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They learned science from Harry Cooper and Kenneth Goding, French from Marjorie Pierce, English from Rachel McIntire, discipline from Principal Philip Garland and Acting Principal Freeman Hall and a work ethic from the community around them.

From each other, the Attleboro High School Class of 1944 learned loyalty - the art of sticking together. And they have excelled at it.

"We've had a reunion every fifth year for the last 60 years," says 1944 alum Marvin Tesler, one of the reunion organizers.

"We've never missed," adds his classmate Bob Healey, looking forward to the 65th year reunion on Sept. 15. "Everybody is just so anxious to see everybody else."

The class may be a ways off from a Guinness record, if there even is one for continuing high school reunions. Google reports a Phillips Academy graduate attended his 90th reunion last year. The Attleboro High School Class of 1939 got together for its 70th reunion last month and at least a couple of 75th year reunions have been held around the area. But few could match the enthusiasm that this class that produced 158 graduates has for these get-togethers our British cousins so aptly call "reminiscence meetings." The tables for the reunion banquet at Luciano's on Lake Pearl in Wrentham will be set for more than 50. Class members like Sylvia Lagerholm fly in from as far as California.

Part of the reason for the draw of an AHS '44 reunion may be the nature of the class members' memories of happy days.

Granted, the nation was just over halfway through World War II in their graduation year. D-Day, June 6, would come right around graduation time. Most boys, according to yearbook listings, had their eyes on a future of military service - 40 out of 59 served - and so did a lot of girls. Many weren't waiting for their diplomas. Newton Woodworth didn't get his until after he completed his Navy service - "and then I got it twice," he says, "but that's another story" - and his experience was hardly rare for boys in high school 65 years ago.

But after-school jobs were abundant. Tesler worked at the Balfour plant as a 25-cent-an-hour go-for. Healey made the same at Bay State Optical, then jumped to $1 an hour as a freight handler. "I thought I was king of the world," he laughs. Woodworth, meanwhile, was hauling in the princely sum of 50 cents an hour at the New Public Market.

After-school treats were likewise abundant. After leaving the old high school on County Street, many students would walk to Bobby's Ice Cream Shoppe on Bank Street. For a special night out, they might head to Wightman's in South Attleboro, which was advertised as the biggest diner in the world, though that meant cashing in tickets or coupons for gasoline, which was rationed in those years, as were many products.

As for drinking, it could mean "going down the line," says Woodworth, describing a practice where you would order a drink that included one squirt of every fountain syrup available - cola, rootbeer, lemon and lime, etc. - finished off with a blast of soda water. That drink was for show mostly. The most popular drink of the day, he says, was coke and raspberry syrup.

Fights? "There were only one or two that I can remember," says Woodworth.

Sex? "It just didn't seem to happen."

As for who won the Thanksgiving Day football game of their senior year, class members don't seem to remember the score. They do remember taking to Hayward Field with shovels to make sure the game could be played on an otherwise snow-covered field.

By all accounts, life was simple. School filled most of the day. The teachers are remembered by Woodworth as "good, conscientious, they really tried." Jobs and social activities filled other odd hours; so did life in a bustling community. The ads in the 1944 "Tattletale & Blue Owl" yearbook portray a city with a store or a factory on every corner. "Who said we were the Greatest Generation?" retorts Cooper when asked about the enduring spirit of the Class of 1944.

But the grads of 2009 - whatever their generation's Tom Brokaw may label them - could learn a few things from their predecessors of '44 if getting back together every five years is a goal:

Be open to change. While you can expect more than 50 at the 65th-year reunion, there are not that many members of the Class of 1944 still alive. Husbands, wives and friends of members who have attended reunions have been adopted in as honorary classmates.

It helps to have a strong home base. Tesler, Healey and Woodworth all worked and lived in or near Attleboro throughout their careers. So did a remarkable number of Class of 1944 members, including local barbers, industrialists, jewelry craftsmen, nurses, a future city clerk.

"... and don't forget Dick Audette," advises Cooper. While Tesler and Healey handle a lot of the reunion planning, Audette makes sure - partly through means not even dreamed of in 1944, e-mail - that classmates are posted on the goings-on. A class leadership committed to having reunions is absolutely essential to their success, even for the Greatest Generation.

MARK FLANAGAN (mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com) is Opinion Page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335.