Fermi Alumni Give the School a Giant Sendoff

ENFIELD, CT - When Ann Panella and some friends conceived the idea of an alumni photo shoot to commemorate the closing of their alma mater, Enrico Fermi High School, they had no idea what to expect.

"There could be 50 people, there could be 500, who knows," Panella said back in March, when plans began to take shape for the gathering.

They were a bit off.

To register for free for Enfield breaking news alerts and daily newsletter, click here.

At a registration table adjacent to the student parking lot, a total of 1,052 alumni provided their contact information. Considering the likelihood that a number of returnees did not sign in, it is probable around 1,100 former students showed up for the photo.

The crowd was so huge that photographer Rich Tanguay needed the services of a Hazardville Fire Department ladder truck to get high enough in the air to get everyone in one shot.

There were parent/child combinations, and there were people who came in from as far away as Washington state (by plane) and Buffalo (by car). There was hugging and camaraderie and joy, and even some solemn moments of reflection upon classmates who have passed too soon.

Most of all, there were signs of the innocent days of youth everywhere. Some alumni had their yearbooks, and many others wore some sort of Falcon clothing, including one idiot (this author) in a long sleeved Fermi hockey jersey on a 91-degree day.

One member of the Class of 1981 carried a stop sign that had the word "Leo" under the word "stop," an icon of a bygone era. For many years, Det. Leo Arnone was the undisputed vice king of the Enfield Police Department; his bodybuilder physique was quite intimidating, and from roughly 1975 to about 1985, there wasn't a stop sign anywhere in town that didn't have his name spraypainted on it.

Okay, maybe they were the not-so-innocent days of youth.

Photo credit: Rich Tanguay