On Oct. 27, 68-year-old Charlie Thomas saw his high school for the first time in 50 years.

“It’s like being in an old movie,” said Thomas, a member of the school’s first graduating class. “I just can’t get over it.”

The Class of 1962 held its 50th reunion the weekend of Oct. 27. Fifty members of the class met for dinner at the Bell Tower in downtown Saratoga on Oct. 26 before taking a tour of the school the next day. A formal dinner event took place at Foothill Club the evening of Oct. 27.

The school tour began with a gathering in the McAfee Center, led by assistant principal Kerry Mohnike and seniors Rohan Rajeev, Deepak Ravikumar and Joanne Sturge. Mohnike welcomed the first class and invited them to share stories and memories from high school.

Starting as the first sophomores at Saratoga High (they attended Los Gatos High School as freshmen), their class consisted of a mere 187 students.

When they heard that the Class of 2013 held around 350 students, most couldn’t believe it.

“Really? 350? Things have changed … things have changed,” said former basketball and football player Jack Peters, shaking his head in disbelief. Peters is a retired professor of counseling from Ohlone College in Fremont.

Although many had returned to visit the school in the years since graduation (as most still lived in California), others who had not seen the school in decades, like Thomas, were amazed at how dramatically the campus had changed.

“[Fifty years ago,] all the trees [in the quad] had just been planted,” reminisced Cliff Tedder, who had been a basketball player during high school and went on to become an engineer in Reno.

“The quad was all sun because there was just no shade.”

Tedder remembered how “they needed everything” when the school began. For example, the school needed more students to fill up the newly created sports teams, which was why Tedder joined basketball. On the other hand, there were no girls’ sports teams whatsoever.

Another vivid memory was the school’s severe dress code.

These stories included how one student was sent home for wearing a denim shirt, how the dean of girls (a position equivalent to an assistant principal) measured skirts with a ruler and how girls had to wear dresses or skirts. According to Carol Davis, she was even sent home on the last day of senior year for wearing culottes.

Many had horror stories about the dean of girls, Enid Shepard, who, along with being extremely strict, had apparently told Erica Plevin Gilman’s mother that Gilman was “too dumb to go to college.” Gilman now holds a master’s degree in sociology.

“She told me I shouldn’t even try,” Gilman said.

Others remembered their principal, Dr. Vernon Trimble, who hand-picked teachers from Los Gatos to teach at Saratoga at its beginning.

“We didn’t realize at the time how important and legendary he was,” Carol Lykke, the treasurer of their senior class, said. “He was wonderful.”

Once the laughter and the chatter had quieted, the class that called themselves “the seniors for three years” settled down in the McAfee to listen to their old teacher Dr. Hugh Roberts, who later went on to be a lawyer after teaching at SHS and still leads the leads the Mock Trial team on campus.

“You were that unique class,” Roberts told them. “You were the first graduating class — you created the traditions, you created the desire for excellence. I can’t wait to sit back and listen to you as you see the school today.”

As they started on the tour, the class was asked if they wanted to split up into smaller groups for the tour, but they immediately declared that they wanted to stick together. Multiple ‘62 graduates testified to how close they all were, many of whom had started kindergarten together.

Ravikumar, one of the student tour guides, remembers the event as a learning experience for himself.

“At first I thought it would be a little dry since we [the tour guides] would just lead the Class of ‘62 around and speak a few words here and there,” Ravikumar said. “But we were all surprised when we started to interact with the first graduating class. Instead of an impersonal experience, we learned about stories of what our school, our common bond, was like back then.”

As the first students on campus, the class had the task of choosing the school colors and mascot. The job eventually fell to student body president Bill Sanguinetti, who was also prom king and the quarterback of the football team.

“I just loved the colors [red, navy and gray] and I had a falcon in my bedroom when I was a junior in high school, a little sparrowhawk,”  said Sanguinetti, who currently lives in Pebble Beach.

“I’m glad to see it’s all still here.”

This pioneering group of students also wrote the “Fight Song,” a song they would sing to cheer on the school at sporting events. The marching band still plays the tune at football games today.

“We did choose a lot of the things that are happening for you guys,” Lykke said. “We made a lot of decisions for you guys because our teachers like Mr. Hugh [Roberts] allowed us to.”

Walking around the school, through hallways they last traipsed 50 years ago, the Class of ‘62, now mostly retired after long careers, was amazed at how much had changed; however, they were especially delighted to find familiar places.

“The quad is exactly the same,” said Gilman, a member of the French club and former Freddie the Falcon. “I remember sitting on those very steps waiting to be picked up. And I remember walking into the lunchroom and not knowing anybody and thinking, ‘Oh my God, where am I going to sit?’”

All things considered, the members of the first graduating class advised current students to not take high school too seriously.

“I was definitely not in the ‘in crowd,’” Gilman said. “And I was so miserable, and I thought, ‘Everybody is having so much fun, and I’m so lonesome.’ Now, I talk to people, and they all say,

‘Wasn’t high school hell? Didn’t you always feel so insecure?’ It’s just so funny the way you perceive things.”