Help Wanted

Please help make this blog active and interesting to classmates and friends. Here are some ways you can make a contribution to our GHS web log.

1. Reply to a post by entering a comment or sending an e-mail to the web log moderator.
2. Draft a message you would like posted (a story, greeting or memory) and e-mail it to the web log moderator.
3. Have experience creating web pages? Send us a link to your personal site or send us a web page template we can use on our GHS web site.
4. Know how to create photo album pages? That would let us post images from our 50th reunion online.
5. Got photo or newspaper clippings from our high school years? We’d like to feature some group photos on our web log.

Please send a message to ghsclassof1960@gmail.com if you think you can help.

Reuniting with Eugene Andes

There are 247 classmates pictured in the 1960 Argus. Some of the people we may remember best are not in it. They transferred to different schools, or their families moved to other communities, or a medical condition prevented them from graduating with us. For those of you who attended the School Street Elementary School, Waterford Street Junior High School, as well as Gardner High School, here is the story of Eugene Andes, who left our class and the end of our Sophomore year, in 1958.

Click on the link http://mysite.verizon.net/vzep7fvn/reunited.htm to read about Gene and his family.

If this feature is interesting to you, or you would like to suggest the name of another person to feature in our "reunited" posts, please send an e-mail message to ghsclassof1960@gmail.com .

Gardner, Then and Now: Part Three

Judy (Heino) Collette lists familiar places to visit in the Gardner area, with some notations:

Dunn State Park (State run) - Much improved since our high school days, with visitor's building, swimming, and walking/hiking paths
Gardner Public Library on corner of Pine and Lynde St. (Beautiful new building. This is a must-see.)
Gardner Museum, Pearl St. (a Gardner library in our high school days)

Furniture Outlets: Rome's, Main St., once Hartshorn's Furniture LaChance, Kraft St. and LaChance, West Broadway

Henry Heywood Hospital (worth a look) currently under new expansion

M.W.C.C. - Mount Wachusett Community College (lovely grounds)
Gardner Municipal Golf Course (well kept grounds)
Greenwood Memorial Swimming Pool (changed, but still here). The outside pool has been reduced to a fenced-in, grass-around cement pool. No more large slide and diving area. The inside pool is pretty much the same, looking a bit old and worn, but happy to announce the greatest swim team in the state and producing Olympic swimmers.

Social/Fraternal Clubs still active in Gardner: Knights of Columbus, Eagle's, Acadien Club, Gardner Fish & Gun Club, Elks Club, Gardner Rabbit Club, American Legion, Napoleon Club, West End Beagle Club, Deer Club, Polish American Country Club. (new lovely location at the beach) and a great location for weddings, parties, and class reunions, etc.

Gardner, Then and Now: Part Two

Thanks to classmate Judy (Heino) Collette, who has listed stores and manufacturing organizations that are still doing business in the Chair City today.

Gardner and local area businesses or stores still here:

Candlepin Bowling Alley (currently owned by Judy's nephew, Brian Favreau)
Valley Florist, Parker St. ..................................Weelen Supply, Main St.
Blue Moon Diner, Main St. ..............................Paramount Cafe, Main St.
John's Sport Shop, Main St. ............................Lynde Hardware, now on Main St.
Bonk's Market, Pine St. ...................................Gardner News, Central St.
Gardner Travel Agency, Central St. ...............Chair City Paint & Wallpaper
Priscilla's Candy, new location corner Main and Lynde St.
Chairtown Lumber ...........................................Gardner Screw Corp.,Union St.
Dow's Shoe Store, West St.
GFA Credit Union (I believe we called it Gardner Franco-American in the old days) with 2 branches in Gardner, 1 each in Hubbardston, Rutland, Fitchburg, Winchendon, Rindge, NH, and soon, Ashburnham.
Chairtown Lumber.......................................... Royal Steam Heater
Gardner Cinema (once the Orpheum) now located at Timpany Plaza with 8 theaters
Heywood Wakefield buildings - no longer a furniture business but most of the buildings have been converted into multi-room apartments.

Gardner Then and Now, Part One

We thought you might like to join us in reflecting on some of the changes to Gardner, Massachusetts over the years.

Do you have a then and now question or another contribution to make to the list? We hope you will join in the conversation about our hometown. Post your own comment (sign-in required) or send an e-mail to ghsclassof1960@gmail.com .

The following list was compiled by classmate Judy (Heino) Collette. Judy looked at the sponsoring ads in our 1960 Argus to determine who is still there and who is not.

Gardner and local area businesses or stores no longer here:
Student Bros. ............ Family Shoe Store ..................... Rousseau's
Cohen's ..................... J.A. LeBlanc ........................... Leslie's Music
Garbose Bros. .......... Savard & Noyes ........... Goodnow Pearsons
Weeds ....................... Sandrof's ................................ Teresa Roark
Rose's (Now Temptation's Boutique) ................... Eino's Pharmacy
McKeogh's Pharmacy ...... City Market ............................. Foodliner
Atter's SuperMarket ...... Hager & Houghton Meat & Grocery Store
Trifilo's (now a Hannaford Supermarket) ................. Woodland Spa
Betty's Flower Shop ........... Westminster Dairy Bar

Only a memory:
Heywood Wakefield (now apartments) ......................... Conant Ball
Denny Mfg. ......................... Lilly Varnish Co. ...... Kuniholm Mfg. Co.
O.W. Siebert Co. .............. S. Bent Bros. ........................Thayer Mfg.
C.H. Hartsorn ............. Gardner Mfg. Co., Inc. ....Gem Crib & Cradle
Collier Keyworth .............. Kelly Bros. .................... O'Hearn Mfg. Co.
Nichols & Stone (currently selling inventory)

Glory to Gardner: 100 Years of Football

Glory To Gardner: 100 Years of Football in The Chair City - by Mike Richard –Written in 1993, this book chronicles the history of football in Gardner dating back to the first team at the high school in 1893. A year-by-year breakdown of the sport includes game scores and scoring plays from every game, the names of every player who ever played and the 336 page book is illustrated with more than 200 photographs. Special sections include biographies on every Gardner High football coach, detailed histories of the two Gardner semi-pro football teams - the Gardner Merchants and Hillside Gymnasts and other tidbits and trivia that you will pick up and read again and again. Whether you strapped on the helmet and pads for the orange and black, or cheered for the Wildcats from the stands at Stone Field, this book is a must for anyone who can still, in their minds, hear the cleats climbing the ramp to the hallowed gridiron.The book is available at $25 & $3 mailing costs by contacting Mike Richard at 101 Temple St. Gardner, MA 01440. Discounts are available if 3 or more copies are purchased. Do you have a question to ask Mike? Send a message to Rich0725@aol.com .

About the Author – Mike Richard has been writing for The Gardner News for the past 30 years. He has written the weekly sports column "The Sporting Goods" since 1985 and has written "The Gardner Scene" for the past five years. Referred to as the "unofficial historian of Gardner," he has researched and produced detailed histories of the Greater Gardner area as well as being the top local authority on Gardner sports. In 1993 he wrote "Glory To Gardner: 100 Years of Football in The Chair City" to coincide with the centennial of football at GHS.
Mike has also been in the education field for the past 30 years, teaching English at Gardner High since 1989 and then five years ago became a guidance counselor at the high school. He is also the founder and chairperson of the Gardner High School Athletic Hall of Fame, of which he is also an inductee. He is also vice president of the Gardner Museum and a member of the Gardner Historical Commission. He and his wife Peggy are the parents of two grown children - Casey and Lindsey.