Bippus High School - Bipponet Yearbook (Bippus, IN)

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CLASS PROPHEC Y It was the month of May, the year of 2010. I was a reporter for the movie, The Story of a City, Bippus, my home town, was now the fifth largest city in the United States and I was employed by the movie company, ZAX, which was making a movie about this small village, which increased its population by thousands during the last fifty- three years. I was assigned to interview the Class of 1957 of Bippus High School, which now enrolled four thousand students in the high school alone. First on my list was Kent Bickel, I didn't have to travel far to interview him be- cause he had a 500 acre dairy farm right on the edge of Bippus and owned the Bickel Dairy, His farm was the biggest and best of its kind in northern Indiana. As I drove my atomic car up the long lane leading to his beautiful home, I saw his grandchildren play- ing in front of the huge, white house in which Grandpa Bickel, his wife fa Bippus girl, by the wayj, two sons, and their families lived, I found that he had not changed from the time I knew him in school, except for growing bald and adding some weight. I asked him if he could tell me where any of his old classmates were living and had he kept in contact with many of them during the last fifty-three years, He gave me all the addresses that he knew, and I went on my way, Next on my list was Janet Hrschel. Her address was 2081 Green Street, Fort Wayne. As I drove up in front of the large, neat home, I wondered if Janet had married her school- time sweetheart, Joe Leonhardt, I knocked on the door and a sweet old lady answered. I soon recognized her as my old friend, Janet, She told me that--yes--she and Joe had married and he was still teaching History at South Side High School, She offered me some cookies she had just baked for her grandchildren who dropped in at her house every after- noon after school. I casually mentioned to her that wasn't Joe just a little old to be teach- ing school, and she said that he liked to teach so well that he hated to retire, She told me that sometime that summer Joe and she were going to Florida. She said that Joe still loved to fish and that while they were in Florida he was going to teach her to fish. I chuckled to myself because I remembered Janet getting so mad while she was still in high school because Joe wouldn't take her fishing with him. Before I left, Janet asked me ifI remembered the former Kaye Michel and I said that I did and that I would like to inter- view her, too, before I left Fort Wayne, Janet and Kaye were good friends and neighbors and she told me that Kaye lived just down the block from her, so I decided to make that my next stop. When I arrived at Kaye's house and talked to her, she said that she, too, had married her school sweetheart, Larry Hoch. She was just packing their suitcases for their long awaited trip to Europe. She said her sons had been running Larry's TV Shop since Larry had retired eight years ago, Since he had retired, she and he had taken life easy, I didn't want to interrupt Kaye any longer, so I climbed into my atomic car and headed for good old Bippus. After resting, I went to the airport to catch an atomic jet to Texas to interview Joan Zinsmeister, a well-known retired TV announcer, After I boarded the plane, I found my traveling companion for the trip to Texas was none other than my old school chum, Smokey Sands. He was very thrilled, he told me, because he himself had been a pilot for twenty years and he said that this was the first time he had traveled in one of these modern jets. He had come to Indiana to see his one and only grandson, who was a movie star at ZAX. He and his wife had settled in California after his early retirement, 11 think Stan invented early, early retirements,j

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Our eleventh grade was a lot of fun but we could hardly wait until we were Seniors. Shirley Kaufman quit school this year. We also had another scrap drive this year, which was a lot of fun. We combined forces with the Seniors to have a class play. We had lots of fun and action in Quiz Me Again. Also this year we took our Junior and Senior trip. It was from May sixth to eleventh. There were twenty-one that went. We were sponsored by the principal and his wife, Mr. and ' Mrs. Tilson King, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Ward, and Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sell, Well, here we are Seniors at last. We have had a lot of fun and disappointments during these twelve years, Our Senior play for this year was Atta Boy, Walt. Ronnie and Kent played the parts of two mischievous boys. Our class party this year included a bowling party with supper at Mr, and Mrs. Jack Sell's house and a trip to the coliseum that turned out to be a flop. Now as we are about to graduate we remember the good and not so good times, old friends, and teachers with fond memories of our school days. We will go our separate ways, some to work, some to college, some to marriage, and others to the armed forces. We hope to have a reunion sometime to remember our days at BIPPUS HIGH SCHOOL. We Seniors want to thank Mrs. Jack Sell for sticking by us all four years in High School. SENIOR BABY PICTURES - '5'sS' MAX TORPY v is - L -s,...4- JANET URSCHEL ,B A '-wrt S liebe i s-A E Q 'W RONNIE BURTON 9' 'S A -it-ez, ' I, ,A w est if RUTH PRILAMAN as of is STAN SANDS X 5 ' KAYE MICHEL 'E-.A LANCE STEFFEN JOAN ZIN SMEIST ER KENT BICKEL Q 'Y

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when I arrived in Dallas, I checked in at the Torpy Hotel. I thought that the name sounded familiar, so I asked to see the manager, and who was the manager? You guessed it, none other than old Duck Torpy. Duck had had the run of this prosperous hotel since his dad had turned it over to him when he was just twenty-one years old. He excused him- self after we had talked for just a short twenty minutes, he told me that he had a date with a wealthy Texas widow and didn't want to be late. He told me that all his girl friends still affectionately called him Duck. I arrived at Joan's penthouse home in time for dinner. We chatted over our steaks and Joan told me about her interesting career. She hadn't had time for dates, she told me, so had never married, but since she had retired she was back in circulation again and was now engaged to marry a sweet old gentleman she had met in Dallas. She told me that she still liked to jitterbug and had just won a jitterbugging contest the week before. After I interviewed Joan and checked out of the hotel, I boarded a plane back to Bippus. When I got back to Bippus, I was famished, as I hadn't eaten since I had had dinner with Ioan in Dallas six hours before. I sat down in a booth next to a tall, grey- haired old man, and who do you suppose it was--Lance Steffen, another old schoolmate. He told me he had spent forty years in the army and had retired with a good pension and had been traveling all over the world ever since, Back in Bippus. I saw that the next name on the list was Ruth Prilaman, Ruth lived in the nearby village of Huntington. She had married Dick Bechtold, her old high school sweetheart, She and he were living quietly since he had retired as president of the Farm Bureau Association of Indiana. They often visited their ten children and eighteen grand- children who were scattered all over the tri-states, I had just one more name on my list, that of Ronnie Burton. I found that I would have to travel back south again, to Indianapolis, to find Ronnie. I found him, his wife, his sons, and three grandchildren getting ready to go to the race track to see what was now the 5, 000 mile jet auto race, As Ronnie had won the 500 and 1, 000 mile races in his earlier years at Indianapolis, he was still very much interested in racing. He told me he had four sons, and now, twelve grandchildren, all boys. I talked to Ronnie more about his exciting career while we drove to the race track, and told him what I had found his old classmates doing when I visited them. I hope you all saw the movie, The Story of a City, and saw my friends, the Class of 1957,