(Telegraph file photo) The three Spring Street Junior High "Officers for a Day" were photographed with their adult counterparts after their classmates elected them in May 1962. From left are Mark Hogan, seated in front of Mayor Mario J. Vagge; Bruce Jasper, in front of Deputy Police Chief John Webster; and Thomas Hall, in front of Fire Chief Albert L. Tanguay. Webster stood in for Chief Paul J. Tracy, who was unavailable.

What if someone told you the three young men who each beat out several other candidates for the offices of mayor and police and fire chief some six decades ago will reunite next month, right here in downtown Nashua – for the first time since they parted ways some 57 years ago?

Well, the first question would likely have something to do with just how old these men are, given they were named to their respective offices back in the Kennedy administration and in the midst of a Space Race and a Civil Rights movement and against the backdrop of an unwinnable war.

The answer is: Not very old at all.

That’s because these young office-holders – Mayor Mark Hogan, police Chief Bruce Jasper and fire Chief Thomas Hall – were barely into their teens when they were elected to their respective offices in that May 1962 election.

Alas, their titles and their time “in office” were temporary, but an achievement nonetheless.

The three were elected by their fellow Spring Street Junior High School students as part of something called the “Father and Son” program.

Their victories – each of them fended off four or five candidates in the “primary election” held a month or so earlier – earned them “Officer for the Day” honors, which meant tagging along with the “real” mayor and chiefs – Mayor Mario J. Vagge, police Chief Joseph Regan and fire Chief Albert L. Tanguay – for a day as they carried out their duties.

Now, 60 years later and 57 years since they graduated Nashua High School as members of one of the most active and community-minded senior classes in Nashua history: The Class of 1965.

Come Saturday, June 11, the three “officers,” affectionately referred to as “the three amigos” by their ’65 classmate and reunion committee member Cynthia Corthell Magill, will be back together again, this time in a function room at Martha’s Exchange, a venue that was just a 12-stool breakfast and lunch counter with a small candy display when they were in high school.

OK, so why a 57-year reunion? Aren’t they typically held on years ending in “0” or “5”?

“We were planning a 55th, but then, COVID hit. And we didn’t want to wait another five years,” Magill said.

The ’65ers numbered 560, and on the average, each graduate seems to have invited seven family members or friends to Holman Stadium for the commencement.

It was a fairly warm, humid mid-June Wednesday evening, with a chance of a shower or thunderstorm. If you were there, you know what happened: Just about the time principal Patrick Morley was to address the graduates, that “chance” became a “sure thing.”

“A severe thunderstorm thoroughly drenched the graduates, school officials, parents, family and other guests … ,” The Nashua Telegraph reported in the next day’s paper.

As the crowd of roughly 4,000 folks gathered up their stuff and scrambled for cover – which, for most, meant racing back to their cars – it was assumed, correctly so, that the rest of the ceremonies – Morley’s speech and the recessional – were canceled.

The topic may come up at the reunion, or maybe someone will ask someone else if they remember the famous, or more like infamous, tunnel that connected the main Spring Street Junior High building with its annex called the Quincy building.

Maybe memories of Nashua High’s newly founded hockey team, headed by the late coach George Marineau, will be shared.

Classmates lost over the years will be remembered, perhaps with a favorite story or silent prayer. Two that immediately come to mind are John Davis, known as “All-American John” for his athletic prowess and who died just last year; and Warren “Beaver” Brown, an aspiring artist who was just 20 when he tragically lost his life in Vietnam, which prompted the Class of ’65 to create a scholarship in his name.

A lot of water has flowed over the proverbial dam since the days young Nashua men and women forked over a couple of dimes for a meal at the city’s first fast-food estabslihment – Howdy Beefburger – ordered an ice cream cone (10 cents, 11 cents with sprinkles) from the venerable Jeannotte’s snack bar fixture we all knew as Gertrude, spent Thursday evenings walking up and down Main Street because, well, it was Thursday evening, or got all sharped up for the Friday night record hop over at St. John the Evangelist School in Hudson.

Welcome, 65ers, and happy reminiscing.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.