As schoolmates from decades past trickled into the party hostess Dorothy Bullock Hulick greeted them with the blunt message:
“This is the last reunion.”
And just for good measure, once everybody was seated with their enchiladas and tequila, Hulick hushed the chattering crowd to reiterate: “This is our last one! Enjoy!”
Since 1999, Hulick has been organizing these biannual get-togethers with her Santa Ana High classmates – give or take a class. Hulick earned her diploma in 1949, but many of those who attended the final luncheon, on Thursday, April 21, graduated behind or ahead of her.
“Everyone knew each other,” Hulick said. “Boys, girls, juniors, seniors – we were all friends.”
Stalled for a while by the pandemic, the fetes normally take place in spring and again in fall, and always at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin. “I’ve been serving these nice people for 20 years,” said waiter Francisco Ledezma.
But at 90 Hulick is slowing down. And the friend who used to help her make telephone calls and arrangements recently died.
“I’ve tried to give the job away and nobody wants it,” Hulick said. “People say, ‘We like the way you do it.’”
Besides, Hulick noted, the event is getting harder for everyone, not just her.
“We live all over the place. And we have to have people drive us here,” she said. “It’s not that easy to get along when you’re in your nineties.”
Dorothy Bullock Hulick, 90, left, poses for a photo with her Santa Ana High School 1949 shirt as her daughter, Denise Mays, right, takes a photo during Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. Bullock has been organizing the high school class reunions for over 20 years but claims that this will be the last one. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Evelyn Marrs, 91, left and Arlane Palmer, both from the class of 1948 react to what was written on the back of a photo taken of the two women in 1946 when they were 15-years-old during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
This photo of Evelyn Marrs, left and Arlane Palmer was taken in 1946 when they were 15-years-old on the day the girls joined the Latin Club. The photo was part of Evelyn Marrs’ scrap book she showed around at the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Ray Benford, left, and Gordon Higgins, 89, look through the photos in the 1950 Santa Ana High yearbook during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Gordon Higgins, 89, points out a photo of himself in the 1950 Santa Ana High School year boot during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jim Mahoney (1946), left, wearing his Santa Ana High letterman sweater, looks a photos with Gordon Higgins (1950) during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Marie Chan, right, takes a photo of Marilyn Webb (1949) and Don Matel as Edna Webb, top left, looks on during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Evelyn Marrs, 91, shows her 1948 Santa Ana High class ring during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dan Peterson (1950), center, shares stores during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Marie Chan (1949), right, laughs with a former classmate Joanne Price (1949), left, during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Richard Holmes, left, and Nayan McNeill (1949), right, listen as Lavonne Holmes, center, tells a story during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Patty Conzelman (1951), left, chats with Liz Prizeo (1950) during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dan Peterson (1950), right, greets Patty Conzelman (1951), left, during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Beverly McWhorter (1951) left, shares a story with Nayan McNeill (1949) during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Edna Webb (1949), left, listens to stories from Gordon Higgins, 89, (1950) during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jim Mahoney (1946), right, wearing his Santa Ana High letterman sweater, holds the hand of Dorothy Bullock Hulick (1949) during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Harvey Bryan (1951) made his own name badge for the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Harvey Bryan (1951) and Dan Peterson (1950) reminisce during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Harvey Bryan (1951), standing, visits with old friends, from left, Helen Prizeo, (1949), her sister Liz Prizeo, (1950) and Dick Wilson during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Santa High graduates gather at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill for the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Nayan McNeill (1949), left, shares laughs with Joy Rickman (1949), center, and Jeff Harwood (1973) during Santa High School Class reunion for classed from ranging from the class from 1946-1952 at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Evelyn Marrs, 91, (1948) takes photos during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dan Peterson (1950), left, shares a story with Patty Conzelman (1951), center, and Beverly McWhorter (1951) during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Santa Ana High alumni, from left, Beverly McWhorter (1951), Jane Johnson (1949), Gordon Higgins (1950) share a laugh during a 1946-1952 Santa Ana High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dorothy Bullock Hulick’s photo in the 1949 Santa Ana High School yearbook that was brought to the Class of 1946-1952 Santa Ana High School reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Frank Ledezma, left, a server at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill takes a food order from Dorothy Bullock Hulick, 90, during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. Ledezma has been the server the Santa Ana High class reunions for 20 years and has become very close to many of the alumni over the years. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dan Peterson (1950), left, and Dorothy Bullock Hulick, 90, (1949) pose as Bullock’s daughter, Denise Mays, snaps a photo during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dorothy Bullock Hulick, 90, right, announces to her former classmates that this will be the last class reunion that she will be organizing during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dorothy Bullock Hulick, 90, (1949) visits with Dick Wilson, left, and Gordon Higgins, 89 (1950), right, during the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Placed on this Santa Ana High 1949 yearbook are photos of 1913 graduate Beulah Bullock, left, and her daughter Dorothy Bullock Hulick, who graduated in 1949. The photos and yearbooks were shared at the Class of 1946-1952 Santa High School class reunion at Rodrigo’s Mexican Grill in Tustin on Thursday, April 21, 2022. Dorothy Bullock Hulick has been organizing the Santa Ana High School class reunions for over 20 years but claims that this will be the last one. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Back in the day, when their reunions happened every five years and attracted hundreds, Hulick served on the organizing committee. Now the group has dwindled to about 50 — still an impressive showing, all things considered.
“We’re a bunch of old poops,” Hulick said. “We’re dropping like flies.”
The “old poops” can still party. As Ledezma delivered tray after tray of super-sized margaritas and chips, the laughter was constant.
“I’m here for the cute girls and the margaritas,” said Gordon Higgins, class of ’50, pointing out a couple of women he dated as a teen.
A lot of Orange County history resided in the room. In 1915, Higgins’ family opened Higgins Furniture store in Orange, where he worked.
“All of us bought our furniture there in the 1970s,” said Beverly McWhorter Griffeth “We couldn’t afford it when we were younger. My husband and I bought our dining room and living room furniture at Higgins. I still have it.”
Edna Webb Hawkins’ dad, Ernie Webb, was the county’s first bail bondsman, starting in 1927.
Jim Mahoney’s family started Miller’s Tires, which he would see expand to five locations. Class of ’46, Mahoney still rocks the letterman sweater he earned as a baseball star.
He’s married schoolmate Shirley Naill Mahoney, whose family owned the only photo studio for miles. “My father took our school pictures,” she said.
Dancer and choreographer Evelyn Marrs Hicks and a friend served as the only majorettes for the El Toro Marine Corps Band.
Marie Chan Lee remembers that hers was “the only Chinese family in town.”
“We weren’t treated differently,” Lee recalled. “In fact, my brother was class president.”
Lee’s father, Harry Chan, was a doctor who specialized in Chinese herbs. Her brother was father to actresses Meg and Jennifer Tilly, with whom she is close.
Griffeth, Jane Dickson Johnson and Patty Conzelman Ross, all class of ’51, formed a tight clique way back in kindergarten – and remain that way. During the reunion, they clustered together reminiscing about meetups at Mary’s Malt Shop and Friday night dances.
“My dad chaperoned the dances,” said Johnson, whose husband and high school sweetheart, Keith Johnson, died in 2018. “If boys and girls danced too close together, there would be a tap, tap on the shoulder.”
Their parents sometimes took them to the Rendezvous Ballroom on Balboa Peninsula where, for $1, they saw the likes of Nat King Cole and Stan Kenton.
“We lived in a ridiculous bubble,” Griffeth said. “We were so innocent.”
For their part, Hulick, Hicks and Arlane Palmer Holmes frequently catch up on the phone.
In high school, Holmes and Hicks were studious best friends who competed over grades. “Evelyn was the better student, so I was very proud one time when I scored higher in Latin,” Holmes said. But academia didn’t stop Holmes from having fun: “I dated a new guy every week.”
Whether romanticizing in hindsight or not, these Santa Ana High alums agree that high school was bliss.
“It was like the TV show ‘Happy Days,’” said Griffeth. “Everything was so fun and easy.”
In the afterglow of her successful event, Hulick’s bold stand that this year’s get-together would be the last crumbled within hours.
“Everyone had so much fun,” Hulick said. “I’m reconsidering. We may do it again in October.”
