Almost 70 Broad Ripple High School alumni gathered on June 5, 2005, at the Riviera Club, located at 5640 Illinois Street, for the annual reunion. Attendees represented the classes from 1929 through 1944. We even allowed some Shortridge grads to attend (they had BRHS spouses).

Knowing that we, the Broad Ripple Gazette and BroadRippleHistory.com, collect Broad Ripple memorabilia, two BRHS grads brought goodies for us. Marcella Reynolds Negley, class of 1936, brought a scrapbook, and Merton Brooks, class of 1940, brought a yard stick from the Tow-Miller store. The scrapbook is filled with newspaper clipping related to BRHS. The yardstick is from a store that was located at 6323 Bellefontaine Street (pronounced bell-fountain, now called Guilford), that, according to the yard stick, sold auto accessories, paints, wall paper, and janitors supplies. Today, Marigold Contemporary Clothing is at that address. (If anyone knows any history on Tow-Miller, please contact the Gazette.)

The reunion was held in the private room just off the main dining room upstairs at Rivi. After everyone had checked in and received their name tags, attendees visited the buffet line for lunch. Roast beef and fried chicken were just a couple of selections.

After lunch, Joe Talbott, Rivi board member and BRHS class of 1940, welcomed the group and introduced the new Riviera Club general manager Greg Sabens. Although Greg was recently appointed general manager of the club, he has been coming to Rivi most of his life. "We are glad to have you back with us for another reunion," said Greg. "I want you to know that things are back on track here at the Riviera Club. You can look out the windows [here in the dining room] and see that the pool is packed with swimmers. I hope you all brought your swimsuits."

I read some letters from alumni that were unable to attend this year, but who sent their wishes to the others. We gave a prize to James Nau, class of 1942, for being the first to call us to say that our invitations had an error. The invitations listed the date of the 2005 reunion as June 5, 2004. The prize was a book on the history of the Indianapolis Water Company. From the class of 1940 we had three out-of-towners, Alex Christ from Florida, Merton Brooks from Missouri, and Art Christy from Michigan.

Next, we called each class to the podium for a class picture. The microphone was passed around so each person could say a few words to the group. One attendee noted, "Each year the stories get a little wilder. The walk from home to school gets farther and farther!"