Tube socks and stripes were the style back in 1979 for many 6th graders at Key Biscayne Elementary School.
It also was the year the Sony Walkman debuted, “Superman” and “Rocky II” hit theaters; and TV favorites like “Starsky & Hutch,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Happy Days” dominated the TV screen.
Now, classmates Lara Nicholson Reed and Susie Vickers Lennertz are hosting a KBES class reunion later this month, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of their high school graduating class — the same weekend as Coral Gables Senior High’s 75th “blowout party.”
The gathering will take place at 6 p.m., on Oct. 25 on Key Biscayne. The reunion intends to bring together classmates from the 6th grade classes of Mr. Sanchez and Mrs. Cavalier, and is also open to those from surrounding years (high school graduating classes 1984-1986).
If you attended KBES and graduated 6th grade in 1978, 1979 or 1980, message Lara@reedmail.com for more information.
“So many of our former classmates left the Key and never returned,” Reed said. “We’ve always wanted to do something like this.”
Reed, a former Spanish teacher who lives in Maiden, N.C., often visits Key Biscayne, where her mother, Allene Nicholson, still lives on the Key. Lennertz lives in Naples, and works as assistant to the athletic director at Florida Gulf Coast University. Her family is well remembered in the community from their former Exxon station on Mashta Drive.
Both women were Key Biscayne soccer standouts in the early days of female sports.
“Practically everyone on the Key played soccer and we all were incredible,” Reed said. “It was such a magical time.”
Many fond memories remain, feeding dolphins off Mashta Point; riding bikes everywhere; Chinese fire drills on the Rickenbacker Causeway; and Mr. Foster’s Field Days with dashes, hurdles and relays. Both women also delivered the Islander News and worked at local businesses like Vernon’s Drugs and Sir Pizza.