ORANGE : Remaking History--for Profit

Organizers of Orange High’s Grad Night discovered that the school’s past was a bountiful resource for the future.

Faced with a daunting projection of $25,000 in costs for the spring graduation party, sponsors hit on the idea of producing and selling a 1996 calendar with scenes from the city’s past. The only trouble was, there were few historical photos available.

So Judy Schroeder and other organizers staged some “historical” events that portrayed incidents and images of the city’s past, and they asked alumni, some from as long ago as the Class of 1917, to join this year’s seniors in posing for the photos.

The resulting buff-colored calendar features 63 graduating seniors and 20 alumni posed in period costumes to re-create city scenes. Actual photos from years past are included, along with news and gossipy snippets from the old Orange Daily News and the school’s Orange & White.

Finding older alumni was not difficult, Schroeder said. The current mailing list for alumni from all classes numbers about 4,500, and many have stayed in the area.

The alumni were encouraged to search out family photos for the calendar, then lend them to the city’s historical society.

“There is a constant need for pictures of Orange from all time frames,” said Adrienne Gladson, the society’s president. “The calendar has helped in that regard.”

Past grads said the project gave them a good excuse to go through their scrapbooks.

“It was fun for everyone,” said Marilyn Herrlein, class of ’44.

Herrlein was photographed for the March page with four seniors and alumna Melba Tatum Estes, class of ‘37, in a tableau re-creating the Orange Lionettes, a women’s softball team. Estes brought along one of the original satin uniforms.

Seniors, too, were caught up in the spirit of the project. Jennifer French, 17, who posed with her twin sister, Marianne, for a flapper tableau, said that posing with Ranald Fairbairn, Class of ‘29, was the best. “The older guy, he was so rad, he was really cute,” French said. “He went there when only like eight people went to the school. It was really neat.”

The calendar is on sale for $8 at Watson’s Soda Fountain and Lunch Counter, P.J. Mead’s Books & Coffee, Orange Camera & Photo Inc. and Smith’s Nut House.