An easy way to get downtown when our parents would finally let us go by ourselves was to take the streetcar from Waldo.

Fairyland Park at 75th and Prospect.

Municipal Stadium on a bright sunny afternoon in 1958. Did you skip school to be there?

We show you this early picture of Union Station (circa 1930) because this is the way it now looks AGAIN after a $280 million restoration that is due for completion on November 10, 1999. This, alone, is worth the trip home to KC for the Y2K Reunion!

Allen's Drive-In at 89th and State Line. Who didn't eat there? How 'bout those Allen's Royales burgers? And what about that cop who used to patrol the place and made sure we ordered food---or else!

How about Christmas on the Plaza? Do you remember the way Sears, Roebuck used to decorate the marquee at their front entrance?

It's Christmastime downtown!

Forever young! If we all could only look as good as Dick Clark did then. He still does, but what about us!?

A Saturday night date for two Lancers in 1959---at the Plaza Theater, now soon to become a fancy "hardware" store. The ticket booth and marquee are gone.

The 50's, though, were a wonderful time to be growing up in Johnson County and Kansas City. Drug stores (like Bruce Smith's in PV) still had soda fountains. Malls were non-existent and the great shopping experience was still downtown (though by 1958, Kroh Bros. had broken ground for Ward Parkway Center)---and kids our age had plenty of things to do and places to go. In our grade school years there was Fairyland Park, the Fairway Theater, and the Prairie Village Shopping Center after school. Our parents used to take us places like the Union Station, the old Municipal Stadium (first to watch the Blues, then by 1955, the Athletics), and the old Municipal Airport where we could stand on the roof and watch the propeller-driven planes land and take off. And on a special Saturday each autumn, there was the huge American Royal Parade. Then on neat occasions every now and then, a restaurant on the Plaza...like Milleman's (where the Plaza III now is) and Putsch's 210. Or maybe the Trail House (later to become Harry Starker's).

Most of all, it was a relatively peaceful decade. Sure, there were the McCarthy years and the threat of the bomb---then Sputnik and America awakening to the space age. We remember the Korean War, the first rumblings of the great Civil Rights Crusade, and a young senator from Massachusetts.

But it was also the decade when we had our first dates, admired the tailfins on the 50's Cadillacs, envied our friends whose families were the first to own a television set, and best of all (at least a lot of us still think so), we had OUR OWN MUSIC! Rock 'n Roll was born when we were in junior high and the sounds became the symbol of our generation. Who among us doesn't have a few songs by the likes of The Platters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Danny & the Juniors that don't bring back a memory or two. And what did we do each day after school?----why, go home and watch American Bandstand, of course! Some of us even braved the dangerous crowds at the Rock 'n Roll road shows that were staged at the Municipal Auditorium featuring everyone from Fats Domino and Little Richard to Buddy Holly and even Elvis, himself (the latter took place in April 1955)!

Came that fateful fall of 1957 and suddenly we were in high school! Not just any high school, but Shawnee-Mission High School---without any doubt the finest in the city. When we were sophomores, S-M had a 1,800-member pep club and school spirit that was legendary. It was a proud place to be with many great traditions. But just two years later, we were to be a part of a brand new high school for which we were among those charged with establishing our own great traditions.

And remember that terrific Class of '60! It was our class that was the first to beat a Wyandotte high school basketball team in over a decade! Our class that established a national record for the most National Merit scholars in a high school class. Our class that ushered in the first language lab in the nation. And a class that, for some unusual reason, had its own special personality and brand of spirit. SME has had nearly 40 classes since us, but by gosh, which class was the first to paint that old water tower??!

And of course, we had Mr. Ison and Mr. Selves to oversee our class of 486 unique individuals. Who can ever forget them?

As the decade of the 50's came to a close at the mid-point in our senior year, little did we know then that we would long carry with us the memories of a time in Kansas City's life that was very special.

In October 2000, your Y2K Reunion will bring us back together again. We are, even today, 40 years later, nothing without our roots. The foundation of our lives was laid at this great school. Come back...and be with all of your friends once again.