Sunday, July 08, 2007

Santa Ana Valley High School, the Early Years

Today we received letters from two people writing about their memories of attending Santa Ana Valley High School in the early 1960s. Both of these people graduated from Santa Ana Valley in 1962.

The first is from Sharon...

Hi Steve.........a friend of mine sent me you site, and it sure brought back memories. Just for information:

I was born in Santa Ana in 1945. Went to Valley High School the first year it opened. Went to Lathrop on south Main, way before it was a closed campus. It reminded me of the movie 'American Grafeiti'. We could go across the street to the malt shop and to the record shop and listen to 45's for the lunch hour. Then down to Al's drive in for a burger. For me jr. high was almost better then high school. I have kept in contact with several of the gals that I went through school with. And my husband and I actually went to Tenn. and stayed for three weeks in that area with one, Sharon Shaw. Anyone remember her out there. We graduated from Valley in 1962, the second graduating class. Boy have things changed!! As for Disneyland, my father worked there when they were building it, right from the start. He use to see Mr. Disney on the property watching things being built, and sometimes changing the plans to somethingelse. I lived in the south end of town and in those days you could walk downtown to the 'West Coast' theater for a movie for 50 cents. So much to remember and such changes now.
The second is from Lynda...

I've been reading the comments from SAVHS alumni on this site and only found one person who graduated with me in 1962. We were the first class to attend all three years at Valley. The class of '61 only attended their Junior and Senior years. We '62 grads started as Sophomores the first year Valley opened, when it was just us and the Juniors, NO SENIORS! If my memory serves me right, I believe our football team of Sophomores and Juniors were also in the CIF Championships that first year coached by the best, Coach Dick Hill, who passed away last October.

I attended Edison Elementary and Lathrop Jr. High before entering Valley High. Half of my 9th grade classmates leaving Lathrop entered their Sophomore year at Valley High and the other half entered Santa Ana High as Sophomores. The Santa Ana Valley High School Class of 1962 is celebrating our 45th Reunion in August and many friends from the classes of '61 and '63 are also joining us this year. The first three graduating classes were very close, many classmates have kept in touch through the years, including those who went to Santa Ana High. I don't remember any of the negative things I've read here, our memories are great, it was a good time and place to grow up.

Lynda from the Class of 1962!
Any others out there that graduated from Santa Ana Valley High School in the early 1960's?

Also, check out another article we published about Santa Ana Valley, which has already received over a hundred comments...

http://www.octhen.com/2006/01/santa-ana-valley-high-school.htm

7 comments:

  1. I remember 1962 & '63! As a matter of fact I've been trying to find one of my classmates. I'm looking for KEN ROBISON who was drum major for the band in '62 & '63. It's actually his brother, JAMES A. ROBISON who I'd really like to get in touch with. If anyone knows anything about either of them, I'd really appreciate it if you'd ask them to get in touch with me.

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    1. Hey,Audrey....did you ever find Ken Robinson? Were you in the class of 63? Please google www.SantaAnaValley63.com and join in to the reunion plans.

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  2. Who's in search of KEN AND HIS BROTHER JAMES A ROBISON? Audrey Hillhouse (now Corcoran). E-mail me @ robertmalone760@msn.com.( my business e-mail) or I'm in San Diego area - in Fallbrook actually - and my phone # is in the book.

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  3. hi sharon yep i remember sharon shaw and a whole lot more jim shroder, joyce hill(my cousin) glenda hardcastle and more hell we went from diamond all the way to valley together dont forget he did become the mayor after all dan griset, i am the oldest of 6 brothers and sisters that went there, my brother dan died in 95 to cancer, god i read the comments from later generations and i feel sorry for them the hate the violence the gangs ect i am glad we are from the generation we are from we had even the dorks didnt have it badly as they probably have it today back then i was over 6ft tall wore glasses and weighed about 110 lbs now 6ft6ins 229lbs have all my hair no glasses(lasic)
    i dont feel as bad about myself as i did then still best friends with david giffin and mary walker(63) my grandchildren (13 of them) like hearing about what it was like then the age of innosense never could spell that damm word, i see audrey is looking for ken robinson havent seen him since high school good guy, we had alot of good people in school then but we also had our larry edneys and jim gretzes who were different, in all we were a good bunch of kids back then. this generation i just dont know do you think they will destroy this world? their morals are definately different than ours were, and their sense of values or lack of.it is fun to see something once in a while written by someone you grew up with i was not popular i was sort of a loner back then ashamed of my dorkiness (see description then) never got into booze or druge just work and raise family that was what was most important to me and my wife, we lost my cousin stephen haynes at the pentagon on 9-11 he went to valley he was a redheaded goofball in school. merrill bigmlittleb2004@yahoo.com

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  4. If anyone knows of Paul and Joseph Cepeda, please send information to Turbozx96@earthlink.net. Thank you.

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  5. looking for Tina Harte from class of 1962 who went to Smedley JR Can reach me through SAHS reunion class of 1962

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  6. My grandfather and grandmother was part of the first graduating class of Valley, Irma Espinoza (former name) and Fred Silva

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