Before 1961, there was no Old Rochester Regional High School. Tri-Town residents upon completing the eighth grade were separated and shipped off to various schools in the area.
“The first half of the alphabet went to Mattapoisett Center, the second half went to Marion … for the ninth grade. For the 10th and 11th grade, we either went to New Bedford High or Wareham High,” Edith Johnson recalled. “So when the (Old Rochester) school opened in ‘61, some of us didn’t even know each other.”
For some, the new regional high school meant reuniting with old friends but regardless of familiar faces, it was a big change for every one of the 75 seniors starting their last year in a brand-new place.
High school is hard under the best of circumstances. Entering as a freshman can feel uncertain and scary; not only are you on the cusp of adulthood and growing up fast, but you have to adapt to a strange environment, one where a lot more is expected of you both academically and interpersonally.
The one comfort given to upperclassmen is that they know what to expect. Seniors rule the school for a simple reason: Every last one has put in their three years to get there. Learning how to find their footing, joining sports teams, getting drivers licenses, experiencing first love and first heartbreak.
It is easy to chuckle at teenage drama from a distance but up close, it gets personal. Something as innocuous as a new building with new people becomes the reality of having to uproot your social life, academic standing, and for Charles Jefferson, an athletic career.
“Originally, we were told that if we wanted to stay where we were, we could. About a week later, they came back and said well, they have changed their mind, or things have happened. If you want to pay your own tuition, you can stay at Wareham. So goodbye Wareham, hello ORR,” Jefferson chuckled.
Quick to make the best out of his new circumstances, Charles joined the football team as its captain. “I was the only starting veteran they had on the team that year. We had half a dozen that played some (junior varsity), but the starters, no, I was the only one.”
They were a new team filled with boys who had lingering attachments to their old schools and the friends they left behind. Practices could be rough with the responsibility of pushing the team falling on Charles’ shoulders.
“They only gave us six games that year … most sportscasters and whatnot had us as underdogs … we ended up (winning our first game) 14-6. We went on to beat Nantucket 12-2, Martha’s Vineyard 18-0. We took our first loss against Bourne; we lost to them 8-0. Then we beat Somerset and lost to Falmouth. So all in all, it was a good year.”
The class of ’62 may have only been together for a year, but they’ve stayed in touch since with regular reunions, the most recent being their 55th. Edith Johnson, one of the organizers of the reunions, recalled how it felt to be ORR’s first-ever graduating class.
“I think we thought we were special … you know, being young. We had the first prom. We made the first yearbook,” recalled Johnson.
A lot has changed in the decades since. Not just the staff and the students, but the style as well. In 1962, there was a far different dress code for the students of ORR.
“The boys had to wear bolo ties. The girl’s skirts had to be below their knees. That was standard,” said Johnson, who is most surprised by how fast the years have flown by. “None of us can believe it’s been 60 years because none of us feel 60 years older.”
“We all really got along, which was kind of nice. We were happy to be all back together again,” said Lesley MacFarlane, vice president of the Class of ’62.
None were happier than Jefferson, who was reunited with his future wife, having attended Sippican School together before being sent to separate high schools. “About halfway through the year, I started dating her,” he recalled.
It wasn’t long before Jefferson had made up his mind. “I knew I wanted to marry her before we graduated. That’s how much I’d fallen in love with her,” he said. As the cherry atop this high school sweetheart cake, Jefferson proposed to his girlfriend on Christmas Day. She, of course, said yes.
They weren’t the only ones to find love at ORR.
“He was my date to prom, and I ended up married to him,” MacFarlane reminisced. While she worked on Wall Street as a credit analyst, her husband was across the world in Vietnam.
Jefferson had been similarly drafted, joining the Marines and eventually seeing active duty. “The only thing I asked, I asked the Lord to bring me home safe,” he said.
Home has become a wide range of places for the Class of ’62, some finding their way to Florida or California and others staying closer to home, right here in the Tri-Town area.
Out of the original 75 students, 15 are meeting for a noontime lunch on Saturday, July 23. They will be gathering at Matt’s Blackboard Restaurant in Rochester, with the possibility of a few, long-distance check-ins via phone.
When asked what wisdom she’d impart, MacFarlane took a moment to gather her thoughts.
“Embrace what brings you joy,” she said. “There’s so much going on in the world right now, for better or for worse, y’know, and so it’s a day at a time. There’s no definite answer, but just… reach out, see what feels good.”
By Jack MC Staier