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Golden Reunion Picnic May 19 at Grape Day Park


The Annual EHS 50+ Golden Reunion Picnic will be held on Saturday, May 19, at Grape Day Park. Honoring a tradition that began in 1946, this year the Hosting Class of 1966 will welcome the Class of 1968. The new class will gather with alumni of 50 years and more for an afternoon of shared memories.
This is a unique Escondido High School Alumni event, arguably the only one like it in the country. It is extraordinary that this reunion, put on entirely by volunteers, has continued uninterrupted for over 70 years. What started as a group of ten ladies getting together for lunch in 1946, has grown into a massive event which takes months of planning and has a budget around $30,000.
It has become less formal, but at the same time grander in scale. There are now huge rented tents, scores of tables and chairs, sound systems, a mailing list of some 3000 alumni; and mountains of hot-cooked food. Dozens of volunteers, including current Escondido High School community service students, put this event together.
In the fall of 1946, when Lois Ross Raines (Class of 1898) wished that she and the Escondido High School girls who lived in the Los Angeles area could get together, it is doubtful that she foresaw the amazing legacy that they would create.
That reunion was held at the home of Mrs. Ethel Turrentine on June 21, 1947 and attended by 20 former Escondido High graduates. By the spring of 1948, the guys had gotten wind of this fun affair and wanted to be included; so, all alumni who had completed their education at Escondido High were invited.
Because June 17, 1948 was the 50th anniversary of the first Escondido High graduating class, it was the obvious date for the third annual reunion. It was decided that, hereafter, this annual event would honor each 50th graduating class and that wives and husbands of alumni would be welcomed.
As the event matured, official committees were formed; sometimes, the same members carried over from the previous year. It was established, almost from the beginning, that the committee would consist of members of three classes: the honored “baby class” plus the two preceding classes, with the senior class being in charge.
Currently the Escondido High School Golden Reunion is held the Saturday after Mother’s Day at Grape Day Park in Escondido, allowing over 700 alumni to gather and share memories.
For more information or to receive a registration form visit the Facebook Page “Escondido High 50+ Reunion Picnic 2018” or contact Bill Grote at grotorooter@yahoo.com or Cheryl Venable at Classrep66@gmail.com.

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