Class of ’57 reunites

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This article was published 22/09/2022 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sixty-five years has passed since the Steinbach Collegiate Institute class of 1957 celebrated graduation, and for those gathered in the Smitty’s banquet room on Friday, this too was a big celebration.

“We like to get together and share,” reunion organizer Ernie Peters said.

Thirteen of the original 30 grads were able to celebrate. Peters said nine have died and eight were unable to make it.

Life was very different when they graduated on May 4, 1957. Elvis Presley was gyrating on the top of the charts with All Shook Up. Not far behind was The Diamonds with Little Darlin’ and Perry Como’s Round and Round.

Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was still in office, although only a month away from being replaced by a Conservative wave led by John Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker made an appearance in Steinbach less than two weeks after the graduation was held.

Douglas Campbell was the Manitoba premier.

As advertised in the May 10, 1957 issue of The Carillon, the same issue that reported on the grad, one could acquire a sports coat for $19.50 or slacks for $6.95 at Regier Clothing.

Modern Food Centre advertised coffee for 95 cents per pound and Nestle Quik powder went for 57 cents per tin.

At Reimer’s Food farmer sausage could be bought for 65 cents per pound, and farmers were considering the brand new Allis Chalmers D14 tractor from Neufeld Farm Equipment.

It was a different time and Peters said he recalls the physical nature of recess.

“We had no gym,” he said. “All we did was go out in recesses. In winter we played football, in summer we played baseball.”

He recalled playing hockey against other communities on the outdoor rink, there being no indoor arena at the time.

Music also played a big role in school with choirs and quartets taking centre stage. Peters said they didn’t have the same freedoms of kids today.

“We weren’t able to go to a pool hall, we weren’t able to dance, we weren’t able to do many of the things that are kind of mainstream now,” he said. “That was a different era.”

Travis Reimer said events like this reunion are precious.

“I’m finding the older I get, the more the early connections start to mean to me,” he said.

Reimer said he remembers 1957 as a simpler time.

“I think life was fairly carefree at that point,” he said. “We had our high ideals and we were getting ready to conquer the world.”

He said some things we take for granted today simply weren’t priorities.

“If I wanted to go and watch TV we’d go to Alf’s Radio & Electric and he would have TV in the display window,” he said.

Glen Klassen was the valedictorian for the class which also included among its graduates, Jake Epp, who would go on to be Provencher MP.

The youngest in the class, Klassen read from his speech he delivered 65 years ago.

“We must not place undo importance on material and physical areas in our lives, but must think in terms of the world and eternity,” he said.

For him the years that have gone by don’t really change the people that so long ago stood there ready to conquer the world.

“I feel the same way I did 65 years ago,” he said. “I’m still the same person, I’m still interested in the same things.”

“It’s nice to see colleagues here,” he added.