Fold 192 red and blue napkins. Count out 192 cups, saucers, knives, forks and spoons. Set the tables. Where’s the salt? How many cups do we need? And don’t forget which side the fork goes on. But first, wheel out the big racks of folding metal chairs, unfold them and count, count, count as you go.

Big round tables, oblong tables and all those chairs get set up first, with enough room in between for serving carts and servers to maneuver.

This is how the annual Windham High School Alumni banquet begins, as it has each year for the past 94 years, with a few years omitted due to national emergencies – in other words, wars and the aftermath.

On Friday night, May 13, Windham graduates (and some spouses) from classes 60 years ago and 10 years ago, and years in between, gathered in the cafeteria and kitchen of Windham Middle School to do the preliminaries of a banquet. A couple hundred people would be gathering the next day – people who had at least one thing in common: they went to Windham High School.

On Friday night, in addition to the napkin folding and chair unfolding, 200 potatoes had to be pierced for baking, huge dishes of coleslaw had to be mixed and pork loins unwrapped and inspected by head chef, Jim (Bud) Finley, Class of ’38. Applesauce was dished into tiny plastic cups and placed on racks in the cooler, alongside similar dishes of coleslaw. Boxes of brownies and cookies baked by alumni members, were sorted and placed on plates; and great big cans of string beans opened, drained and readied. Pitchers of water were put in the cooler. Middle school employees were helping at every turn.

For a couple of months prior to the banquet, the Alumni committee meets to plan this annual event. Notices go out to more than 600 people who are members of the WHSAA, which held its first meeting in 1911, one year after the first new high school was finished.

Detailed secretary’s reports from that year and all years through 1990 are in the archives of Windham Historical Society. Early banquets were held in a variety of places, including local restaurants, until the gym was added to the high school in the 1920s. For many of those earlier years, the meal was cooked by fraternal organizations with underclassmen serving the dinners. Some years, the banquet was skipped because so many graduates were “overseas”, and after the 1970s, interest flagged and no banquets were held for a few years.

Back in 1991, the late Harold Haskell called a few fellow WHS grads with the news that he had been informed that there was a bank balance still being held for the Alumni Association. It wasn’t much, but Harold, a selectman and later a town councilor, felt it needed to be followed up. The group which met decided it was time to resurrect the Alumni Banquet and the annual scholarship which had begun back in the early 1900s.

When Haskell and the others started talking about a banquet, it was realized there wasn’t a place big enough in town to hold all of those who expressed interest – indeed, enthusiasm – for an annual dinner and get-together. And then there was the meal preparation. It would be too costly to consider a catered meal, although that was discussed. Many of those who would attend were on really limited budgets and the Alumni Committee wanted everyone to be able to participate. So the committee decided they would do the cooking. After a meeting with the School Board and the Middle School principal, it was all set – the banquet could be held in the cafeteria and the kitchen could be used for cooking by the alumni, under the supervision of the kitchen staff. The Alumni committee figured out how much it would cost and went to work. First, a visit to the school and the kitchen to check out the facilities.

This was an eye-opener for many of the older graduates. They discovered that youngsters didn’t eat lunch from plates any longer, because all the alumni could find was Styrofoam trays and little plastic ‘silverware’. Before any banquet could be held, dishes were needed. The Alumni Association purchased dinner plates and silverware and all that went with them. Wooden storage boxes were built by the then Industrial Arts classes.

Every year since 1991, these wooden boxes are opened and the school kitchen staff washes all the dishes and silverware in preparation for the banquet. With their help, members of the alumni clean all those plates, empty all those cups and wash all those dishes again, after the banquet is over – and back into the wooden boxes the dishes go for another year.

The Alumni Scholarship was, and is, based on the criteria of “the person who had shown the most improvement in their high school years.” Originally this was a $5 or $10 ‘award’, depending on the financial condition of the Association.

The Windham Alumni Association was designated administrator of another scholarship fund a few years ago when the Pleasant River Grange disbanded and turned some of its funds over to the Alumni group. The Grange scholarship is given to a senior who is planning a future in a field related to agriculture and/or the environment. This could be horticulture, forestry or animal care, in addition to the more traditional agriculture pursuits.

And so, on Saturday, May 14 another couple of hundred folks, ranging in age from their late teens (a 2005 senior class member) to 104 (a graduate from 1918) happily entered the doors of Windham Middle School for the 94th annual alumni banquet. They pick up their name badges – looked at frequently during the evening, because after 10 or 20 years, not everyone is recognizable.

People come from all over New England, New York and beyond. One former student travels 1500 miles to attend, and hasn’t missed many years.

As alumni gather at the tables, a visitor would recognize teachers and retired teachers, legislators, town councilors, police officers, town committee members, town hall employees, bus drivers, contractors, architects, builders, engineers – all ages, all walks of life.

All of the red and blue napkins were in place, and the silverware shone. Red, white and blue balloons affixed to each table marked the patriotic theme of the 2005 event, which honored military service people, past and present. The classes of 1945 and 1955 had a good showing of long-ago classmates, celebrating their 50th and 60th reunions; raffle prizes were awarded and everyone joined in a rousing rendition of many patriotic songs was led by Windham music teacher Nancy Cash-Cobb and a recent graduate (and former Windham Chamber Singer).

Young people from North Windham Union Church, students at the Middle School, sharply dressed in white shirts and ties, efficiently and pleasantly served a roast pork dinner and after dinner, officers for next year were elected. They are Carol Waig, President; Sue Nichols, Vice President and Tammy Haskell, Secretary-Treasurer.

Many attendees lingered, as they always do, to visit, show pictures of grandchildren, and reminisce about their high school days, while they folded the chairs, cleared the tables, rolled up the white tablecloths and began planning next year’s event.

Windham’s annual high school alumni banquet is unique; few towns can boast such an event which brings so many people together, all with a common bond. This is how a community thrives.

Harold Haskell would be proud.

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