HARLINGEN — Gloria Casas took a stroll through downtown with some of her classmates from the 1966 Cardinal graduating class.
A group of the 163 students from that year’s graduating class has come back home for their 50th class reunion.
“My blood runs red but I have a heart of a Lion,” said Casas, a La Feria resident and school board member. “I love my Harlingen and La Feria.”
One of the many activities the class did together was take the historic Jackson Street tour.
A group of more than 20 class members took the walking tour.
It was reminiscent of their past as students filling up the halls walking to their next class.
Only this time they were walking through town to learn about the murals on the walls in downtown.
The activity was a chance to go down memory lane and sightsee the architecture still standing and remember the times when they walked into those places as children.
The last time any of the group of students had gathered together was in San Antonio for their 35th reunion.
Classmates came from all over the states to meet with their old friends.
The class co-coordinator Lupita Tamez Ariaza said 169 from their graduating class of 500 students were in attendance.
“It’s been a joint effort coordinating this event,” she said.
Jorge Hernandez remembers he enjoyed playing on the Cardinal football team.
He said he wasn’t the biggest or the best, but he loved that team.
He said he remembered practices when he would go up against the biggest players during defense drills to get ready for the Friday night games.
He smiled, giving a hint to his good old days on the football team that prepared him for life before he went to the war.
“I graduated on a Friday, enlisted on a Saturday and left to the Vietnam War on Sunday,” Hernandez said, now a resident of San Antonio.
Tonight the class will be honoring all their war veterans during their class dinner and dance.
“I think it’s exciting and everybody is happy to be here, and we’re having a wonderful time,” Lupita said.
