Half a century on, Class of ‘76 bonds still strong

High school is a formative time. For the Weston High School class of 1976, the relationships made then continue to this day.

Several students returned to Weston the last weekend of June to celebrate the class’ 50th anniversary. Cari Burkard, one of the organizers, said she loves being able to celebrate the community she had in Weston as a child. She returned from Vermont for the event.

“It’s wonderful to come back to Weston. A lot of it hasn’t changed, but a lot of it has,” she said. “We have a really wonderful class. We’ve always been a close class.”

Burkard was class treasurer and has kept the job since, collecting money to cover reunions. She worked with Becky Coburn Bassi to put the event together.

“It was like Norman Rockwell,” Coburn Bassi said. “We are a close knit group of people.”

This year, the reunion began with dinner at the Coach Grill in Wayland on Friday and went through the weekend, ending with bagels on the Town Green on Sunday.

Phil Anza was one of the almost 90 attendees. He lives in Milford and sees classmates who are still in the state every couple of weeks.

“We all have each other’s backs,” he said. “I got sick pretty bad with Covid. Dolly Butler sent her daughter down with food for me. You hear about people having struggles and here come people volunteering to help. It’s pretty damn special.”

According to Coburn Bassi, the Weston community was tight-knit in the 1970s. She said police would attend school sports games and have troublemakers clean the cruisers.

“They say it takes a village. I think Weston was so small it was a village. We went to school with the kids of the pharmacists and the police and fire department,” she said. “You couldn’t get away with anything, everyone knew everyone, but in a good way.” she said.

Anza said that losing classmates also contributed to the closeness of his cohort. Cinny Cox died in eighth grade and another classmate, Ann O’Neil, died during the class’ senior year.

“We had things like that happening and everybody realized that this isn’t forever, so we take advantage of opportunities to get together and take care of each other,” Anza said.

Burkard agreed, saying that so many losses so early on in their lives helped solidify their community for the long term.

“That made us hold onto each other and appreciate each other,” Burkard said. “I was paying the caterer at our 10th reunion and he said he had never seen a class so united; everyone speaking to everyone.”

That community has continued even as people have moved out of state and Weston has developed.

The town pool used to be a place of disgust instead of the summer destination that it is today.

“It used to be disgusting,” Anza said. “We had to do a swimming test there, and everyone was afraid they were going to be sick, so we called it the Polio Pit.”

Weston used to be a “very horsey” town, in the words of Coburn Bassi. She said her dad rode a pony to school when he was a child and she rode to class a few times herself. Anza was also a regular rider.

“We used to ride our horses over from Highland Avenue to Friendly’s. We used to be able to tie our horses up and go in for ice cream,” he said. “It was a different town back then. It was a wide-open area and you could ride your horses from Route 30 down the reservoir and out to the Weston-Wayland line, where Higgins Ice Cream used to be and never hit a back yard.”

As years have passed and the children of Weston have turned to interests other than the equestrian, the class of 1976 continues to be a part of each other’s lives.

“Everyone thinks they have the best class, but we really, truly have a close-knit class,” said Coburn Bassi.