DEMAREST, N.J.—With high school commencements right around the corner, here’s a look at a graduation photo going back 60 years, to the class of 1965. This one comes from Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest.
The photo with the 1950s Volkswagen Beetle was staged for that year’s “Northern Lights” yearbook. It fit well with the theme of the valedictory address, “Miles to Go.” The class numbered 239.
“As our senior year draws to its conclusion, we are able to evaluate, with perspective, the impact of our years at Northern Valley. There are some seemingly endless days, and some that sped by too quickly. These were our impressionable years—each moment filled with new fields of knowledge, with wide horizons of thought, with vast exploration, with boundless joys, with indelible sorrows,” says a senior class statement in the 1965 yearbook.
“During our four years, we have sparked a county championship tennis team, and our track and baseball teams have won state championships. The Class of ’65 has sponsored dances and fund-raising drives. ‘The Monster Mash’ was our sophomore social and financial success. Selling candy and Christmas cards were also lucrative ventures.
“‘Father of the Bride,’ our senior dramatic effort, was acclaimed throughout the Valley as an outstanding achievement.
“The educational patterns we have developed these past years are the sum total of the very best our faculty, parents and friends have offered us to help us meet the responsibilities and challenges ever-present in our troubled, ever-changing world.”
