By Renee Worthing
Staff Writer
Members of Kennebunk High School’s class of 1958 will observe their 50th class reunion this weekend by gathering together to celebrate each other’s lives and accomplishments and reflect on the changes in the past 50 years.
Then, high school girls wore skirts with a sweater and loafers with white socks. Their hair was pulled back in a ponytail, their foreheads were fringed with bangs and their lips were red with lipstick. The teenagers of 1958 attended sock hops, where they danced to songs by Ricky Nelson and Frankie Avalon.
“Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!” Jerry Lee Lewis’ voice exclaimed from 45 records inside flashing jukeboxes.
“Won’t you wear my ring around your neck to tell the world I’m yours?” Elvis Presley implored.
Later that year, Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army.
The cost of a postage stamp was about four cents and a new home about $12,750.
NASA was formed and Americans fell for practical jokes on Allen Funt’s television show, “Candid Camera.” Families gathered around their black and white television sets to watch The Ed Sullivan Show and in January 1958, Buddy Holly made a guest appearance. Dick Clark hosted American Bandstand, the show that inspired new dances at the sock hops.
“It was an exciting decade,” Chairman of the 1958 Kennebunk High School Reunion Committee Joan Cowgill said.
She thumbed through a copy of the 1958 yearbook, “Rambler.” Messages from old friends are penned on once-blank pages. Faces of classmates, frozen in time, smile back from black and white photos.
“Back then, Kennebunk High School used to offer clubs and extra curricular activities like the Rifle Club, Junior Red Cross, Future Homemakers of America and a faith-based group called the Tri-Hi-Y,” she said, as she opened the book to different sections.
In 1958, 16 credits were required to graduate. Now students must earn 24 credits as well as log 30 community service hours.  
Cowgill said she and her friends used to return enough bottles to raise 75 cents for three gallons of gasoline so they could go for a drive. They frequented drugstores in Kennebunk where a 6-ounce Coca Cola cost about 33 cents. The soda’s slogan was “The Cold, Crisp Taste of Coke.”
She said there was a fear of Communism and polio when she was in high school. One student, Diana Abbott, did contract polio, Cowgill said.
“One day she was at school and then she was gone for a year,” Cowgill said.
She said Abbott returned to school and became the first physically disabled person to earn a degree from the University of Southern Maine.
The class of 1958 graduated and went their separate ways, some moving as far away as Alaska and California.
The world around them changed, sweeping the graduates up in ever-changing technology. Cell phones replaced black rotary phones and the “send” button on email took the place of four-cent postage stamps. Neil Armstrong stepped out of NASA’s Lunar Module, “Eagle,” and became the first man to walk on the moon.
Abbott served as chairman of the 1958 Kennebunk High School Reunion Committee until this year when Cowgill took over.
“She is truly an inspiration,” Cowgill said. “She worked so hard on the reunions and she just needed a break.”
This weekend, about 38 members of the class of 1958 and their spouses, will come together again, forging time and distance to reconnect with one another.
Cowgill said times were simpler 50 years ago and a “simple” reunion is appropriate for her class.
A banquet at the Colony Hotel is planned for today. Tomorrow they will enjoy a catered dinner at the Atlantic Hall in Cape Porpoise and on Sunday morning, a farewell breakfast at The Nonantum Resort will send everyone different ways again.
The committee plans to raffle an oil painting by one of their classmates. Cowgill said money raised would be used to make the alumni room at Kennebunk High School more handicapped accessible.
She said another classmate, Brenda Freeman, of Texas, has spent years collecting Kennebunk High School memorabilia.
“Her challenge is to send a piece of memorabilia to each classmate,” Cowgill said. “But, it will be something that pertains to each person, something personal and meaningful.”
Cowgill said activities were limited when she was in high school.
“There were no computers and few cars,” she said. “School was a place to meet friends.”
She said Kennebunk High School brought students from surrounding communities together and while some students integrated easily into the high school environment, others did not.
“Years later, you realize, when you meet later, you have a common bond,” Cowgill said.
She hopes the 50th reunion will strengthen that bond until they meet again.