Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Class of 1946 prepares to look back over years

By Bob Aldrich

World War II had ended only the year before when the Class of 1946 graduated from Los Gatos High School.

"We were so relieved that gas and food rationing were over with," says class member Mary Ann Burton Quinn, one of those planning to attend a 50th anniversary reunion June 8 at the Toll House Hotel.

That's one problem the present 1996 graduating class has never known: having a windshield sticker that designated how many gallons of gasoline you could buy, and tearing precious coupons out of a book whenever you bought meat or sugar. The government strictly rationed scarce commodities.

Quinn, a retired steeplejack who's editing a film about the steeplejack work and sea adventures she shared with her late husband, Lee Quinn, says, "It was a very nice class. I think we considered things a little differently than the young people do today." There were only minor problems with alcohol or drugs.

Like the majority of that 1946 class, Mary Ann Burton headed for college after graduation. She spent a year at San Mateo College, where she met and soon married Lee Quinn.

"I got a job as a reporter in the San Mateo criminal court," Burton said.

Frank Lazaneo, retired owner of the Los Gatos Meat Market, remembers one reason why the 1946 class had to be on its good behavior.

"Doug Helm, the assistant principal, was real tough," Lazaneo said. "Prentiss Brown was principal then. Between them, we had to watch our step." The athletic field was named for Helm, later the principal.

Bob Tatum of Los Gatos, retired Central Fire District officer, is one of those who'll be attending the reunion, where 80 or more people, including spouses, are expected. A 6 p.m. cocktail hour at the Toll House will be followed with a dinner.

Lupe and Bill Burgstrom of Watsonville helped round up class members for the reunion. Both are 1946 LGHS grads. Bill Buckman of Los Gatos decorated for the reunion party.

There were 105 in the 1946 class, Lupe Blake Burgstrom said. "Most of us went on to college. The campuses were jammed then with returning servicemen." The G. I. Bill passed by Congress paid for veterans' tuition and books.

"A few from our class had gone into the Army," Lazaneo recalls. "I missed the draft by one day. They were still drafting after the war ended."

Lazaneo had an after-school job with Los Gatos Market, on N. Santa Cruz Avenue, which he later owned for many years.

"It was a very secure world back then," says Elizabeth Tiffany Stewart, a longtime Los Gatos resident who will attend the reunion. "Los Gatos was a very small place.

"Kids today face so many different things. They have a much different world. They seem so insecure," she said.

Despite the sense of security in the early 1940s, the class felt close to the war America was waging, Stewart said. "We had troops stationed here in Los Gatos. We saw them every day. People have nearly forgotten, but there was great fear of a Japanese invasion after Pearl Harbor."

President of the 1946 class was Gordon Murphy, who went on to become a Washington, D.C., lobbyist. Other class officers were: John Paison, vice president; Mary Lou Teeple, secretary, and Jean Kendrick, treasurer.

"We are all extremely proud of the members of our class who were unable to graduate with their classmates because of their induction into the Armed Forces," Paison wrote in his 1946 yearbook message.