Senior citizens, high school seniors bond over yearbooks, memories from 1940s

By Darienne DeBrule

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    HOLLADAY, Utah (KSTU) — What advice would you give to your high school self?

At The Ridge Senior Living Cottonwood, a group of graduates from the 1940s had the chance to give some advice to the class of 2024.

They held a graduation party, all about celebrating the class of 2024 — and the golden girls and boys from the classes of 1943, 1946 and 1947 at East High.

After going through the East High yearbook archives, National Honors Society students Christian, Noah Crockett and Clara Morris decided to bring Elizabeth, Isabel, Bill and David their yearbooks from the 1940s — and boy, did they bring back a flood of memories!

“I’m just looking to see what other friends I have,” said Elizabeth Chalmers, a resident at The Ridge.

“I’d forgotten about that!” Isabel Sullivan said as she flipped through her yearbook.

High school was a lot different back then.

“If you didn’t enlist in the Navy by the time you turned 18, you had to go in the Army — they just drafted you,” explained William “Bill” Pizza.

“The dances and things like that seemed so frivolous when we were fighting a war,” Sullivan added.

But some things never change.

“There I am right there,” Sullivan pointed out.

“You haven’t changed a bit!” David Lusty replied.

“Thank you!” she responded with a laugh.

Being 90+ years old seems so far away from when they graduated high school.

“Life’s great if you don’t weaken. Stay strong,” said Lusty.

But let this group of seniors tell you: It goes by fast.

“I enjoyed it all,” Chalmers said.

And sometimes a little advice is what you need to get through.

“Try to be honorable and honest in what you do,” Sullivan said.

As the seniors flipped through pages of “the good ol’ days,” they had a question for the class of 2024: What will you remember when you’re 90?

“I feel like you remember the small things more than you remember the big things. You remember the fun small instances and memories that you made with people,” said Christian Evans.

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