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Dave Bilardello, principal of Branciforte Junior High, far right, leads a procession of members of the first class and current student body on a re-enactment walk. Sentinel photo by Bill Lovejoy

A group of 65-year-olds greeted each other on the steps of Branciforte Elementary Friday.

They gathered to re-enact a walk they took for the first time 50 years ago — when the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade classes moved from Branciforte Grammar School to their new home at Branciforte Junior High.

"I wouldn’t miss it for anything. I can’t imagine being in Santa Cruz and not attending this," said Nancy Cummings Jellison of Santa Cruz.

On an April day in 1951, "B-40" students and teachers carried their books and gym clothes in their arms as they walked five blocks to their new junior high school.

"Our arms ached by the time we got there," said Jellison, adding that kids didn’t have backpacks then.

Friday, about 25 classmates from the 1951 ninth-grade class walked or rode in wheelchairs. They sported anniversary T-shirts and red, white and blue balloons and were greeted at the junior high by a tunnel of cheering students, including girls in pink poodle skirts.

In a celebratory ceremony in the school gym, Principal David Bilardello, also a B-40 graduate, honored the alumni and one teacher who came back to walk. Most traveled came from Monterey, Livermore or Roseville, but one came from as far away as Springfield, Ore.

State Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, presented a plaque and Bilardello led the alumni and student body in the Branciforte Bees’ fight song.

Bilardello wanted to try to re-enact the walk after he came across a 1951 newspaper article about the school’s opening. He also organized a ’50s dance and lunch. In the fall, after the junior high has been remodeled, Bilardello plans to have a larger reunion to bring back more of the classes.

Branciforte Junior High graduates are a close community. Most graduated from Santa Cruz High together and meet every month for lunch or dinner.

"You know what’s so interesting? These people are all 65 years old. But when they get together, it’s like they are 13 and 14 years old," said Roy Bergazzi, a former homeroom teacher at the elementary school. Bergazzi later became a principal of the junior high.

Jellison said when she gets together with her former classmates, "I still call them kids."

Ruth Mitchell, a physical education teacher at Branciforte Junior High, and Len Klempnauer, president of the 1954 high school class, helped spread the word about the walk Friday. Klempnauer maintains a Web site for the class, and said he has 91 members of his class, 64- and 65-year-olds, connected through e-mail.

For access to the Web site, which is restricted to alumni, contact Klempnauer at laraka3936@aol.com.

Contact Louisa Dalton at ldalton@santa-cruz.com.

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