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Class of 1929 gathers to remember eight decades of friendship and fun

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Class of 1929 reunion

Three of the four surviving members of the Milton Union High School class of 1929 celebrated their 80th high school reunion Friday.

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JANESVILLE — The red balloon read "Congrats grad," but the term "graduate" hadn't applied to the three people gathered around the table for eight decades.

"I wanted to get one that said '80,' but they didn't go that high," said Joan Alwin.

Alwin was at Rock Haven Nursing Home on Friday to help celebrate the 80th high school reunion of her mother, Mildred Ludwig, and classmates Agnes Hanauska and Ken Austin. Together, they make up three of the four surviving members of the Milton Union High School class of 1929.

The fourth member, Elda Handtke, couldn't make it to the party.

"We had good old times, didn't we?" Ludwig said at the start of the party.

The gathering proved a chance to relive old times and celebrate life. The three "graduates"—now 97 and 98 years old—and a few family members and friends looked through old yearbooks, photos and autograph books.

"This is Mildred in high school," Lois Conklin, a friend of Hanauska and Alwin, said as she handed Austin a framed photo. Ludwig looked out from the photo with twinkling eyes, a dazzling smile and long curly hair.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Conklin asked. "I bet you chased her."

Indeed, the quote under Austin's picture in the yearbook said, "A lion among the ladies is a dangerous thing."

He lived up to the reputation Friday, clearly enjoying sitting between the two ladies as another woman buttoned a corsage onto his jacket.

"You're looking good," he said to Hanauska.

Hanauska brought most of the photos. She plans to donate them to the Milton House Museum, she said.

She spoke about life in the 1920s, quickly recalling details and dates. The class of 1929 had 44 people, and the whole school had only about 200 students, she said.

All 200 students met in the main room at the start of the school day, she said.

"We'd say the Pledge of Allegiance and go our separate ways," she said.

Children today can't believe students back then walked to country schools, didn't have high school sports teams and lived without electricity, Hanauska said.

"We had some tough going," she said.

But Hanauska, Austin and Ludwig agreed they'd lived happy lives.

"Life's been good to me," Austin said.