We had been working on the 2004 Broad Ripple High School reunion for the classes of 1930 through 1942. The class rosters had been prepared and the invitations sent. One invitation went to a member of the class of 1933, thought to be the earliest class available. We were surprised to be contacted by Ernestine Fischer Lambertus. "I heard from my brother Ernest (BRHS class of 1940) that there is going to be a reunion. I am class of '31 and would like to come," she said. I quickly accepted her RSVP and apologized for not having her on my list. "I'm not on any of the lists and neither is my friend, Harry," she said. "He is class of 1928 and wants to come with me."

Being a Broad Ripple historian, I knew that talking to these two was a must. Upon meeting Ernestine and Harry, we thought we had misunderstood - they couldn't possibly be from those early classes. She must have meant 1941 instead of 1931. But a quick check of the BRHS yearbooks convinced us that she was correct.

A little perspective - our son began at Broad Ripple High School last year. Harry Claffey, Jr. started eighty years ago. While I sometimes can't remember what I did yesterday, Ernestine and Harry recalled their grade school days.

"We both attended the Nora grade school," said Ernestine. "It was a four-room schoolhouse with eight grades. Each teacher had to teach two grades."

Both remembered riding the horse-drawn hack to school, which was pulled by two horses. Sometimes Harry would jump off the hack around 75th and Westfield Boulevard to sneak into the nearby sugar camp for sugar water. "In the winter, I could tell when the hack was coming," remembered Harry. "It had a coal stove that you stoked from the outside. I could see the smoke from that stove and knew they were near." A couple of years later the school replaced the horse-drawn vehicle with a Model T Ford bus. "It was much faster than the hack"

Some of the staff they remember were Mabel Norwood, who taught first and second grade, fourth grade teacher Thelma Thurman, Ruth Cline, Rosemary Boyd and 7th and 8th grade teacher Ernest LeForge. "I remember Mrs.Whitaker," recalled Ernestine. "Her name was so often misspelled by parents in notes from home that she made all of the students practice writing her name in class."

Harry grew up near 81st and Spring Mill Road on the family's farm. Ernestine lived on the Lilly Orchard at 71st and College Avenue. Her father, Ernest Fischer, raised belladonna for Eli Lilly at its Greenfield facility. J.K. Lilly, Sr. owned the orchard. "Mr. Lilly liked my father and asked him to move to the orchard and run it for him."

Ernestine's job was to sell cider on Sundays after church. The cider was pressed in the back barn and ran underground to the front barn. "I had three faucets. I sold cider by the cup, five cents." Summers in the orchard were busy with picking apples and pressing cider. Winters were slower due to tree trimming being the main task. The house they lived in was razed when a school was built on the orchard grounds.

Although there were several grade schools in the area, there was only one north side high school: Broad Ripple High School. Harry recalls his aunt, a Haverstick, telling him that she used to drive a horse and buggy to it. There was a stable behind the school to the south east that had about 15 stalls. Students and faculty could keep their horses there during the day.

"It was a tough ride in the winter." Harry says of his daily bicycle ride from his home at 81st and Spring Mill to Broad Ripple High. In his junior year he hitched rides with a girl who had a car. Ernestine got rides from her neighbors the Dungans. They lived just up the hill from the orchard and owned the Polk Sanitary Dairy.

Ernestine recalls walking to Broad Ripple Village each day for lunch, as there was no cafeteria in the school. Harry said he brought a sack lunch every day: "Mother made great liver sandwiches. I still like them."

"There were so many good teachers at Broad Ripple," said Harry. "Mr. Thomas taught math in the winter and built houses in William Creek in the summer. Coach Diederich was a good coach and also a good math teacher. Mr. McGhehey taught physics, everyone liked him. Mr. Newsum was the botany teacher. I really liked Mrs. Carter. She taught Latin. Our principal was K.V. Ammerman. Once he met you he knew you - face to name. I have only met three or four people in my life that could do that."

Home Science classes were held in the school's basement. Later, the classes were moved into a bungalow on the school grounds. Ham Thomson donated the house to the school when he moved to a house on Guilford Avenue. "Ham Thomson used to drive his horse and buggy to Pleasant View Church every Sunday," said Ernestine. "I think he also worked at the Lilly Orchard for my father."

In the summer of 1931, Ernestine worked at Lobraico's Drug Store. "Mildred Grayson and I worked together. We had to clean the soda fountain every night. It was a lot of work. Mike Lobraico was very particular about it."

Public transportation in those days included the street cars and the interurban train. Harry said his mother would walk from the house at 81st and Spring Mill to the interurban stop at 82nd and College, take the interurban to Broad Ripple, switch to the street car and ride it downtown to shop.

Harry and Ernestine both enjoyed going to Broad Ripple Park. In those days it was an amusement park with a roller coaster, zoo, merry-go-round, and many other attractions. "I rode the merry-go-round as a child," said Harry. "Later, I took my grandchildren for rides." The original carousel from the park has been restored and is now at the Children's Museum. Harry also remembered the lions and tigers in the small zoo. "They were in cages along the left as you go in the park. Lots of people went to the amusement park. That was before radio and television. We also used to go down to Riverside Amusement Park."

Both banked at the Broad Ripple National Bank, which was originally in Mustard Hall - where BW3 is today. Morris Dodd was the head of the bank and knew all his customers.

The Green City Boat House was located where Weaver's Garden shop is today. Ernestine remembers going to the boat house with Hugh Cline and another couple for a canoe ride on White River.

Ernestine recalls her father taking his horses to Carl Greenwood, village blacksmith, to be shoed. The blacksmith shop was on Ferguson Street. Ernestine recalls when one of their horses, a Percheron, broke free and was hit by an interurban train.

Ernestine was driving by age 14. "You didn't need a license back then," she said. "I remember that College (Avenue) was a dirt road and Meridian (Street) ended at the canal."

Dr. Ostenheld, a dentist in Broad Ripple, owned the Broad Ripple Theater. It was a small movie house near where Ossip Optometry is today. This was before the Vogue Theater was built. "I took my little brother to see Mary Pickford in 'Sparrows' (1926)," said Ernestine. "It was a sad movie. He was crying, and I put my arm around him."

We will see Ernestine and Harry at the BRHS reunion. I think I can predict who is going to win the "Attendee from the Earliest Class" award.