‘You’re 16 and then all at once you’re 86’: Harrold Junior High class hosts its 70-year reunion

It has been 70 years since Lawrence Grazel walked the halls of the former Harrold Junior High School.

But for Grazel, 86, of Hempfield, it’s never too late to get his classmates back together.

Class reunions are not uncommon for the 1954 Harrold Junior High graduates, said Grazel — a member of the first Harrold basketball team to compete in and win the county championship. But it has become more difficult over the years to draw classmates from across the country back to Hempfield.

Five-year reunions slowly became 10-year reunions, he said.

“It’s hard to get a hold of them, because they’re all spread out,” he said. “You’re 16 and then all at once you’re 86.”

A 70-year class reunion at Hoss’s in South Greensburg Saturday will likely be the last time Grazel gathers with his former classmates.

“It’s getting to the point where everyone can’t see, can’t hear, can’t walk,” Grazel said with a laugh.

“(We) wanted to see some of the people we haven’t seen for a while,” Grazel said of himself and the classmates he keeps in touch with. “And we figure this is probably the last (reunion), so we wanted to take a shot and see if we can get the last one going here.”

About 30 graduates from Harrold’s 1953 through 1955 classes will attend, Grazel said. Many live throughout Westmoreland County — in Delmont, Greensburg, Youngwood, Hempfield, Herminie, Irwin, New Stanton and Jeannette.

Allen Farlow will drive about nine and a half hours from his Augusta, Ga., home to attend the reunion.

There are about 130 students in the 1954 graduating class, Farlow said, but with many classmates deceased, struggling with health issues or living out of the area, it has been difficult to bring in a big turnout for the reunion.

“It’s hard to find people since we’ve lost contact with everyone over the years,” said Farlow, 86. “I was hoping the reunion would be spread by word of mouth.”

Nonetheless, Farlow looks forward to reconnecting with those who are able to attend.

“(I’m excited) to meet old friends and discuss some of the things that we had done within our four years at Harrold Junior High School,” he said.

The graduates will enjoy a meal together, followed by a warm cup of coffee and a slice of cake decorated with “Harrold Junior High 70th Reunion” written in frosting. There will be a 50/50 raffle.

But the primary purpose of the reunion, Grazel said, is just to “reminisce and strike up old memories.”

Harrold throughout history

Harrold Junior High School was renamed to Harrold Middle School in the 1990s, said Tom Harrold, advisory director for the Baltzer-Meyer Historical Society. It now houses Hempfield Area School District’s ninth grade classrooms.

The junior high opened its doors around 1930, Harrold said. It took in classrooms from local one-room schoolhouses that were closing, but the Harrold one-room schoolhouse was kept in place as a woodshop for the junior high.

The Middletown Road school building looks a lot different than when Grazel roamed its halls.

Two courses, which taught about 15 to 20 students each, were housed in a classroom, said Grazel. The district enrolled more than 5,200 students last school year.

Though Hempfield graduated nearly 400 students in the spring, the 100 students in the 1954 class was big enough for Grazel.

“When I first went (to Harrold), I was lost. Then the bell rang and everybody ran out into the hall. That was some experience for me. You’re only 12 years old, 13 years old,” he said. “I thought that was big at the time.”

There have been at least three additions to the junior high school since it was built, Harrold said.

“Somewhere around ‘57 or ‘58, they had put on an addition for the workshops — the woodshop and the metal shop,” he said.

Hempfield Area High School was not introduced until 1957, Harrold said. Prior to that time, students scattered throughout South Greensburg, Southwest Greensburg, New Stanton, Manor, Norwin, Youngwood, Jeannette and Sewickley for high school.

“It was a pretty big undertaking for the township, because the land mass and size of the population is so large they could never completely consolidate into one middle school,” he said, adding that Harrold Junior High was too small to accommodate all of the students living in Hempfield.

In all of Harrold’s years delving into local history, he has never seen a 70-year class reunion.

“I’ve seen 60 years, but not 70 years,” he said, “and most of the time, they are high school classes.”