More than 350 alumni gathered at in Patchogue to reunite with friends from high school.
The alumni committee was approved in 1986 by the Board of Education and began hosting reunions in 1988.
Louis Ebert is the organizer of this year's reunion.
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"A group of alumni from the '30's approached the Superintendent of Schools, Henry Reed, and felt that there should be an alumni association. The Board approved the organization in 1986 and then in 1988 is when we first got started. We had our first luncheon at the Better Ole, which is now Painters Restaurant in Brookhaven, with 110 people," Ebert said.
Ranging from the Class of 1934 to the Class of 1983, some attendees at this year's luncheon only remember their alma mater as Patchogue High School. Currently known as , many of the attendees had fond memories.
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Lucy Swan Dioguardo from the Class of 1934 recalled playing sports before graduating from Patchogue High School, then located at the current location of South Ocean Middle School on South Ocean Avenue in Patchogue. She earned a job at the Lace Mill shortly after graduation.
"I did a lot of sports in high school. I was on the soccer team and I was a cheerleader. I also played hockey during my last year there," Lucy Dioguardo said.
Class of 1940 graduates, Rose Jachowdik Dioguardo and husband John Dioguardo, met as freshmen at the high school and married just a few years later.
"We sometimes had classes together. I never went out with him in school though, only after school. We used to meet at the Patchogue Skating Rink on Railroad Avenue. After high school [John] went into the service for four years. He was in the Marine Corps. We were married on Christmas Eve in 1944," Rose Dioguardo said.
Class of 1948 graduate Abie Siegel, also recalls meeting his future wife at the high school. The class size was approximately 85 members. Siegel now owns on Main Street in Patchogue, with his wife Bernice Blum Siegel, also a 1948 graduate.
"I would say the senior show is my favorite memory. I'm not a singer or a dancer but I was dancing with [Bernice]," Siegel said.
Lorice Fiala is a graduate of the Class of 1953. There were 135 graduates that year. Fiala is currently the co-owner of on Main Street in Patchogue.
"I was very sports minded. We played a lot of sports - basketball, baseball, volleyball, badmitton, etc. We had a good team. We didn't play Suffolk County then though, we just played Seton Hall High School [in Patchogue]," Fiala said.
Susan Tracktenberg Auer graduated with the Class of 1962 from Patchogue High School. The class size was 208 members and at that time the school was located at the current site of on Saxton Avenue in Patchogue. Auer has since earned five college degrees after graduation and is a recently retired administrator at a high school.
"My favorite memory was to find out that I got an 87 on the English Regents [exam]. It was quite an accomplishment. My favorite class was gym though, I liked running around and the physical activity. Everything else was sitting all the time," Auer said.
Cathy Walsh Almont graduated from Patchogue-Medford High School's Class of 1983.
"I enjoyed working on the [homecoming] float. Actually, the Class of '83 was the first class, I believe, that won three years in a row. I believe that we were the first class to win in their sophomore year and then we won junior year and senior year," Almont said.
Check out more photos of the alumni here.
