“Miniskirts!”
That’s what Palisades High School Class of ’71 grad Charles Pitts remembers most about his years as a student at Pali.
Pitts, now retired from a career in the insurance industry, reminisced about his high school days – or “daze” as he put it – with Class of ’69’s Dana Shatts and Class of ’65’s Don Ciaffardini at the Pali High Alumni Annual Picnic and Car Show on Saturday, June 13.
The third annual all-classes reunion drew grads from several decades.
Shatts, who currently lives in Torrance but used to live on Chautauqua, recalled feeling a lot of pressure in high school to keep his grades up so he could get into college “because the Vietnam War was going on,” he said.
A former Villa Woods Drive resident, Pitts remembered that the year he graduated President Richard M. Nixon transitioned to an all-volunteer army, “so I ripped up my Army papers,” he said.
Pitts remembered working at the “triangle gas station” where the Village Green is now and washing car windows for the likes of Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw.
The event featured a number of vintage cars – from an original Shelby Cobra to a 1970 Rolls Royce Corniche to a car high school students were more likely to have actually driven during high school – a 1974 Pinto.
This year’s picnic also included a screening of “Skateboarding’s First Wave,” a documentary about the original Palisades Skateboard Team directed by local cinematographer and former skateboard team member Don Burgess.
—FRANCES SHARPE
See photos from the reunion on page 16.
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