The 70th and final reunion of Dartmouth’s Class of 1954

Back in the 1950s, Dartmouth High School’s “Harmonettes” would often practice at their music teacher’s Elm Street home, said group members Eileen Fenton and Louise Travers, whose favorite tunes at the time were “Vaya Con Dios” and “Rags to Riches,” respectively, according to The Harpoon, their yearbook.

And unbeknownst to them one night, a group of boys from their class, who seemed to always know where everyone was, placed rocks in Fenton’s hubcaps, hoping the Harmonettes would pull over to check out the noise.

“They thought they'd pull a prank and scare us [by jumping] out of the cemetery, but it didn't happen,” Fenton said.

The Harmonettes, having too much fun singing and laughing together, didn’t hear a thing, she said. Not to mention the rain, which began to fall as the boys, defeated from their failed prank, got drenched walking home.

The story wasn’t hard to believe as the Harmonettes’ laughter seemingly echoed through time to the James Arnold Mansion in New Bedford on Saturday, Sept. 7, with the Class of 1954 gathering for its final Dartmouth High School reunion. 

Seventy years later, the jokes are still funny and the stories just as good. 

“We had good sports, good programs and we just as always had fun,” Travers said.

One of the last classes to attend Dartmouth High at what is now Town Hall, she said, “We knew everybody from freshmen to seniors” due to the small class sizes, with only 86 graduates in her class.

And seeing those familiar faces was just as exciting as alumni cheered for each arrival, including some of those who traveled from states like New Hampshire and Connecticut.

Travers pointed out how a few of the alumni in attendance she had gone to school with since the first grade at the Padanaram School. After the fifth grade, those students ended up getting bused to a few different schools over the years due to a fire at the Cushman School. 

However, Travers said there were quite a few students she didn’t meet until high school as they attended  the Russells Mills and Gidley schools, which went through to the eighth grade.

Priscilla Mosher, who had gone to Russells Mills prior to Dartmouth High, said she actually never finished school, but is still considered a member of the class.

With two months remaining in the school year, the superintendent had approached her and told her, “Turn in your books,” she was no longer a high school student, but an employee in his office. 

Though she was sad she missed the “good part” of senior year, she said she stayed with the school department for 37 years — “that doesn't happen today.”

Despite this being the class’ final formal reunion, Marsha Murphy said many of them will still meet up for lunch. 

Travers said they travel the South Coast, trying out different restaurants about once a month, adding they also often see each other around town.

“It's just getting back to the friends that you had in your younger days,” she said.