Steaks, Shakes and Pancakes in the Past

Photo Courtesy Utah State Historical Society

Did anyone ever have a steak at JB's? If so, how was it?
What I remember was free baby food, JB's Big Boy Hamburgers, onion rings, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate
shakes, Cokes and strawberry pie. McDonald's Big Mac was supposed to have been a copy of the original Big
Boy burger. It wasn't so much a food place as a place to see and be seen after a Friday night game.
We had to drive down "the diagonal" to get there, mostly through a lot of empty land back then.
When they opened in Murray it wasn't quite the same.

Reunion Photo 1982

From left: Paul Sommer, unnamed waitress, Richard Earl stand-in plate, Dave Graehl, Steve Burt

From our Sunday reunion at La Caille

It's hard to imagine that was 30 years ago!

More From the Photo Booth:No Comments Required

It's okay Dave, you're married...

Some Pictures From the Friday Night Get Together

"... don't say you don't remember..." who these people are... and don't ask where were these taken. You should be able to find Edette Erekson, Kerry Bishop, Jan Boyack, Darrell Dean, Lance Merrill, Warren Ashby, Dave Graehl, Roseanne Read, Vicky Massey, Paul Sommer, Bob Hutchings, Carol Hairston, Brenda Barrett, Ken Moon, Pam Pace, Roberta Hayes... plus a few spouses who weren't Bengals to begin with, and how many names did I murder? Thanks again to Warren Ashby for putting this together. The school looked better than I remember it and the food was better too.

From the Photo Booth Files (We Warned You)

Download Our Class Pictures Here!

Here they are... click on the photo you'd like to see. A dialog box will open giving you a choice of what program to use to open the photo. In the upper left it will also give you the opportunity to make a copy on your own computer.

Some of you were in hiding it seems. You'll just have to pick out the best photo of yourself that you can. What can we say? When the photographer said, "If you can't see me. I can't see you," I guess she really meant it.

We now have the CD from the photo booth and we'll start publishing those pictures as well. We haven't decided whether or not to add names.

A Few of Our Class Awards

Awarded to:
Kathy Jensen

Remember Coach Bill Sharman, Zelmo Beatty, Dick Nemelka, Red Robbins, Ron Boone and Willie Wise? In 1972 the Utah Stars won the Western Division Championship with 60 wins and 24 losses. They later fell to their arch-nemesis in the West, the Indiana Pacers.

Say hello for us Kathy.

Awarded to:
Bob Hutchings 

There were at least two local Husky stations: one at 2300 E and one later behind Albertson's on 70th South. We tried to get hold of someone from Wiles Gas Stations for a donation (Brad, where are you?) but couldn't reach them. Other stations we tried included the American at 70th S and Highland Drive and all of the Beelines.

Awarded to:
Gary Fritzsche

Was it really Gary? 

In the early 1970s using the slogan "Getting Better with Age," the hotel added two new wings, 160 guest rooms, a grand ballroom, exhibit space for conventions, a new kitchen, and a new rooftop restaurant. Later, during the1980's they were managed by the Westin Hotel chain, but as the decade closed so did the Hotel. 

More Posts From the Graffiti Board

September 8, 2012... as the room fills.

Remember When... I went to the Woodland Drive-In with friends? Roxanne Hardy ('71) drove and we put Bobbi Leavitt ('72) and Tina Monty ('73) in the empty spare tire compartment so we could use the $$ for Cokes!!
Sorry :(

Remember When... As the cast of Miracle Worker we were very focused on stage. Off stage, not so much - telling Helen Keller jokes. Also, I remember hiding from substitutes in the instrument storage room of the band room. What happened in Reno (Jazz Festival) stays in Reno!

Remember When... Beer was 99 cents per 6 pack, or 69 cents on sale?

Posts From the Reunion Night Graffiti Board

Brenda Coope Baumgardner fills out a comment card for the Graffiti Board

The Graffiti Board yielded up some interesting memories. We wanted to use them during the reunion itself but ran out of time; there never is enough time. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorites here...

"Remember When... someone would call in a bomb threat on a weekly basis in the fall of '71? That meant we'd go out to the stadium and have an impromptu pep rally while they checked the school for bombs."

"Remember When... Jon Drake announced 'keggers' over the school PA system during morning announcements using the code words "steak fry"?

"Remember When... Mr. Sacos chewed out the student body? He said, "You people are sooo rude!"

We Are Still A Very Friendly Group... How Many Here Do You Know?

Dan Wood wins Roger Ingleby's Mercedes in a bet about whether heads or tails comes up more often, as Roger balks and says "Well, not so fast..."  Edette Erekson is showing Geneva Taylor, "That's my new Lamborghini in the parking lot." An incredulous John Shurtleff looks on. Brad Watts watches to see if Elise will abandon her reunion in Bountiful to come to ours. "Really?" says Robert Chappell,  amazed to find out that Holly Johnson and Debbie Wretburg also went to Brighton, meanwhile Jan Boyack is thinking, "Oh great, another picture..."

Brighton High School Class of 1972 Class Picture: 2012

This is not the official class photo... but it sure was hard to get people to line up, smile and look forward. We'll have more info on the official photo and how to get it soon. Click on either picture to enlarge it on your screen, then "roll over" with your mouse to switch between the black and white numbered version and the color version.

1 Roger Ingleby, 2 Geneva Taylor Pearson, 3 Pat Donely, 4 John Shurtleff, 5 Dan Wood, 6 Paul Sommer, 7 Darrell Dean, 8 Steve Miltenberger, 9 David Hansen, 10 Dianne Bergen Beverly, 11 Len Eldridge, 12 Mark Moffitt, 13 Richard Earl, 14 Mark Davenport, 15 Gordon Madsen, 16 Kerry Bishop, 17 Doug Kitt, 18 Ken Moon, 19 Marion "Sam" Hansen, 20 Julie Proctor, 21 Mark Gordon, 22 Kathy Jensen, 23 Ranae Witt Miltenberger, 24 Anne Campbell Hansen, 25 Robert Chappell, 26 Brian Steffensen, 27 David Graehl, 28 Jeff King, 29 Brent Milne, 30 Steve Carlson, 31 Boyd Beck, 32 Jan Boyack Brown, 33 Janet Winslow Ortgiesen, 34 Debbie Wretberg Snedaker, 35 Brad Watts, 36 Lance Merrill, 37 Annette Cook Brems, 38 ReNae Miller Orton, 39 Robert Hutchings, 40 Holly Page Eggertz, 41 Carol Hairston Allen, 42 Edette Erekson Crump, 43 Jeanine Weber Neilson, 44 Cari Coleman Pusey, 45 Scott Archbold, 46 Gary Fritzsche, 47 Brian Powers, 48 Rick Heilbut, 49 Kent Lange, 50 Scott Christiansen, 51 Brenda Coope Baumgardner, 52 Cathie Martines Wagstaff, 53 Holly Johnson Richards, 54 Lin Petit Brown, 55 Alan Hashimoto, 56 Brenda Berrett Dahlgren, 57 Randy Finnas, 58 Shauna Clark Bromburger, 59 Dan Rogers (image) 60 Rosanne Reed Schulthies, 61 Bobbi Leavitt Widerburg, 62 Steve Campbell, 63 Teresa Wright Cunningham, 64 Leslie Robinson, 65 Terri Erickson Meadows, 66 Brad Milne, 67 Pam Clift Wootten, 68 Robyn Rose McCloy, 69 Vicky Massey Hagman, 70 Marchelle Brown, 71 Lynn Crayk, 72 Carol Ecklund McBride, 73 Sharlene Beeny Kiertead, 74 Jodi Hess Ellsworth, 75 Terry Van Wagoner

Quick Update: Bengals Gathering 9/8/2012

Wow! It was a great evening wasn't it? We all looked fabulous (who invited all the old people though?) and no fist fights broke out. Thanks again to the reunion committee for putting their efforts into making the event so memorable: Lynn Crayk, Holly Johnson Richards, Cathie Martines Wagstaff, Dianne Bergen Beverly, Dave Graehl, Rick Heilbut, Brenda Berrett Dahlgren, Lin Petit Brown, Kathy Jensen and Jan Boyack Brown. Special thanks to classmate (and de facto committee member rep in Colorado) Leslie Robinson and her husband Paul Kikuchi for all their efforts in gathering pictures, music and software to make this short tribute to our class.
Here is the llink to the class video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vff-gjLpPfI 
Keep checking in because we'll continue to post reunion photos, comments from the Grafitti Board, Brighton-related trivia and other important updates... like how to get a copy of that great class photo! If you have any questions or suggestions for posts please let me know.
Thanks to everyone for responding, attending and making the night such a wonderful memory for us all. If you couldn't make it this time plan for the next gathering: save 10 cents per month and you should be good. Many of you were missed and asked about...
Best wishes to us all in the coming years,
Steve Burt

Seems Like Hogle Kazoos All Over Again!

The Least You Need to Know for This Weekend!

When: Friday, September 7 at 6:00 PM

Where: Brighton High School

Cost: Free

You can bring something to snack on but it's not required.

Dress Code: Come as you are... within reason.

 

When: Saturday, September 8 at 6:00 PM

Where: Hidden Valley Country Club

Cost: $75 at the door includes dinner, photos

Dress Code: Collared shirts for men, no denim

 

If you have already paid your name should appear in the column to the right and we will have your nametags ready. For more information read the posts on this page. We'll continue to post relevant information on the site including pictures, as long as we have something useful to say.

Reunion Evening Activities - Part 6

For those who can't resist a good competition, we'll be giving out ten valuable awards for class members who stand out in specially selected categories. The nature of the awards will not lend themselves to being won by deceit: we may ask for proof from the person claiming the Most Tatoos, for example. We will not be announcing the other categories in advance, but now that you know what two of them are you could fly to London, get a dozen or so tatoos and fly back to Salt Lake City by Saturday afternoon, just in time to shower and dress up in 1) no blue jeans and 2) collared shirts for men (see previous notes below regarding dress code) and then make it in time for the Social Hour(s) from 6:00 PM onward. You can self park on the east side of the building, or valet park if a 50 yard walk is too much, arriving just in time to win Person Who Travelled the Farthest and Most Tatoos.

No Longer On Tour... The Rocky Mountain Quick Step Jug Band

Though some band members will make appearances on September 8, we have been unable to secure a reunion tour performance...

Forty Year Reunion Attendance: Up Slightly From 2002

Click image to see more interesting facts about our class!

Listed below are a few things that I found interesting about our reunion and about our class that seemed worthy of sharing...

1) Our Brighton High School Class of 1972 had about 390 people; I am not sure how many eventually received diplomas. Actually, we all received pictures of the class instead of diplomas until we turned in our caps and gowns, and sometimes jumped through a few final hoops.
2) About 10% of our classmates have already passed away due to illness and accident. We'll have a memorial table at the reunion so you can see who is no longer able to attend and who we'll miss seeing.
3) Out of 390 people we could only track down solid contact information for about 190 of us. (I keep saying 'about' because I am too lazy to get more accurate counts. It changes daily.)
4) We mailed invites to about 190 people, 88 women and 102 men.
5) Of those 190 classmates we attempted to contact, so far 72 have signed up (not including spouses). That comes to 35 women (40%), 37 men (36%), plus about 50 spouses.
6) With people signing up this week or showing up at the door our reunion promises to be slightly larger than 10 years ago: over 130 people!

Reunion Evening Activities - Part 5

If you have any extra time between now and September 8th, you might want to study up on the who, what, when and where's of the year's most important events. With all the visiting that will be going on before dinner it just may be that only a few people will get around to answering some fiendishly clever 1972 trivia questions. The prizes, if any, may not be too valuable in terms of real $$$ but the respect you'll gain for remembering the answers (no 'smart phones' allowed) will follow you all the way home afterward. Here are some suggested topics for study: movies/cinema, popular music, political events and people, sports and local culture. Hint: Henry Kissinger is the answer to only one of the questions shown here. See how it works...?

From Our Survey: Bengal's #1 Most Mentioned Hangout in High School

Photo Courtsey Utah State Historical Society, taken at 1965 Grand Opening

Free comic books, free baby food, cheap hamburgers and shakes, and somehow everyone seemed to end up there: yes, it's JB's Big Boy! It wasn't all that close to Cottonwood Heights, but then nothing else was either. JB's was always busy on Fridays after games and on Saturday nights too. Sometimes it was full of Olympus cheerleaders, sometimes Hillcrest football players, and sometimes Granite or Murray High students got thrown in the mix. But always, it was a high school hangout at it's core.

Best known for its signature Big Boy burger, a three part sesame seed bun with two thin meat patties, cheese and the special Big Boy sauce (was this the inspration for the Big Mac?), we also loved their strawberry pie and hot fudge cake served with real hot fudge. Like so many other favorite places, it's gone now. Of course 33rd and 7th is still there but following successive remodels that turned JB's into some other kind of food service, restauranteurs just couldn't make a go it. For us it will always be JB's corner, always be Friday night and always have a place in our hearts.

More Insights From Our Survey - Part D, More Favorite Places

We loved our cars and where they could take us. Gas was only $0.29/gallon and even though the old beaters we drove got 7 to 10 miles per gallon, if everyone pitched in a buck it was enough. That was a good thing because nothing was close to where we lived. We had to drive for miles. Drive-In movies like the Highland were the perfect solution to a dating dilemma; we had a car, but where to go? The Highland let us park for hours at a time without attracting too much attention! In addition to seeing a first run movie you got to stay in your car, eat pizza and ice cream, make out with your boyfriend or girlfriend, and play on the playground and look around to see who else was there. The Highland Drive-In was a popular spot with Brighton Bengals in 1972, the year that brought us "Diamonds Are Forever", "Shaft's Big Score" and "The Getaway".

Some movies demanded a more traditional viewing. The Villa Theater was an elegant choice, offering it's wide screen Cinerama, plush velvet seating and it's lower level restrooms below the snack bar. But there was no ADA accesibility in those days. If you were in a wheelchair you just had to wait until you got back home. Still, you could buy a comb, a shoe horn, a packet of tissues or some other useful gadget from the restroom vending machines; better value than the games at Jordan Commons today. At the Villa that year we watched "What's Up, Doc?" and "Jeremiah Johnson". "Deep Throat" was there too, but we weren't old enough to see it. Of course, you could always lift a number from the phone book with Scotch Tape; then carefully cut it and place it over the numbers on your Driver's License to advance your age by a year or two, but you would never do that, would you?

More From Our Survey: Part C, Some Favorite Places

It was with sadness and regret that we mourned the passing of Snelgrove's Ice Cream Parlor. Most of us grew up taking Snelgrove's rich and creamy ice cream for granted: a place to take a date after a movie, a place to celebrate after a sports victory, or a place to just hang out looking to see who else had nothing else to do that night. Sometimes the line was back to the front door. The 'magic eye' doors were ahead of their time. The back wall was covered with the names of dozens of flavors of ice creams and sherbets. Is it my imagination, or was the lighting at the edges of the parking lot blue? One thing was certain, if you waited for a booth-then waited for your ice cream, you waited a long, long time.By 2008 the franchise had been purchased by Dreyer's and the store closed, leaving us only with fond memories of carmel pecan malts, cashew conquistadors and banana splits.

The Cottonwood Mall is another favorite Bengal hangout that has passed on into history. Who can forget the novelty of first shopping "indoors"? Let your memories take you back to ZCMI, lunch at the Hot Shoppes cafeteria, the circle stairway to the second level, Bud's Duds, Florsheim Shoes, The Record Shop, Hart Brothers Music, the "Singing Christmas Tree", Woolworths, Skaggs Drugstore and Penneys. How much time, youth and money was spent at the lower mall, either at the bookstore or at the slot car track across the hallway? You could buy your groceries at Albertson's, get your hair cut, go bowling at the Cottonwood Lanes and eventually see a movie at the Cottonwood Mall Theaters. And with a good imagination it's all still there, just like it was in 1972.

Reunion Day Activities: Anyone Can Plan an Event

Some of you bengals have wondered about whether or not we have planned any daytime reunion activities. The short answer is: we haven't planned any. A shorter answer is: none.

This isn't to say that some activities couldn't happen, especially since so many classmates will be in town for our evening events. Why waste the whole day getting ready? One person has compared this to a Prom; we like to get dressed up and have a fun event that we can look back on for years (like Prom) but during the day we may want to get together as smaller groups for what kids now refer to as a "day date." This "day date" might be golf, a daytime picnic, a visit to Brighton High, a tour of all the old hangouts that don't exist anymore (can you say Cottonwood Heights or Mount View Elementary) or any number of other informal, dress down activities.

To try out this idea we thought about using this class website to help people connect. If you have a plan, an idea or an event, or if there are certain people you don't want to miss, we can use this site as a sort of personal ad section. Email your event idea including a place (that you have reserved or know you can use), a time, how many people you want to join you, and your name and contact information to photos@brighton72.com. We will re-post it like a classified ad on the right side of the webpage, near the bottom. If your event fills up (like a golf foursome might) be sure to let us know and we'll announce it on your notice. If it doesn't, try promoting it on Facebook.

Reunion Evening Activities - Part 4

Checking in at the door: Come prepared to leave a message on our "graffiti board" as you arrive and receive your name tag. Our name tags will have your yearbook picture, assuming it's available and you give us enough advance warning that you're attending, and your current name. The "graffiti board" is a way to share something interesting about yourself, a favorite quote, a note about where you've been hiding out, a sketch of yourself, or a note to someone to find you at the reunion etc. If you're really organized you could bring a family photo, a business card, something that you borrowed and give it back (hint) or one of those papers with little strips to tear off with your phone number. For most of us there will be paper and pens to fill something out on the spot. During dinner we'll be sharing these nuggets of wisdom with the entire class so compose carefully and don't embarrass yourself. Just say it... you've wanted to for 40 years!

Highlights From Our Informal Survey - Part B

Some of the cars we drove to school in 1972... don't we wish we still had them? Gas was $0.29 per gallon. Who remembers the green VW bug playing chicken with Gary Cowley in the Brighton driveway? Their door handles collided. The owner claims they once had eight girls crammed inside! One owner of a little white Toyota claimed they were never stuck in the snow due to the capabilities of the car combined with 50 lbs. of salt in the trunk. The driver of the Corvair convertible claimed he or she could climb anything with it... Mt. Olympus? But their Dad kept killing the engine because he always tried to "double clutch". The driver of a 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne mentioned that the backseat floorboard was rusted out so that you could see the road rush by as you drove along; they considered it quite refreshing. Many of us drove our parents cars to school, while others of us never drove to school at all. I remember one night driving along 2700 E in the backseat of a classmate's parent's station wagon, trying to get it up to 100 mph! Headed south, we missed the curve and drove part way up the hillside, almost hitting a house. Remember the advent of seatbelts? Cars: barely alive with 'em, but can't live without 'em.