Members of Kingston High School Class of ‘56 Kingston High School who recently gathered to celebrate their 65th-year reunion are shown, from left, seated:	Barbara Lieb, Helen Harding Ferraro, Lynne Boyle Austin, Marlene Sauerwine Koval, Betty Lou Kozik Gross. Standing: Tom Woods, Bruce Miles, Charles “Pete” Austin, Bill James, Warren “Pinhead” Rosengrant, John Kurisky, class president.
                                 Submitted photo

Members of Kingston High School Class of ‘56 Kingston High School who recently gathered to celebrate their 65th-year reunion are shown, from left, seated: Barbara Lieb, Helen Harding Ferraro, Lynne Boyle Austin, Marlene Sauerwine Koval, Betty Lou Kozik Gross. Standing: Tom Woods, Bruce Miles, Charles “Pete” Austin, Bill James, Warren “Pinhead” Rosengrant, John Kurisky, class president.

Submitted photo

Kingston Huskies gather for 4-day reunion

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<p>Warren Rosengrant, Bruce Moles and Betty Lou Kosinski Gross look over the class memorabilia.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

Warren Rosengrant, Bruce Moles and Betty Lou Kosinski Gross look over the class memorabilia.

Submitted photo

<p>Female classmates posing for a photo include: Helen Harding Ferraro, Betty Lou Kosinski Gross, Barbara Lieb Adrian, Marlene Sauerwine Koval.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

Female classmates posing for a photo include: Helen Harding Ferraro, Betty Lou Kosinski Gross, Barbara Lieb Adrian, Marlene Sauerwine Koval.

Submitted photo

<p>Class President John Kurisky and his wife Margaret traveled from central Virginia to attend the reunion.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

Class President John Kurisky and his wife Margaret traveled from central Virginia to attend the reunion.

Submitted photo

<p>The icinig on the cake calls the class of 1956 ‘hard as bricks, tough as nails.’</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

The icinig on the cake calls the class of 1956 ‘hard as bricks, tough as nails.’

Submitted photo

<p>Helen Harding Ferraro and Warren ‘Pinhead’ Rosengrant share memories as they look at photographs on an electronic device.</p>
                                 <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Helen Harding Ferraro and Warren ‘Pinhead’ Rosengrant share memories as they look at photographs on an electronic device.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

When Bill James was a student at Kingston High School, he drove a Ford with wooden sides, and painted it pink and blue.

“I went to pick her (his future wife, Wilma) and her three girlfriends up, and they turned and walked away,” James reminisced. “So I painted it canary yellow and emerald green.”

On a recent Thursday evening, Wilma James admitted she didn’t like the vivid yellow and green any better than the pink and blue.

But she married her high school sweetheart anyway — and the memory of the motley-colored motorcar gave members of Kingston High School’s class of 1956 a car story to laugh about, even if the classic car show they had expected to attend in the parking lot at Victory Pig Pizza in Wyoming was rained out.

When this group plans a reunion, by the way, they’re not content with a one-day party.

Their recent reunion stretched over four days, and included an impromptu visit to the Back Road Ale House in Swoyersville for pizza on Sept. 1 (after the remnants of Hurricane Ida closed Victory Pig for the night) followed by a casual gathering at Keeley’s Ale House in Kingston on Sept. 2, followed by a more formal dinner at Leggio’s in Dallas on Sept. 3.

The group finally wrapped things up at Pete and Lynne Austin’s dock near Sandy Beach at Harveys Lake where, as class member Bruce Miles reported, “Lynn brought down a pot full of hot dogs and said ‘just like the Pi Delta used to make at the football games.’ “

Over the course of four days, there were lots of memories to share. Here are a few of them:

Helen Harding Ferraro, who now lives in Red Bank, N.J., remembered playing the piano for many school productions including a kind of talent show called the Stardust Revue.

Bruce Miles, who has “lived on the same street in Kingston for 83 years,” enjoyed singing, and as a student at Wilkes College joined a group called The Crewnecks. The group recorded a song, “I’ll Never Forget You,” and his fellow Kingston High grads heard it on the radio, where it climbed to “number 3 on WARM.”

And class president John Kurisky, who traveled from central Virginia to attend the reunion, remembered how Kingston High School had “fantastic teachers,” including one who gave him advice for which he’s always been grateful.

“She passed out composition pads and told us to write what we wanted to do in life. I said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go to the Pocono Mountains in the summer and be a waiter or work in the kitchen. Then in the winter I’ll go to Florida and do the same thing.’ ”

The teacher, a Mrs. Weiss, gave him a talking to.

“She really straightened me out and I got my act together,” Kurisky said, noting he graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and embarked on a successful career.