This year's Central High School class reunion 1960 to 1970 was a bittersweet experience for Martha Hamilton.

Hamilton, a 1968 graduate whose maiden name is Gill, and her husband Tom, a class of 1965 graduate and her high school sweetheart, had Martha's sister Laura Whitaker on their mind, as did many of their friends.

"She was so excited about the reunion when she got her invitation," said Martha. "She was the one who got everybody together and made sure they'd be here."

Whitaker, a graduate of 1967, died earlier this year. A picture Martha carried reminded her friends of the loss.

The Hamiltons and their friends were some of the nearly 500 people who registered for the reunion for graduates of the '60s decade held on Friday and Saturday. Over the weekend the Central alumni visited at the Show Me Center, toured the new Central High School and saw classic car shows.

Some came from as far away as Maine, California and Texas to be a part of the reunion, and most had plenty of memories of people and places to share with old friends.

A popular spot during activities at the Show Me Center was a display of drawings of once-popular hangouts in Cape Girardeau. Illustrations of places like Wimpy's and the StarVue Drive-In encouraged memories among those who saw the drawings.

Marble Hill, Mo., native Jeanie Eddleman did the drawings. She didn't graduate from Central, but her husband Harley was a member of the class of 1968.

Some had memories of a drive-in restaurant called Pfister's, like 1965 graduate Dwayne Brown. Brown was taking old food boxes from the drive-in, circa 1964, around to people at the reunion, asking them to sign.

Sally Wright Metz and her friends Linda Maddux Wehmeyer and Barbara Hobbs Brune, all of the class of 1966, saw the reunion as a time to become teens again.

The three looked at old pictures and talked of their days as cheerleaders and majorettes with smiles and laughter.

"You'd think they were in high school again," friend and class president John Hoffman said of the trio. "Nothing has changed."

Metz said the greatest part about going to Central was the education, with teachers who cared and inspired her like Mildred Vogelsang, whose influence led Metz into the education field.

For Hamilton it's the things that have been learned since school. Along with remembering her sister, she liked to find out what people were up to today, and where unexpected turns in life had taken them -- and how much they've learned over the years.

"The wisdom we've gained has given us the ability to separate the important things in life from the trivial things," Hamilton said.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182