realize that your parents did a lot to get you where you are. I just want to tell them to enjoy life and be themselves.

Miller: Gayle, what about you? If it were your turn to give a speech to the North Salem High School class of 2023, what would you tell them?

Priem: Well, I think first I would tell them to always maintain a positive attitude.

Miller: How do you do that when life smacks you down? Because it will.

Priem: It’s pretty hard sometimes. But it’s so important to keep your mind on a positive level and not dwell on bad things or the things that are happening around you or in the world because the world is a pretty miserable place right now. But you just have to know that, as a rule, life is good. So you have to make yourself feel that good and relate it to everyone that you meet.

Miller: Gayle Priem, Trudie Meier Gavette and Shannon Priem, thank you so much for coming in, and congratulations.

Meier Gavette: Thank you.

Priem: Thank you.

Shannon Priem: Thank you.

Meier Gavette: Thank you for having us.

Shannon Priem: I plan to beat the record if I live that long.

Miller: Oh, you’re gonna go past whatever record they set.

Shannon Priem: Yeah, I’m thinkin’.

[laughter]

Miller: Wait. Do you go to your own high school reunions?

Shannon Priem: Yeah, we’ve started having them. South Salem High. Yeah.

Miller: Okay.

Shannon Priem: So, we’ll see.

Miller: You have some decades to catch up.

Shannon Priem: A lot.

[laughter]

Miller: Thank you very much to all of you.

Meier Gavette: Thank you. Oh, it’s a pleasure.

Miller: Trudie Meier Gavette and Gayle Priem are members of Salem High School’s class of 1944. They’re going to be gathering next month for their Guinness World Record 79th reunion. Gayle’s daughter, Shannon Priem, led the effort to get the Guinness Book’s recognition.

Contact “Think Out Loud®”

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show, or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.