‘You felt like you knew everybody’: Remembering a time when Anchorage had only 1 high school

A celebration Saturday afternoon on West Fireweed Lane brought together a group of people that hearkens back to an Anchorage of days past.

Alumni of Anchorage High School — which was the only high school in the city for years until the 1960s — gathered for their third annual picnic in the yard of American Legion Post 1 in Midtown.

People gathered around tables and a fire pit, reminiscing and politely ribbing each other about jokes and memories from years ago.

“There was one high school, so when you walked down the hall, you’d see all the teenagers in town,” said Karel Dodge Atkinson. She graduated in 1956 and helped organize the event. “It was a great deal of fun. That’s what makes this so special."

Things changed in 1961, when East High opened and Anchorage High became West High. And, of course, more high schools have opened around the city since.

Rather than a reunion for just one year’s graduating class, which might attract a couple dozen people, the picnic welcomes anyone who attended Anchorage High.

“We realized full-blown reunions are a lot of work, a lot of money,” said Barb Thaman, who graduated in 1954. “And with our advancing ages and people moving away, our numbers have dropped drastically.”

[Meet an Alaska graduating class of one]

But all three of the annual picnics have been successful so far, with more than 200 people turning out each year, Thaman said.

People ate and drank as Little Richard’s “Good Golly, Miss Molly” played in the background. Three 1957 Chevrolets — one green, one red, one white — were parked on the grass.

“We bring them every year because people can relate to them,” Ben Holeman, Class of 1959, said of the cars. “They had them in high school, or they didn’t have one and wanted one.”

His car, the green one, had his Anchorage High school letter jacket hanging off it, black with orange trim.

A table of yearbooks from the late 1950s featured black-and-white photos of boys with crew cuts and girls with cat-eye glasses. Photos from an Anchorage before population growth meant more new schools.

“You felt like you knew everybody," said Ralph Courtney, Class of 1957. “And you did.”