12-11-2024 4:05am

Alums from BASH Class of ’65 Reconnect with Friends

Lesley Misko Editor

by Jane Stahl

One of the traditions surrounding holidays is “coming home” and getting together to catch up with family and friends. This year, a few Boyertown grads from 1965 have “rushed” the holiday season and gathered classmates and friends to reminisce and celebrate friendships that have lasted decades.

First on the scene in mid-September was Robert (Boogie) Bower—everybody’s high school friend—who now lives and practices veterinary medicine in Oklahoma. While I didn’t know “Boogie” well at all in high school, I did know him to be an extraordinary three-sport athlete that everybody called a friend.

Dougie (Peanut) Davidheiser claims “Boog” is the common bond—among several groups and individuals. He’s everybody’s friend.

Those bonds have endured. It took just one phone call from his BFF Barry Flicker to get the word out to dozens of his friends from “all over” to gather for several afternoons at the O’s [the Orioles] on Fourth Street, one of their favorite “haunts,” to remember fond times together --as young men and women just getting started in life--and to celebrate their enduring friendship.

While I was not on the list to get the phone call, Barry called me to request that I interview “Boogie” for a “B Inspired” episode.

“Boogie,” Barry insisted, was an inspiration to many; he wanted his story told to inspire others.

And so, I showed up at the “O’s.” I needed to ask Barry to introduce me; I knew I wouldn’t recognize him after almost 60 years. And I needed to claim that his friends would hate me if I weren’t able to get him to agree to record an episode with me.

Left to right: (Back) Keith Reitmyer, Dennis Frey, Barry Flicker, Robert "Boogie" Bower, Russell Strouse, Scott Frain, Keith Renninger, (top) Doug ("Peanut") Davidheiser, Dean Fronheiser, John Chittick, Don SchaefferDoug Deysher; (Front) Bruce Lambert, Billy Krause

We met the following day with another BFF--“Peanut”; and, as I listened, I realized that Barry was right; I was inspired getting to know my classmate from decades ago.

"Boogie" and "Peanut" admire Bob Hakun's sculpture and share stories for a "B Inspired" podcast episode.

I came away a “fan,” recognizing that the popular athlete I knew in high school had a journey to share in using the GI Bill to graduate from veterinarian college at 31 after his service career to become a successful—yet extraordinarily modest--owner of three veterinary clinics beloved by his clients and friends.

I learned that “Boogie” was said to “own” Washington Street “back in the day” where dozens of young kids gathered throughout the summer to play games on the baseball field beside what was then Washington Elementary School --now the Boyertown Post Office. All admit that it was sad to see their school be demolished, but the memories remain of how graciously people treated one another.

The decision to return to his hometown to visit with his old friends was sparked by the deaths of three members of his breakfast group in Oklahoma. He wanted to see classmates who were still well and around.

"Boogie" share memories with long-time friends.

They’ve not been strangers, however. Over the years, friends from Boyertown visited “Boogie” in Oklahoma several times a year, or “Boogie” and his friends would come to Boyertown. Often the draw was NASCAR races; the friendships from both locales widened their friendship circles.

One memorable visit to Oklahoma included a surprise trip to Dallas, Texas, when Boogie took the group to see where JFK was assassinated. The area remains as it had been, and the group saw the X that remains, marking Kennedy’s death, and a smaller X for Connelly. The group noted that the area, including the “grassy knoll” appears a lot smaller in person.

During a conversation with “Boogie” and “Peanut,” I was surprised to learn that his friends believed that the odds of future success were against their friend. They all knew him to be exceptionally smart, but unfocused. After his father died, life took a downward turn. He admits that following graduation when all his friends headed to college, he took a factory job and saw himself 30-40 years later, bent over, doing the same thing hour-after-hour, day-after-day.

To save himself from that fate, recognizing that he needed a challenge and the opportunity to do something new every day, he joined the service. Service changed him; he learned he had to work, to push himself.

He recalls a moment in the service when a sergeant said he needed to learn or he wouldn’t get anywhere in life. That was the “light bulb” moment that motivated him to apply himself and eventually get his college veterinary degree.

His friends cheered from afar, knowing he was the only one of them capable of such a turnaround. He inspired them. They kept in constant contact over the years; one friend even traveled to Germany to see him at a crucial moment.

His eventual success strengthened the bond in their pride of him: “if ‘Boogie’ succeeded, we knew all would,” claimed both Barry and “Peanut,” who added, “We knew he had ability; and so, we succeeded for each other.”

“Boogie” adds that the relationships were strong; friends stayed together; there were no secrets; they could always talk through varied challenges and hardships. No ego existed in their friendship. Like a top-rated sports team, it was everyone under pressure doing their personal best in the lives they created for themselves, celebrating one another’s successes, and supporting one another when in distress.

“Boogie” is happy for the successes of his friends as they are of him. He names Bruce who volunteered to go to Three-Mile-Island nuclear plant, sacrificing his life to help; “Peanut” and Barry who became successful educators who mean a lot to many people over the years; and Don whose work in the electrical business is not just about money.

“Time is of the essence,” “Boogie insists. “We can’t waste it. I wanted to see my friends and celebrate what we’ve meant to each other after all these years. They haven’t changed.”

In reflecting on life, he encourages young people to pursue a career that will bring joy. “Don’t decide at 18; don’t pressure yourself. Find a career that isn’t ‘work,’ that is meaningful to you.”

In saving and adopting as his own a one-eyed dog with cancer and another with three legs, “Boogie” has added faithful friends to his long-held group of Boyertown classmates; and, in doing so, continues to inspire us all.

Stay tuned: Marcia (Ott) Zanger, currently residing in Maryland, returned more recently and, like Boogie, gathered with some of her long-time friends at the O’s.

Long-time friends: (left to right) John Chittick, Donnie Evans, Keith Reitmyer, Barry Flicker, Marcia Ott, Bruce Lambert, Becky Gallagher, Russell Strouse (back), Doug (Peanut) Davidheiser, Scott Frain.

Perhaps during her next visit, she and I will have a chance to catch up to share memories of her time at BASH as a member of GLC (Girls’ Leader Corp), when, “wicked” with a hockey stick, she enjoyed swimming, dancing, and lasagna and to learn what came of her plan to become a nurse.