WILSON — Eleven members of the 22 member Wilson High School Class of 1972 attended the 131st annual WHS Alumni Banquet Saturday at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Parish Hall.

Two of those attending were Dr. Richard Vopat, retired, and his wife, Mary (Kasper) Vopat of Wilson.

“We got together last night and it was fun seeing everybody again,” Mary said. “A lot of them live in this area, but still, there were a lot of them from out-of-town that we hadn’t seen for a while. We had a good time — like the years never passed by.”

Richard said he hasn’t had the opportunity to attend many of the alumni banquets.

“I came for the 25th, and this is the 50th,” he said.

Mary said she can remember being a senior in high school and thinking the 50 year class was “really old.” Richard wondered where did

Richard wondered where did the last 50 years go.

“You turn around and it’s been 50 years,” he said.

Richard and Mary dated their senior year in high school and then, after graduation, went to college together and got married. Richard then attended medical school.

Mary said the Wilson Class of 1972 were very close.

“And I think we’re still close,” she added. “There are seven or eight people that live in the Wilson area.”

Mary and Richard said Alice Peterka, James Patry and Bob Mog were their favorite teachers.

“I think they demanded a lot from you, so you learned a lot,” Mary said.

The Vopats also remember making various animal skeletons in Mr. Hoffman’s biology class.

Richard also had a genetic mouse project in Hoffman’s class.

“I remember my mouse project got out-of-hand a little bit,” he said.

Perhaps the most infamous incident that took place at WHS during that time involved Limburger cheese.

According to Mary, someone thought it would be wise to put Limburger cheese on some school heaters and in some lockers.

“It stunk for weeks,” she said. “We were talking about that last night. Nobody really said who did it.”

Members of the Wilson High School Class of 1972 are the Vopats, Donna (Casper) Krug, Christita (Dlabal) Weber, Susan (Dolezal) Davidson, Stephen Eschbaugh, Mike Foran, Connie Frederking, Terry (Hill) Soukup, Roger Hunter, Kristel (Kasper) Steinle, David Klema, Craig Lilak, Kathleen (Mog) Carreon, Karen Peschka, Trent Princ, Danny Ptacek, Larry Ptacek, Aaron Rasmussen, Francis Soukup, Nancy (Stoppel) King and Alva (Wallert) Hedberg.