The old Windham High School holds many happy memories for some former students. Contributed / Windham Historical Society

In America in 1964, the country was still reeling from the death of President John F. Kennedy, the first Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line and The Beatles burst on the scene to begin the British Invasion that would take the world of music by storm.

Here in Windham, the old high school would see its last graduating class and I was lucky enough to speak with some of the graduates who shared their cherished memories with me.

“It was a more innocent time,” said Walter Lunt, a lifelong Windham resident who remembers walking the halls of the old high school, now Windham Town Hall. “The school was crowded. Study halls were held in hallways, behind the curtain on the stage in the gym and on the gym balcony.”

Lunt also recalled some of the favorite pastimes of the era, such as cruisin’ through North Windham, Westbrook and down to Old Orchard Beach. Bowl-A-Wile in Westbrook and Big 20 in Scarborough were popular haunts on a weekend night. You’d also find many a classmate at A&W, McDonald’s, Ray’s Store or at Cole Farms. If you were out on a date, you might take your girl to the Rollerdrome in South Portland for some skating fun.

Lunt’s wife, Linda, who also went to the old high school, remembers the strict dress code that was enforced for the girls. Unlike these days where jeans and T-shirts are the norm, back in the ’60s young ladies were expected to wear a dress, skirt and blouse or a jumper. No sneakers were allowed. You wore dress shoes to school. Girls were required to wear nylon stockings, which came complete with uncomfortable garter belts (pantyhose were not yet invented), and slacks were absolutely forbidden.

But not everything was quite that regimented. Former students Carol Manchester and Julia F. Varney Cheney reminisced about lunch in the cafeteria: “Tables were set up off the side of the gym and the gym floor was left wide open for dancing,” Cheney said. “We did The Twist, The Loco-motion and the The Mashed Potato.”

Manchester added, “A jukebox stood out of the way in one corner and during lunch, it consumed coin after coin.”

Seniors performed one-act plays in the gym at the old Windham High School, now the Town Hall. Contributed / Julia F. Varney Cheney

The senior prom was held in the gym, with the junior class carefully decorating for the event. Seniors also enjoyed performing one-act plays on the stage, and varsity and JV basketball teams were enthusiastically cheered on by their classmates and loyal fans.

Cheney, who is the 1964 class historian, also recalled that the girl’s room was like a mini beauty salon.

“There were a variety of hair styles, but many of them required teasing. Girls who were clever with hair were at hand with combs and hair spray and would style the other girls’ hair. The mist was heavy in there,” she said.

Just like these days, high school was a time when many young people experienced their first love. Girls and boys would stroll the hallways arm in arm and there was an endless amount of gossip going around about who was getting together or breaking up.

Also like today, students got into a little mischief from time to time. The students of 1964 would climb the water tower that was outside the school and throw mushy apples at cars every once in a while. It is also rumored that once a group of boys lifted a teacher’s VW Bug and placed it in the gym.

And then there was the “Bob and Sally” joke circulating among the classmates. Bob and Sally were an unlikely couple, but someone decided to put them into a fictional relationship. Their names would pop up everywhere: on blackboards, on sneakers – even on the water tower one morning! The jokester who performed that feat was not unveiled until the class’s 50th reunion, but only those in attendance know the secret.

The class of 1964 still remains a close-knit group and has reunions every year with more formal events every five. They were a force back in their glory days and they remember their time at Windham High School fondly.

Cheney summed it up perfectly: “The wooden walls, the wooden floors that creaked sometimes, the smells of the lab, the clicking of typewriters, the hustle of people going to classes through narrow halls, the gym; I still love walking through there. That old high school still has all our hearts.”

Haley Pal is a Windham resident and active member of the Windham Historical Society.