PCHS's class of 1973 were the first to graduate from the current location on Alexander Street.
They were the class that brought Plant City together. In 1973 for the very first time the doors of the new Plant City High School located on Alexander Street opened, inviting students from very different schools into its halls.
For years they had been rivals, now they all wore the teal and orange. Several years prior to the new school opening Marshall High transitioned into a middle school, sending the majority of its students to PCHS. Students from the former PCHS, Turkey Creek and Pinecrest merged together in 1973 as the new students of Plant City High. The class of 1973 was the very first to graduate from the new building and now, 45 years after that fateful day, they are holding a class reunion.
“It’s going to be a fun night,” Debbie Swindle said. “There will be a social hour and then a casual dinner. We’re hoping for a packed house.”
The alumni will have a chance to catch up with old friends and reminisce about the memories of that fateful year. When they walked through the halls for the first time 45 years ago they knew school traditions had to change.
The semester prior a survey was sent out to all of the merging classes and they voted on the new school colors. Joy Burt Lingenfelter said because of the University of Miami’s whirlwind success it wasn’t a surprise that the majority of the votes were for teal and orange.
She said when they first started out students were “cliquy” and that it took “quite some time” for everyone to begin mingling and uniting as one student body.
“It was an adjustment, to say the least, all of us coming under one roof, but I met new friends from the other schools that I would never have known otherwise,” Karen Jalbert Brewer said. “I made friends my senior year that have been a part of my life ever since. That was a good thing that came out of all of this.”
The 70s were in full swing during the transition and the class of ’73 remembers rocking platforms and bellbottoms and long straight hair with a flip. The school dances had live bands and everyone spent their free time at “the mall” enjoying The Burger Chef, Sears, the Colony Shop and more.
Their football team was playing at the Florida Strawberry Festival grounds and their graduation was at the festival stadium as well. They carried on traditions like the annual homecoming parade and started some of their own. According to several of the reunion organizers, the now legendary PCHS Calendar Girls event debuted during their final year.
They were the very first to earn their diploma under the new roof and now their descendants are carrying on the tradition. For Swindle, her daughter Stephanie Swindle Conrad walked the PCHS stage in 1995 and her granddaughter Madi Conrad is graduating this spring with the PCHS class of 2019.
The event will be on Sept. 29 at the Plant City Elks Lodge, 1501 N. Alexander St. The reception will begin at 6 p.m. and dinner will be held at 7 p.m. They say it takes an army to pull off successful parties and this reunion is no exception.
A committee comprised of Debbie Dukes Swindle, Larry Swindle, Rodney Brewer, Rebecca Johnson Phillips, Joy Burt Lingenfelter, Karen Jalbert Brewer, Steve Gupton, Charlene Gupton, Cindy Ross Stroud, Paula Pugh Morgan, Connie Coon, Buddy Coon, Grant Tunall, Marsha Miller Kevitch and Jan Herdon Stallings have come together to plan and execute the reunion.
Anyone interested in attending is asked to go to the Plant City High School Class of 1973 Facebook page and message the group letting them know. The cost will be $60 per person at the door. More than 80 alumni have already signed up for the event and the organizers said they are estimating more than 120 will attend the dinner.
