Art Ericson’s high school reunion was not typical.
The Dover, Delaware resident was among approximately 70 East Aurora High School Class of 1960 graduates and friends who gathered Friday, June 18, at Luigi’s Pizza in Aurora for a reunion postponed from 2020.
The event included a surprise 79th birthday salute to Ericson from fellow Tomcats and guests. Midway through the gathering, alum Ed Sweeney announced Ericson’s birthday. Then Sweeney then led the crowd in singing a chorus of “Happy Birthday” to the celebrant.
Ericson was accompanied by his wife, Bernice. She helped cut and serve a frosting-inscribed cake reading “Happy Birthday Art.”
Copies of 1950s and 1960 Speculums, Tomcat yearbooks, were available for viewing by attendees.
Refreshments included appetizers followed by pizza and desserts including a cake with a frosting inscription that read “East Aurora Class of 1960 61st Anniversary.” Originally set for 2020, the event was postponed due to the pandemic. Funds held over from previous reunions financed refreshments.
George Hauser, reunion coordinator, said in an E-mail invitation to alums, “We have decided to grit our teeth and move forward with our COVID-19-delayed 60th (61st now) anniversary get together.
“After all, we were the generation that, when young, walked around on the car seats (with the car in motion), drank from garden hoses, rode in pickup-truck beds, swam in the Fox River and rode our bikes behind the spray truck in a cloud of DDT!
“We should be able to have a party at this stage of the pandemic. We don’t have that much to lose anymore,” Hauser wrote.
—Al Benson