Nostalgia.

The quad. The mosaic. The balcony. The uniforms. The music department.

Standing next to former high school classmates, images of the early 1960s roll through the minds of PHS graduates of 1963, as they smile and listen intently to members of the ASB class leading guided campus tour in celebration of the graduating class of 1963’s 50 year reunion.

Retired commercial fisherman Tom Peters graduated in the Piedmont High School class of 1963.

Peters said he was strongly involved in the music program, playing the trombone, and was happy to see the remains of what used to be the old music department on campus.

What was their open quad, with the balcony that reads “Achieve the Honorable”, has now been renovated and supported with a roof, and is now known as our library.  The music department was next to what Peters remembers as the quad.

“The school atmosphere does not feel that much different,” Peters said. “The biggest change is girls do not wear uniforms anymore. Girls would wear pleated skirts, white shirts, and scarfs.”

Peters said that the girls every year would have a vote on whether or not to make the uniform mandatory. While boys did not wear a uniform, it was against school rules to wear jeans.

After graduating, Peters was drafted into the Navy, then attended Humboldt State.

Piedmont High school graduates of ‘63 Ellen Sieg Magnani and Virginia Leonhart said they both agree that the high school strongly prepared them for college. Sieg Magnani attended the University of Washington and Leonhart attended Stanford after graduating from Piedmont High School.

Sieg Magnani, Leonhart, and Peters said they remember that the walls of the building surrounding the old quad had beautiful pieces of artwork. The mosaic on the bottom floor of the current 30’s building is an original wall that outlined the quad patio.

Sieg Magnani and Leonhart said that walking from one side of the campus to the other side of campus was far.

“We only had four minutes to get to classes,” Sieg Magnini said, “Four minutes. Make sure you mention that.”

Sieg Magnani said that there were no AP courses offered at Piedmont High School.

“A good student could advance in only french,” Sieg Magnani said. “It was Piedmont’s gate program.” According to Magnani replicas of famous paintings used to hang around campus.

“Now I will come by a famous painting and [recognize it],” Sieg Magnani said. “Piedmont High School implemented a love for fine arts.”

Sieg Magnani said that seeing revisiting the community has allowed her to recognize how nice it was to grow up in Piedmont.

“We had no idea what we had in high school,” Sieg Magnani said. “Coming back and seeing everything, it’s so beautiful.”