ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CLASS OF 72 MEYERS HIGH I grew up in Wilkes-Barre,Pa. in the 60s and 70s and attended one of the local neighborhood elementary schools ( Dodson). When it came time, I entered one of the citys three high schools. The three schools were GAR Memorial High School for what was called the Heights and some of Rolling Mill Hill, James Coughlin High School for mostly the north and east ends of the city, and finally , Elmer L. Meyers High School ( where I attended) for the south side and some sections of the Rolling Mill Hill. I went through the standard 6 years ( 7th-12th grades) at Meyers, and graduated in June of 1972. Now if you ask my classmates they will say that they are graduates of the Class of 72 Meyers High. You will also hear others say they were the Class 0f 77, or 02, or whatever and see ads for reunions of the Class of 84 or whatever of Meyers, or GAR, or Coughlin. All of this is at best a polite fiction, or a little white lie. This is because the Wilkes-Barre Area School District was formed LEGALLY in 1971. The plan was to merge the three schools in the fall of 1972. I remember a teacher in one of my classes in the spring of 1972 when I was in 12th grade giving out unused programs from the Thanksgiving Day game between Meyers and their cross town rivals GAR ( it had snowed that day and the game never took place) and telling us to hang on to them as it was the last time there would be separate football teams. Yet today you will STILL find the Meyers Mohawks, GAR Grenadiers, and the Coughlin Crusaders taking the field. What happened??? What happened was Hurricane Agnes coming through less than two weeks after we graduated in 1972, causing the Susquehanna river to burst the dikes and totally flood out the south Wilkes- Barre area and do great damage to Meyers High. The recovery took a couple of years and the plans were put on hold. When to dust settled and the smoke cleared the school board found it had a major problem. The south, which had be the more white collar and affluent area, the home of judges, lawyers, business owners and the like, was now totally changed demographically. The former residents did not return and moved to better locations. This took the political power, the tax base and the quality of students away. Now the school board was stuck. They didnt have the means to actually merge the schools, but LEGALLY they were merged. This is reflected in the fact that in June of 1972, ALL the graduates of the three city high schools received the same diploma showing they graduated from Wilkes-Barre Area NOT from Meyers or GAR or Coughlin . The name of the school was added in smaller print BELOW those words and the seal stated Wilkes-Barre Area School District est. 1971. NONE of these three schools has had the legal right to issue a diploma and graduate ANYONE since 1971. The solution? Just dont tell anyone and hope no one notices. Just keep up the little white lie, the polite fiction that there IS such a thing as a Class of whatever of any of these three schools since 1971. And being the sheep that this area produces, 99% of the people have swallowed this hook, line and sinker. So when I hear someone say, I was Class of 82 Meyers, or I see an ad for the Class of 94 GAR reunion I just remember what Lincoln said, YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 12:24:42 +0000
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