BRIDGTON – With the class motto “we don’t know where we’re going, but we are on our way,” Oxford Hills High School’s Class of 1974 keeps coming back to the place where it all began for them.

And while people will change a lot over the course of 50 years, the kids of ’74 have held onto one ‘epic’ tradition: their ability to have an awesomely good time.

Last Saturday 60 former classmates, with their significant others, returned to their old community stomping grounds to celebrate a milestone reunion.

For some it was the first time in 50 years they had been in the company of so many childhood peers. For others, making sure the opportunity happens every five years has become something of a lifelong mission.

Class of ‘74’s current reunion committee joined forces 30 years ago with a goal to make sure there would be a gathering every five years. They coordinate activities, secure dates and venues, budget and fundraise, record meeting notes and rally their classmates to save the date on their calendars.

“Shirley (Hadley Boyce) is our key organizer,” said committee member Kathy Pulsiver Porter. “But since our 30th we’ve held one every five years, with pretty much this same committee.”

With a class of more than 200 the biggest challenge is to keep track of everyone. Sadly, the friends who have passed are some of the easiest to find.

Fifty-one – close to a quarter of them – attended in memory only. Class member and reunion host Terry Swett’s committee job is to make sure those who have died are included on a plaque that is posted at every reunion.

Many others have left no footprints for their friends to follow.

“We had a hard time finding some of our classmates. Even with putting the word out on Facebook and putting it in the newspaper,” another committee rep. added. “We still haven’t been able to find a lot of them. I’m not sure how many we weren’t able to invite this time.”

The party started Saturday around 9 a.m. with an early bird contingent reporting to Lakeside Norway, headquarters for the Maine Dragon Boat Club. The club was founded by committee member Brian Otterson and his wife Sherri.

The Ottersons hosted 14 classmates and spouses for a paddle around Lake Pennesseewassee in Maine’s only dragon boat.

Next, about two dozen met up at the Norway Country Club for some golf.

Mid-afternoon everyone migrated down to Swett’s home in Bridgton for a welcome social, open mic updates and appetizers.

Dinner – a catered Mongolian Barbecue – started at 5 p.m. and live entertainment courtesy of Norway-based musical band The Cobblestones immediately followed.

Sunday morning some of “the guys” took charge of the Swett kitchen to make breakfast for anyone who wanted one last chance to connect before packing it in until 2029.

First grade friends Tina Liimatta and Shelley Small Kelley caught up for the first time since their days at Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris.

“This is my first in 50 years,” Liimatta said after dinner. “I’ve never been to one until now. It has been wonderful. Just connecting with people, even those I hadn’t necessarily connected with in high school.”

“I went to the fifth-year reunion but haven’t been to any until now,” Kelley, who now lives in Georgia, shared. “I attended Agnes Gray, together with Tina. After that I moved away, and came back for high school here.”

“We went to Agnes Gray,” Liimatta said. “But by the time Shelley returned, we had all consolidated into the bigger unit in South Paris. We never really connected once we were in high school.”

The Ottersons’ dragon boat may be Asian in tradition but it is not so different than those used by the Vikings. So in the name of school spirit, all the voyagers who went out on the water Saturday morning donned (inauthentically plastic) Viking helmets.

“We went through the culvert into the lake,” Otterson said. “We got quite a reception. About 20 cars and truckers honked and waved out their windows. I think it must have been the helmets.”

It was a maiden voyage for all 14. To make sure everyone’s 68-year-old frames remained healthy, Otterson took special care to make sure seating aligned with their strengths (and aches), in addition to the basic lessons and safety tips he presents newcomers with.

“It’s a real team sport,” said John Littlefield, a Paris Hill kid who now lives in York county. “you have to paddle together or else you’re crashing into the guy in front of you. The people in front set the cadence and speed. They told us in competition they make three strokes per second. They didn’t make us go that fast, but we’d go 50 or a 100 yards and then we’d take a rest.”

Christopher Easton, Oxford Hills alum and former Nordic ski coach, and his wife Paula went along for the ride as well.

“It wasn’t difficult for me” to catch on, Christopher said. “I wasn’t really watching how Paula was paddling.”

“A little bit, you were,” Paula corrected him. “Because you were coaching me.”

“I can’t help myself,” he admitted.

A major attraction at the Swett farm was a retrospective decades in the making, digitized and produced by committee members Anne Somers and Littlefield. They put together a 25 minute slideshow/video combination that played on a loop.

“I had home movies from 1974, and I knew there was video from our last reunions,” Somers explained. “I thought it would be great to put those together and keep it going in future years.”

Somers’ mother had made a home movie that captured part of the class’ graduation march and ceremony 50 years ago.

“John was our class photographer back in the day. I never knew this but he did a lot of the candid pictures in our yearbooks himself. Diane (Johnson Sherwood) had pictures from the 2004 and 2009 reunions, and Chris (Easton) had taken quite a few at our last one.”

With only a week to pull it off, Somers aggregated the scanned images along with her video and more recent recordings.

“We’ll add to this for every reunion,” she said. “We have a private Facebook group where I will post it, but it can be downloaded from my google drive.”

Anyone who wants a file for themselves can email Somers at [email protected].

Later, Swett and his wife Sandy, serenaded the crowd with a rendition of his bicentennial ballad, My Sweet Maine. The song was voted Maine Song of the 20th Century in Augusta as part of Maine’s 200th birthday a few years ago.

The evening wrapped up with a surprise fireworks show, presented as a gift to his friends by pyrotechnician Littlefield.

“For the last 30 years, we’ve done this every five years,” Jean Record Federico said. “We hear from other classes how amazing ours sound.”

“We never feel pressure to make each one better than the last,” Boyce, summing up this year’s milestone. “But this one had to be special. It’s been epic.”

Attendees of last weekend’s 50th class reunion included:  Darleen Abbott Walker, Martin Bailey, Timothy Bean, James Boyce, Eleanor Bradeen Newell, Carole Bradford Smith, Kerry Briggs, Robert Brown, Edward Butters, Debra Chase, Bruce Collette, Fred Collins, David Dale, Cynthia Davis Woodworth, James Deshon, Elizabeth Dodge, Deborah Dubois Deshon, Garry Dyer, Christopher Easton, Barbara Estes Cox, Mitchell Green, Shirley Hadley Boyce, Robert Handville, Linda Howell Bean, Stanley Hunt, Diane Johnson Sherwood, Judith Jordan Akers, Sherie Larson Kilene, Tina Liimatta, John Littlefield, Kathryn Littlehale Parsons, Valerie Marston Edwards, Esther May Hunt, Roberta Merrill Edson, Rosemarie Millett Dyer, Connie Morse Sessions, R. Steven Noyes, Kathy O’Connor Chalas, Brian Otterson, Carlene Page-Redmann, Michael Parsons, Dorene Proctor Merrill, Kathy Pulsifer Porter, Audrey Raymond, Jean Record Federico, Samuel Sessions, Sumner Sessions, Shelley Small Kelley, Sally Smith, Allen Snow, Anne Somers, Terry Swett, Cynthia Thompson Williams, Julie Townsend Perry, Patti Webb Swan, John Wentworth, Andrew Whitney, Theodore Williams, Thomas Wyman.