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Gresham High class of 1944 takes stock of life, health
Graduates have already beaten their age expectancy
John Klicker / The Outlook
Don Balmer, right, calls for a show of hands as classmate John Welsh counts to see how fellow classmates have benefited from medical advances Friday, July 21.
Heads up, Baby Boomers, this is you in 20 years.
The Gresham Union High class of 1944, the parents of the Baby Boomers, met to celebrate a collective 80th birthday Friday, July 21, at Heidi’s in Gresham.
Led by classmate Don Balmer, retired political science professor from Lewis and Clark College, they conducted a bit of a survey on what it’s like to be 80.
Several had a hard time getting around the notion of 80.
“In my mind, I am 20 years younger most of the time,” said Lorraine Crane.
“In your mind, you’re still the same,” agreed Barbara Place.
These are the people who remember world events from the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt to this week’s rockets on Beirut. But they also can’t, quipped Balmer, tell the difference between rap and hip-hop. They do remember when Portland had only two drive-in restaurants, Yaw’s Top Notch and the Tik-Tok.
And there were only two or three kinds of shoes.
“Armishaw’s saddle shoes,” someone said. And another woman added, “Or if you couldn’t afford those, Penney’s.”
The Class of 1944, Balmer observed, was born in a time when life expectancy was 60 for men, 63 for women.
“We’ve already beaten the odds,” Balmer observed to the audience, attributing long life to advances in medicine.
Classmate John Welsh called for a show of hands among the 34 present to see how they have benefited from medical advances. The totals: 12 cataract surgeries; six hearing aids; two disc repairs in the back; eight knee surgeries (some twice) with a total of five new knees; four hips; four heart bypasses; one new valve, two stents; and eight cases of cancer.
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