Boise High School's Class of 1958 - one of a kind

When the Boise High School Class of 1958 gets together for its 50th reunion this week, don't expect the usual cocktail party chit-chat.

When it comes to the Class of '58, usual doesn't usually apply.

It was the last class to graduate when Boise had only one high school. It was so crowded that sophomores spent an extra year in junior high. The second high school, Borah, opened that September.

"We didn't care about Borah because we were graduating," '58 alumna Nancy Catalano said. "It was a bigger deal for the class after us."

Especially in sports. Boise High's athletic dominance ended when the Borah Lions proved to be almost unbeatable.

It was one of the the first classes to embrace rock 'n' roll. The year's big hits included classics by Elvis, Chuck Berry and the Everly Brothers.

Classmates were torn between rock 'n' roll and their parents' big-band music. Their favorite local band: Dick Cates and the Chessmen, one of Boise's first rock groups.

Interesting characters? The class of '58 included future admirals, a general, a rocket scientist and a brothel madam. (Before a judge sentenced her to spend time in a convent and she switched to the direct-advertising business, Marlene Baldwin spent 15 years as San Francisco's most famous madam.)

The Class of '58 may not have been born to raise hell, but it definitely raised hackles. Students nailed the chemistry room door shut with the teacher inside and held the senior sneak to end senior sneaks - literally. Most of the boys who attended spent the night in the McCall jail for drinking, the National Guard was called out, and the Class of '59's senior sneak was canceled.

Most of the 600 graduates of 1958, however, turned out to be solid citizens. They included authors, architects, business leaders, scientists, doctors, lawyers and Peace Corps volunteers. Rocket scientist Gary Bennett credits his Boise High education in part for success in college and a NASA career that included work on two Voyager spacecrafts.

Class members will spend Friday and this weekend touring the new Boise High School, golfing, dancing to '50s and '60s music and reminiscing about the town where they grew up - a place that bore little resemblance to the Boise of today.

"We never locked our doors unless we were leaving town," class member Carolle Skov said.

Boise's population was 35,000, about one-sixth of what it is now. Pre-teens crisscrossed the city on gas-powered mini-scooters called Doodlebugs. High school students who could afford them had hot rods.

"We parked on a vacant lot where the football field is now," Kent Averill said. "Everyone lowered their hot rods until they were the width of a cigarette pack off of the ground."

With no field at the school, the football team practiced at "Public School Field," now East Junior High's athletic field.

For fun, the class of '58 went to the Howdy Pardner, Roundhouse and Murray's drive-ins, skied at Bogus Basin (dirt road, no chairlifts), went to Quinn's Lounge for the only pizza in town, dated at Downtown or drive-in movie theaters and swam in the river, gravel ponds or at Sandy Point.

"It was Rocky Point then," Sandy Richmond said. "They brought the sand in later."

They danced at the Miramar Ballroom (where Sharon Mullins got Louis Armstrong's autograph), the Columbian Club or a teen club at Gowen Field.

"Our parents didn't like us going to Gowen Field, though," Karen Jennings said. "It was so far out of town."

Which Boise was better - the city we know today or the town where the annual release of the new models at the Downtown car dealerships was considered major entertainment?

"Well, there's more diversity now," Skov said.

"And more cultural opportunities," Catalano added.

"But that was a special time," Mullins said, her classmates nodding agreement "There was an innocence about it, and a closeness we all had from going to the only high school in town. Everybody knew everybody. We were close then, and we still are."

Tim Woodward: 377-6409