The past caught up with the future Tuesday night - even if it was just for a couple of hours.
Hundreds of "Beetdiggers" spanning nearly 80 years and several generations came together for a final moment at historic Jordan High School on State Street in Sandy, many proudly wearing the maroon and gray colors of their alma mater."I remember the tradition here," said Peggy Black, West Jordan, class of '69, and a third-generation Beetdigger - the moniker given to students at Jordan High. Her grandmother "was in the second or third graduating class in 1913 (before the building was complete) . . ." Black's husband added.
The nationally historic school - built in 1914, but whose first graduating class of 11 members was actually in 1911 - will be permanently vacated March 7 after nearly 82 years as a place of learning, accomplishment and identity for tens of thousands who walked its hallways and occupied its classrooms.
And now, after feeling its age structurally and the pressure of continued growth (the student body now numbers nearly 2,000 and 19 modular classrooms surround the 10,000 square-foot building) it is time to say good-bye.
Patty Sandstrom, chairwoman for the committee to retiring Jordan High School, said preparations "for a smooth transition" to a new $44.5 million facility just down the road to the south are already under way as construction draws to a close.
"It's hard to leave the past, but I think there's so many things that we need to update and improve," Sandstrom, a drama and English teacher, told a couple of former students.
Amid the revelry and reunion Tuesday night, octogenarians mixed it up alongside the young adults of Jordan's class of '96 as every age group in between packed the hallways, corners and classrooms of the edifice.
"There's where I sat and ate my lunch every day," an unidentified alumna said to what appeared to be her granddaughter, pointing at the west stairwell and main entry way into the school.
At the top of the stairs is a framed Dec. 1, 1938, Salt Lake Telegraph newspaper clipping surrounded by more than two dozen pictures of young people. The headline, "24 Killed in Bus Crash," and subsequent story detail the tragedy of Jordan High students killed in the state's worst vehicle/train accident.
A few feet away a group of three teenage girls peered into the showcases and trophy shelves inside the main hallway, looking at images and evidence of Jordan's athletic and academic prowess.
Eleven football championships, starting in 1931 and including 1994-95; three state basketball trophies, from 1953, 1954 and 1955; the Class 4-A Girls' Soccer championship trophy from 1993-94; and the bust of a classical composer honoring the 1995 recipient of the Carl Ivan Jacobson Music Scholarship.
"The glory days of athletics is what I remember most," said Dennis Bateman, Provo, class of '55 who was with his father, Noal, class of '30 and the mayor of Sandy City from 1952-57. Dennis Bate-man came up from Utah County for one last look. "Of course I was a spectator to the sport; we had a great basketball team. This school is like an old friend."
Bateman, who was on the debate team, said not only his parents, but his grandparents attended and graduated from Jordan High.
A teacher featured in a fund-raising film chronicling the school's history explained the origin of the school's nickname. He said it was not uncommon for the boys in the school to be let out to help harvest crops of (sugar) beets, and almost everyone participated, thus the name.
"Actually, we took great pride in knowing we weren't being represented by some animal or whatnot," the man said in "Jordan's Legacy: The Beet Goes On." "In fact, our only real rivals were the Granite Farmers, and everyone knows a beetdigger is better than a farmer."
And as the school jazz band played its final Glenn Miller tune on the gym's hardwood floor and the yearbook and newspaper staffs busily documented the evening's events on videotape and film, old acquaintances renew friendships and gathered around their old lockers as if it were 10, 20, 40 or 80 years ago, as they paused to laugh, cry and reminisce a little over what they remembered best about being a Beetdigger.