The spirit of the class of 1967 is alive and well at Lyons Township High School.
The class, which marked its 50-year reunion, showed up in a big way Friday through Sunday.
They even replicated their class’s homecoming float from five decades ago.
Don Hanson of New London, Minnesota copied in a downsized form the float that featured an airplane with an 18-foot wing span. The tail even took down a telephone wire when it was assembled 50 years ago, he recalled.
The new float had a plane with an 8-foot wing span. It was emblazoned with the words “Spirit of ’67,” and was piloted by Noil — which is lion spelled backward and one of the school’s mascots.
Hanson estimates it took him 12 days to build. He carted it on a trailer from Minnesota and then re-assembled it.
“Almost every detail was identical to 50 years ago,” said Hanson, who was senior class president.
Just as in 1967, the float was titled Magnificent Noil and his Flying Machine.
This time, however, it had space for 15 class members to ride on it.
“We’re a little older so people could jump on or off as they were walking,” he said.
Patti Gibson Cowhey, who helped organize the reunion, said about 270 members of the class and spouses attended. About 100 participated in the homecoming parade.
One former student who traveled the farthest to attend the reunion was Jan-Erik Damber of Gothenburg, Sweden. He was an exchange student in 1967.
“We were sitting on the float. We don’t have that kind of thing in Sweden,” Damber said.
Damber, a urology professor, said he returned “because when you get old you get nostalgic.”
He said La Grange had not changed much over the years.
“It is very much the same. The houses might be a little bigger,” he said.
He re-connected with Jeffrey Stewart, whose family he stayed with 50 years ago. Though they hadn’t spoken to each other in decades, Stewart said they picked right up where they left off.
“It was marvelous,” said Stewart, who lives in Oak Park.
Cowhey said organizers of the reunion tried to highlight as many nostalgic events as possible including having a popular band from their class — the PSW’s — play at a mixer. She said the group got together again prior to the reunion to practice.
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“The dance floor was jam packed,” she said.
In addition, five players from the varsity baseball team, which won the state championship in 1967, were presented with hats.
Even through transporting a plane from Minnesota was a challenge, Hanson said getting it to the reunion was worth it.
“It was all fun, every part of it,” Hanson said.
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