By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com
For Norm Horner, he will always remember the day that Riverdale High School opened its doors to students on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1964, because, the night before, he attended the only concert that The Beatles ever performed in Montreal at the Old Forum.
“I walked into school thinking I was the only student who had gone to see them play but found out I was just one of many who had gone,” Horner told The Suburban.
Graduating in 1967, Horner went on to become a teacher and principal before retiring in 2008 and then getting back in touch with his alma mater. Now, Horner and a number of volunteers have been planning behind the scenes for the last year and a half for the upcoming RHS 50th reunion taking place during the May 15-17 weekend.
The Friday night event will include a jam night where alumni with musical talent will be invited to take the stage and will include students from all years and ages. A teacher’s reception will occur the next evening from 5-7 p.m., where alumni can check in with some of their favourite educators who made a difference in their young, academic lives.
“Word of the reunion is spreading and we are expecting between 1,500 and 2,000 participants,” said Horner who has confirmations from old students coming from various provinces, California, New York and even two from the United Kingdom.
When asked if Betty, Archie or Jughead would be invited, Horner laughed at the old tired joke but told The Suburban that there was a contest held to name the school “and the urban myth goes that the young lady who submitted that name did it because it was the same name of the school in the Archie comics.”
To find out more about the RHS 50th anniversary reunion, visit them on Facebook care of RHS 50th Anniversary Reunion or the website at www.riverdale50reunion.com.
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);
ga(‘create’, ‘UA-45892555-1’, ‘auto’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);
