Valley Independent Sentinel

Derby Reunion Packs ‘Em In

by Aly Shea | Sep 8, 2009 12:18 pm

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Posted to: Derby

Derby’s 10th Annual All-Class Reunion brought together more than 60 years worth of Derby High School graduates at five city bars and restaurants Saturday night.

High school is all about relationships, and there were plenty of memories being shared between high school lab partners, sweethearts and neighbors.

Class of 1983 alumni Annette McCabe and Lorrie Driscoll reminisced outside Archie Moore’s on Elizabeth Street about their days as chemistry lab partners.

McCabe, 43, of Oxford, teased Driscoll, 44, of Seymour, for blowing things up — and owing the school money by the end of class.

“I’m never allowed to forget that,” Driscoll said, laughing. “She (Annette) tells everyone.”

Note: The Electronic Valley has tons of photos from Saturday’s reunion.

Across town at the River Restaurant off New Haven Avenue, high school sweethearts Joe and Lorraine Rydzy, of Derby, talked with high school friends.

Joe Rydzy, 55, who graduated from Derby in 1972, and Lorraine, 54, who graduated from Ansonia High School in 1973, got married when Joe was a senior and Lorraine a junior in high school.

Thirty-eight years later, the two still smile when they look at each other.

The couple hadn’t been to an all-decades reunion before this one. The last Derby reunion they attended was Joe’s 25th in 1997.

By the time his 30th came around in 2002, the town was already doing the all-decades reunion.

Joe Rydzy said he preferred the class-specific reunions of the past.

With the all-class reunion, “It’s so hard to get to everyone,” he said.

One of the oldest Derby graduates in attendance, Charlie Carroll, 85, of Derby, graduated high school at 16 with the class of 1941.

Back then, it was common to graduate from high school so young. Since there was no kindergarten, children started first grade at age 5.

As of 9:30 p.m. he said he hadn’t seen anyone else from his class at the Elks Club on Elizabeth Street yet, but he didn’t mind.

“I’m still alive,” he said. “That’s what counts.”

A block up the street, several members of the 1980s classes gathered at Connie’s.

The all-class reunion is structured so that each decade (or group of decades) has a designated meeting place.

The classes of 1959 and earlier met at the Elks Club, the classes of the 1960s gathered at Connie’s, the classes of the 1980s were just a bit further up the road at RJ’s, and the classes of the 1990s to the present were at the bottom of Elizabeth St. at Archie Moore’s.

The classes of the 1970s were somewhat removed from the Elizabeth Street crowds, as they were over at the River Restaurant in the Wal-Mart plaza.

This is the tenth year Derby has done an all-decades reunion, and each year the restaurants are the same.

This year, however, Frankie’s Grill on Pershing Drive, the former gathering place for the 1970s classes, closed, so River Restaurant owner Rick Lucarelli stepped up.

The 1979 Derby High School grad was happy to take in members of his class and the classes before. The crowd at the River Restaurant was just starting to pick up after 10 p.m.

Lucarelli guessed it would probably be a late night.

Other restaurateurs involved in the reunion saw mixed results in terms of business.

A little before 10 p.m., Cheryl Galgano, the owner at RJ’s, said business had been pretty slow, and that she hadn’t seen many people.

But Tom Lucia, the general manager at Archie Moore’s, said he had definitely seen increased traffic from reunion crowds.

“It’s a very busy night, so it (the reunion) must have been helpful,” he said.

The restaurant’s back patio was packed with the younger Derby High School alumni by 10 p.m.

Even with all the foot traffic on Elizabeth St., Derby police officer Jordan Gochros, who was on foot patrol, said he wasn’t too worried.

There was an increased police presence on Elizabeth Street and around town to deal with the influx of alumni, he said.

“We just want to make sure everyone has fun, but gets home safe,” he said

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