Members of the Class of 1965 Reunion Committee are pictured at the event. From left are Kathy Battaglia, Lorraine and Mike Travers, Phyllis Kropp, Ron and Val Negra and Lou Albert.
Photos by Steve Ellmore
There’s something special about Nutley.
“I always say there’s a bond, a Nutley bond,” said Ronald Negra, president of the Nutley High School Class of 1965.
The Class of `65 got together again recently to celebrate their 60th reunion. It was the ninth time they got together as a class since graduation and would have been the tenth had it not been for COVID.
“I’ve said this for many years, we grew up at the right place at the right time,” Negra said. “Nutley was a great, united town. My class was very united, athletically, socially.”
The year of graduation, 1965, was an interesting one. The Beatles and The Rolling Stone were on top of the charts, with “Help” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” respectively, “My Fair Lady” won best picture at the Academy Awards and the Vietnam War was escalating with more troops being sent there and President Lyndon Johnson announcing that the number of young men being drafted would double.
“A lot of the kids in the class were concerned if they weren’t going to college,” Negra said. “A bunch went into service, there was concern about the unknown.”
About 468 people graduated from Nutley High that year and 60 made it to the reunion at Bella Napoli Ristorante in Bloomfield.
“The turnout was always much larger but we are losing people,” Negra said. “I’m very proud of this group.”
People came from California, Florida, North Carolina and New York City among other places for the event and many attended the Friday night football game, bringing a banner that said “Class of 1965,” according to Lorraine Travers, who is on the reunion committee.
“Over the years, we always made a weekend out of it,” Travers said. “So people who had to travel would have something to do.”
The reunion was held during the day for the first time, something that happens with reunions as people get older.
“Normally we did them in the evening but people are older now,” Travers said.
The class has always been close. They had their own website for a long time though it has fallen out of use. Many members of the class went on to great success, owning their own businesses, according to Travers, who added that everyone is retired now though.
Negra, whose father was a captain with the Nutley Police Department and also president of his class at Nutley High School, recently wrote a book called “Waves of Hope.”
The book is about his mother who had a short wave radio, which she used to listen to broadcasts from Radio Berlin during World War II. Radio Berlin would read the names of American servicemen who had been captured and were prisoners of war. Agnes Negra, whose husband was fighting in Europe at the time, would then contact the families of the soldiers who had been captured.
The restaurant was decorated for the reunion, with pictures from previous reunions and the class banner. There were copies of the award winning yearbook, “Exit.” A DJ played music and sang.
“Some have health issues but some look fantastic and they are 78 and 79,” Travers said. “We had nametags and all that. I thought of it last minute since it had been 10 years. A lot of them are still in town. I’m here. They’ve traveled and done things. We had fun.”
Somebody at the reunion said “no matter where you are at, all roads lead to Nutley,” according to Negra.
“People still come back,” Negra said. “They’re all happy to be back in town.”
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