With Art in the Park and Arts and Crafts Fair over with, it’s on to the next big event: Old Settlers’ Day. I wrote in an article last week about how having class reunions at Old Settlers’ Day infused energy into the 101-year-old celebration. It turns out that idea is even older than I reported.

This week Joan Meyer read Bill Meyer’s column from Sept. 27, 1962, and found this:

“A good suggestion has been advanced that next year on Old Settlers’ Day the committee plan reunions for Marion High School classes of 1953, 43, 33, 23, and so on back,” he wrote. “Each year this could be done in connection with Old Settlers’ Day, with the classes of each 10 years or so honored.

“If you are of the class of 53, 43, 33, 23, 13, 03, etc., why not mark your calendar now to plan on being in Marion next year. If the same schedule is used next year that has been used on the past, Old Settlers’ Day will probably be held on Friday, October 4.”

So the idea that Old Settlers’ Day should be the time for class reunions is at least 50 years old. The comment that Old Settlers’ Day would probably be on Oct. 4 reflects another interesting piece of OSD history I learned this week. Matthew Classen wrote a letter to the editor about the decision to move OSD to a set time every year, the final Saturday of September. He certainly is right that having a specific day set aside every year makes planning much easier.

— ADAM STEWART