Reunion welcomes Gulf grads

NEW PORT RICHEY - They span five decades and - despite generational differences that stretch from the flapper to flower child eras - share at least one significant experience.

All graduated from Gulf High School.

Some received their diplomas in the 1920s. For others it was the '30s, the '40s, the '50s or the '60s.

Some 300 people are enjoying time with former classmates as they attend a three-day (it began Friday) reunion for Gulf High Alumni from 1924 to 1967.

"It's kind of fun," said Pete Good, 97, class of 1928 and former captain of the basketball team. "You get to see some of the older people. But there are not too many people in my category."

The reunion takes place every five years, said Beva Karay, the event organizer and a member of the class of 1962. (Think "American Graffiti" and its tagline: "Where were you in '62?")

Among other activities, the returning alumni planned to see school memorabilia; attend a ceremony at Schwettman Education Center, the former Gulf High site; enjoy a banquet and dance; and visit the James E. Grey Preserve.

The reunion is not a profit-making venture, but any money left over after expenses is used to provide scholarships to Gulf High students, Karay said.

The first multiclass reunion happened in 1987, she said.

The idea developed after her father, Wilmon Stevenson, class of 1940, remarked one day, "I sure would like to see all my classmates."

Karay began contacting people she knew in some of Gulf's graduating classes. Bit by bit, she established more contacts, working her way backward through the decades.

Although the event is billed as Gulf High Alumni 1924-67+, the oldest person expected is Good, who now lives in St. Petersburg.

"He's always the first to respond," Karay said. "He's just a sweetheart."

Good said the class of '28 had about a dozen members.

"During the course of the year you got to know everyone pretty good," he said.

Good described the era as "hard times."

"People didn't have too much money and I was one of them," he said.

Good wore hand-me-down clothes throughout his high school years.

After graduation, his mother took him to Tampa, where she bought him his first suit.

"It was tough times, but good times, too," he said.

Gulf High opened in 1922 and the first graduates received their diplomas in 1924.

The last surviving member of that first graduating class, Anna Mae Lee Carlton, died in September. She was 98.

Some alumni from classes beyond 1967 attend, but by the early 1970s the classes are so large that it would be difficult to find a place that could accommodate that many people, Karay said.

Her class in 1962 had 82 graduates.

"We are all close," Karay said, "and had good, clean fun."