30 Year Reunion Details

Join your "old" friends from the Orem High Class of 1987 at 6 PM on Friday, July 14, 2017, at the Mt. Timpanogos Park Bowery for a 30 year reunion.  This evening will be fun and casual with time to eat, visit, and reminisce with friends.   

We will have a chef from Magelby's on site serving up burgers (updated) pulled pork sandwiches, fruit, salad, and Magelby's famous chocolate cake.  The cost of all that deliciousness is just $18.50 per person.  You can pay by paypal (ohs1987@gmail.com) or send a check, payable to OHS Class of 87, to Stacey Oppermann, 437 Elise Street, Sandy, UT 84070.

If that’s not your style, bring your own food or eat first, but come anyway.

Here are a few things you can do to get ready. 

If you are coming and eating the Magelby’s food, please send us your money by Friday, June 30, 2017, so we can get a final count to the caterer.

Whether you are coming or not: 

- Spread the word to anyone from our class.

- Fill out this survey, https://goo.gl/forms/phzp2OIqmzCOurZJ3

- Send us a picture (with any necessary explanation) of you, your family or something else you think will be interesting to your fellow OHS ’87ers.

If you have questions, please send us an email (ohs1987@gmail.com) or ask on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ohs1987)

A Wrap on the 25 Year Reunion

Thanks to everyone who helped with and came to the reunion last week.  We had a great time with great people, good food and a nice tour of the new high school.

Here are a few items to wrap things up for this year:

1- We've posted some pictures from the reunion here, and there are a few on the Facebook page too.  If you have pictures from the reunion that you'd like to share, please post them on the Facebook page or send them to us and we can post them.

2- We've added a Memorial page to the blog to remember the members of our class who have died.   If you know of someone we've missed or if you have any additional information that you think should be added for someone on the page, please reply to this message and let us know. 

3- At this year's reunion we decided on July 14-15, 2017 for the 30 year reunion.  Hopefully 5 years is enough time to prepare.  We hope you'll mark your calendars now and plan to attend.  We'll decide on details later.  If you'd like to help with the reunion, please reply to this message and let us know.

Thanks again.  See you in 2017.

Last Call!

Here's one last reminder about the our 25 year reunion dinner this Friday.

If you would like to come, and we think you should, please let us know by using the PayPal payment option here by the end of the day today.

 If you can't come for the dinner, we hope to see you and your family in the park on Saturday.

Again, all the details about the reunion are here.

Don't miss this chance to come talk about the old times with some people who were there to see them.

Note: This random sample is not intended to imply or demand attendance by any of the pictured parties.

OHS Reunion Update: The Deadline is Looming

We're just one week away from the reunion.  We need a final count for the Friday evening dinner by Monday, July 16, so there's still time to let us know you are coming and send payment using PayPal here.

No such pressure for the park activity on Saturday, July 21st.  Feel free to wait until the last minute to decide to come to that one.

Hope to see you there.

The Reunion is Almost Here

We're just days away from the OHS '87 25 year reunion.

If you're planning to come to the dinner Friday, June 20, but haven't sent in your money yet, please send it.  The food folks need a final count soon, so, as they say in the infomercials, act now!  You'll find information for paying by check or PayPal here.

If you aren't planning to come, change your plans! We'd love to see you.

If you need help getting in the mood, check out these photos from our last reunion.

Come on.  You know you want to be there.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Ready for the reunion? New dinner details and pay options.

Our 25 year reunion is coming up fast.  You can find all the details here.

We've added this page to the blog with information about the dinner activity and options for paying by check or using PayPal.  It costs a little more to use PayPal because of their fees, but it should be fast and convenient.  

Costa Vida needs some time to prepare, so if you haven't paid yet, please do it as soon as possible.  We'll need a final count by Friday, July 13th.  That sounds ominous.  So, if you are superstitious, you should probably just pay now.

We are still looking for email addresses for people on our Missing Persons list.  If you know anyone there, please contact us or have them email us at ohs1987@gmail.com.

So get a date...

...or come alone, but come meet and eat with us on July 20 from 6:30 to 9 PM!

OHS Class of 1987 25 year Reunion Details

Our 25 year class reunion is almost here!  Come catch up with old friends, see the new school and introduce your kids to the people you've told them all those stories about.

We have two activities planned:   

Dinner for Adults
When: Friday, July 20 from 6:30-9 PM
Where: The new Orem High School Commons
What: Food from Costa Vida, Fun with Friends
What will it cost: $15 per person
How can I pay: Send the names of the people who'll be attending and a check ($15 per person) made out to OHS Class of 1987 to:

OHS 1987 Rules
255 S 700 E
Orem, UT 84097

[update] If you'd prefer to use PayPal, you can do that from this page.

Picnic in the Park for Families
When: Saturday, July 21 from 10AM - noon
Where: North Pavilion at the Orem City Center Park
What: Relaxing and playing in the park with friends and their families
What will it cost:  Nothing! Just come
What should I bring: Your Family, any food you want to eat, a ball, a frisbee or any other games you want to play.

You can get the latest updates on the class reunion blog, ohs1987.blogspot.com or on our Facebook page, facebook.com/ohs1987

We're still trying to get the word out so, please tell all your OHS '87 friends and stop by the updated Missing Persons page to see if you can help us find anyone there.  If you see anyone you can help with, send (or have them send) their email address to ohs1987@gmail.com.

Thanks for your help.  We hope to see you in July!

OHS Class of 87 Reunion is Coming July 20 and 21, 2012!

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 25 years since we wrapped up our time at Orem High. That seems like a milestone worth celebrating, and who better to celebrate with than the people who were there?

We're putting together a reunion for July 20 and 21, 2012. We'll post more details as it gets nearer, but the plan is to have a dinner for adults on Friday the 20th in the commons at the new high school and then a family activity at the Orem City Center Park on Saturday the 21st.

We need your help spreading the word, so please tell all your OHS '87 friends and have a look at the missing persons list here to see if you can help us contact any of those folks.

If you'd be willing to help get things ready, please let us know. You can email us at ohs1987@gmail.com.

Introducing Our New Facebook Page

We've started a Facebook page as a place to talk about and plan reunions. You can find a link to it over there in the right column.

As we start thinking about a 25 year reunion, we hope this page will help us find people and come up with a time and place that will work for as many people as possible.

Come "like" the page, let us know what you think about a 25 year reunion, tag yourself and your friends in the photos we've uploaded from past reunions, add your own photos or do whatever it is you do on Facebook.

The Old and the New

A few weeks ago, on the last day of school, Orem High asked people from the community to come and help move things from the old school to the new one.

They had a great response and by the time I got there, they were nearly done. I moved some costumes over and then just wandered the two schools and took some pictures.

You can see all the pictures in this Picasa Web Album, but here are a few:

The new school meets what's left of C gym.


Looking west down D Hall


The lounge with its stylish tiger print bench covers.


The main hall in the new school. The tan of the lockers just doesn't have the same zip as the 20 coats of tiger blue on the old ones.


In fact, some folks took old locker doors as mementos.


The main entry of the new school with the cafeteria and mezzanine on the left.


The old, the new and the honey bucket.


The old school store.


Looking east down E hall.


I think I had geometry from Mrs Browning in this room.


Dan Miller's biology classroom. Dan is still there, in fact he seemed to be in charge of organizing the move volunteers.


Looking south from E hall.


The Unified Studies classroom.


A gym.


B gym looking good--as always.


How many computers where there in the high school when we were there? This is one of several computer labs in the new school.


Dance Class.


The new weight room is a bit of an improvement over the one we used.


I don't want to say they were disrespecting the past, but I did find trophies in some weird places in the new building. I expect they will find a more permanent home once the dust settles.


Even the current students seemed impressed with the new building. Actually, he's probably just trying to decide if he can get into the duct work through that hole.


Mr Downs in his new digs.


Mr Wakefield's new room.


Many of the rooms in the new building have some great views, but...


Mr Miller's corner office may win the prize. You can't tell from this picture, but he's got panoramic views of Timpanogos and Cascade.


A new home for Mr Mower's taxidermy.


A view of the main entrance from the mezzanine


New art room.


A space for the choir.


And one for the band and all their trophies...


including this one from 1987.

In the past week or so they've started to tear down the main portions of the old school in earnest. I have a few pictures of that that I'll post later.

Oh Boy! more construction photos

I took the kids on a walk around the old school last week and took a few photos.

The kids loved playing on the tennis courts and the bleachers and riding their scooters down the ramp behind the cafeteria, but were a little timid about walking past the signs that said, "Construction Area Do Not Enter." Rather than tell them how disappointed Joe Mackay would be, we pretty much stuck to pictures from outside the fences.

You can see a slideshow of some of the pictures below or see larger images by clicking through to the album.

Maybe I'll go back later and see if I can get some close ups. Joe, if you're out there, let me know when you are available.

Plans for the New High School

Watching the growing bulk of buildings at Orem High School got me curious about just what the place is supposed to look like when it's all done, so I poked around online a little and found a few things.

This PDF on the school's website included a map of the plan that looks something like this (click the image for a larger view):


Here's a page from the website of Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects, the firm that designed the building. It includes a few renderings of what the finished product should look like on a day with dramatic clouds and semi-transparent students.

From the high school's website, a page with links to several renderings of the new building on a much less exciting day.

And finally, just for fun, from the high schools website, a now out of date picture of the construction from the air:

OHS v2 Going Up

I had plans to take and post pictures of the progress of the construction at the high school, but it hasn't happened.

This evening I had a chance to stop by briefly and take a few shots. If you click on the images you should be able to see a larger view.

Here's one looking over what used to be the parking lot at the auditorium. You can see that they've poured the floor for a building of some kind.

This shot is looking north from just south of where the shops used to be over more of that cement floor they've poured. You can see the old smoke stack from the shops and some of the roof of the B-gym (remember C-gym was completely torn down) just left of the shell of a large new building they've been working on.

This picture is just a little to the right and east of that last one. The football field is in the middle of this picture, but hidden behind the new buildings they are putting up.

With any luck, in the next little while I'll get in and poke around the construction site. If I do, I'll post some more pictures.

Digitizing Orem's Past

Here's an interesting article from the Salt Lake Tribune about a project underway to digitize and preserve old photos of Orem. The article begins with a story about Germans in a World War II era prisoner of war camp near the present-day location of Canyon View Junior High and ends with information about how to submit any photos you may want to donate.

Speaking of old photos of Orem, here are a couple of great ones of the construction of Geneva Steel with Mount Timpanogos in the background from the Library of Congress' donations to Flickr.

A Call for Websites

Do you have a family or personal website or blog that you would like to let other members of the class know about? Send us the URL and we'll post it here and on the class website.

OHS Construction Update #3

This past week we got a newsletter from the Alpine School District that included an update on bonding projects. Here's what it said about Orem High:

The construction on the rebuild of Orem High School on the existing property began in April. Partial demolition and the construction of parking lots and tennis courts started in June. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by July 2010.

I went by the other day to check it out and took a few pictures. I'll post a few below, but you'll find more here.

Here's a new parking lot they've added north of the school.


The hole that was the C-gym.


A shot from the north-west corner of the school lot showing the new parking lot they've added in front of the building.


Looking across the new parking lot at the welcoming main entrance.


Some people might be confused by this.


Looks like they are almost ready to pour the new tennis courts.


The remaining 3 tennis courts are getting new net posts and new fencing.


A little more parking behind the east bleachers.