CLASSMATES RECALL PAST AGE

World War II ended, the jitterbug was heel-toed at Teen Town, a Coca-Cola cost a nickel at Dormeyer's drugstore, and the Class of 1945 graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School.

Fifty years later, the Class of 1945 returned this weekend for a reunion, bringing together memories of a different time.

"I remember it well," said Maxine Busch Boren, who has coordinated reunions for the past 30 years. "The war was over and we all were graduating from high school. Lots of the boys were in service, and we didn't have anyone to date.

"Everything was rationed. You couldn't buy a car. If you had a car, you couldn't buy tires. We didn't have nylons. They were using nylon for parachutes."

Paper was rationed too, so Central High School didn't put out a yearbook in 1944 or 1945.

"It was really sad," Boren said. "So we decided to put one together."

In addition to the traditional photos of fresh young faces, and reminiscences gleaned from The Tiger school newspaper, the 1945 yearbook published in 1995 includes essays from 81 of the 162 graduates telling what they have done since graduating from Central High School.

The yearbook captures the young faces of individuals who went on to became a Hollywood playwright, a U.S. senator, a federal district judge, a university president, and business and civic leaders.

"For a group this small to turn out a list like that is pretty impressive," said Jerry McNeely.

McNeely, the playwright, wrote for "Dr. Kildare, "Man from UNCLE" and "The Twilight Zone." He created and produced series such as "Owen Marshall," "Lucas Tanner" and "Our House."

He also worked on television movies, including "Something for Joey," a film about football player John Cappelletti and his brother. He has taught at the university level and his brother is Don McNeely, the well-known KFVS-TV personality who retired a few years ago.

Growing up in Cape Girardeau in the 1940s gave him a sense of security and confidence that allowed him to pursue his writing career, McNeely said.

Chic Hecht, a former U.S. senator from Nevada and former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, agreed. "Looking back, we lived a very sheltered life in Cape Girardeau. It was a very moral town. All the good family values we talk about today, Cape Girardeau had 50 years ago."

But World War II tempered everything that happened, including the development of members of the class of 1945.

"We started high school in 1941," Hecht recalled. "In December we had Pearl Harbor. We lived with the war throughout high school. That had to give us some maturity. We had a dedication and a purpose which I attribute to the war."

Hecht is the brother of Cape Girardeau businessman Marty Hecht.

U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh credits Central High's teachers with turning out such a fine crop of graduates in 1945. "Not only did they give you an interest in school, they did it in a way that was entertaining as well as educational," Limbaugh said. "It was just a splendid education."

In high school, Limbaugh was known for wearing loud bow ties, striped socks and zoot suits.

"You had to take your shoes off to get the pants on, the ankles were that tight," Limbaugh explained about zoot suits. "But they were very baggy everywhere else. And you had a lo-o-o-ng chain."

Young men who wore zoot suits in 1945 had saved their money to buy one. "No one's mother would make a zoot suit," he said.

Limbaugh abandoned his zoot suit for a black robe. He was appointed a U.S. district judge by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.

Lloyd Watkins served as president of West Texas State University from 1973 to 1977 and as president of Illinois State University from 1977 until his retirement in 1988.

He said Cape Girardeau in the 1930s and 1940s offered a solid foundation for young people growing up here.

"We were expected to do the right thing and we did. We were expected to do well in school, and for the most part, we tried," he said.

"There was a certain feeling that you ought to do well and take things seriously," Watkins recalled. The war added to that seriousness.

"We had remarkable teachers," Watkins said. Coy James taught history and Grace Williams taught algebra and geometry.

Elwood Riordan, who owns a plumbing company in Culver City, Calif., donates hundreds of hours to volunteer organizations including the Kiwanis Club, Cedars Sinai Hospital, Cerebral Palsy Center, Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Monica and many more.

Riordan also supports the Newspapers In Education program in Culver City Schools because his Central High teachers used the newspaper in his classes.

Helping others seems part of Riordan's nature. As a lifeguard at the Natatorium in Cape Girardeau, Riordan sometimes let the girls he knew sneak in for a free swim.

Although a member of the Class of 1945, Bob Hirsch graduated early to attend MIT. He earned his degrees in electrical engineering and came home to Cape Girardeau to help his father start the KFVS television station, which went on the air Oct. 3, 1954.

Among other 1945 graduates are:

-- E.C. Younghouse: a Cape Girardeau County commissioner reelected three times.

-- Richard Eggiman: currently a Cape Girardeau city councilman.

-- Charlene Caldwell: 20 years with the University of Missouri Extension Service as food and nutrition specialist.

-- Ruth Knote: 40 years with Cape Coummunity Concert Association and co-author of a barbecue book.

-- Bernard Lang: owner of Lang's Jewelry Store in Cape Girardeau.

-- Weldon "Bucky" Gray: one of 100 naval personnel to attend the only dance held aboard a U.S. naval ship during wartime.

-- Walter Hosea: an executive with Famous-Barr who helped open the store in Cape Girardeau.

-- John Mehrle: a 39-year association with the Southeast Missourian included a long period as the newspaper's comptroller.

-- Jim Bauerle: owns a business that leases manufacturing equipment.

-- Nancy Steigemeyer: Keynote speaker, public library trustee and public relations coordinator for the Lutheran Family and Children's Services in Cape Girardeau.

Shirley Carosello coordinated and researched the yearbook for the Class of 1945.

She said 1945 was as extraordinary as the people who graduated that year.

"Hitler and FDR died, V-J Day and V-E Day, atomic bombs were dropped," Carosello recalled. "I feel many of these class members contributed to Cape and the area and the world, and none of our pictures have been on the post office wall -- yet."