A lot has changed in 70 years, especially in the flood-ravaged town of Valmeyer. But the memories remain.

Fred Meister of Waterloo is one of 25 graduating members of the Valmeyer High School Class of 1946. He keeps a scrapbook from his high school days, which includes a full class portrait, papers and other important findings.

Meister said there are 12 surviving VHS Class of 1946 graduates.

If that seems they are unusually healthy, it may just be that they grew up in Monroe County.  Oak Hill Director Kim Keckritz reported at a recent county board meeting that the average age of residents of that group exceeds their counterparts in Illinois and the U.S. by some 10 years.

Or maybe it was the way they grew up.  Meister reported that he and his sister walked to school in Valmeyer – 3.3 miles each way – until the luxury of school bus service arrived during his junior year.

The bottoms are very flat, so at least it was not uphill both ways.

The longevity of this group of Pirates could also be attributed to their disciplined school days. Boys who misbehaved were “sentenced” to move a pile of sand remaining from the Flood of 1943; girls washed windows or cleaned floors, Meister told.

Many students, including Meister, were also farm children, and farming was an “all hands” life.

“Did I participate in sports?” Fred responded when asked.  “No. I had to go directly home after school. There was field work to be done.”

Meister also told of student contributions to the nation’s efforts to support the fight in World War II. One way was by students collecting milkweed pods in corn fields and hanging them on fences to dry.

Pictured is a brick from the old Valmeyer High School, complete with a purple cover embroidered by Fred Meister himself .

How did that help? The dried pods were later collected, and the fluff inside was used to make lifejackets that undoubtedly saved sailors and mariners.  Several, including Meister, who went on to serve as a photographer with the Air Force in Korea, would subsequently take up arms for the United States in their post-Valmeyer High School days.

Members of the VHS band joined with their Waterloo counterparts to fill in for band members who were serving in the military and to perform War Bond rally concerts.

Meister’s scrapbook contains reports of numerous class reunions that brought the Class of 1946 together, welcoming spouses into the fold as well. The 20th reunion was held at the former Bee-Hive bowling alley and restaurant in Waterloo. A 25th gathering was held in Valmeyer, at St. Mary’s Church Hall. In 1976, the graduates broke bread and celebrated at Eberhart’s Restaurant in Columbia.

The 40th was held at Fred and Edith Meister’s lifelong home on Richard Street – appropriately, across from the Bee-Hive, where the 20th reunion was held.

And so it has gone – 50th, 60th and finally in 2011, a 65th reunion at Red Apple Restaurant in Columbia. Meister said the 65th will likely be the last such gathering – citing health and travel distances as reasons.

“It’s not age – we are only 87 and 88 years old,” he noted.

Sadly, the school building those proud Pirates graduated from no longer exists. It was inundated and destroyed in the record Flood of 1993, which reached almost to its roof.

Destruction of the school and the surrounding community was such that neither could be restored to health. The school building was demolished, with most of it being buried at its sight.

But Meister keeps a souvenir of that time and place. It is a brick from the school structure, inscribed with his name. It is clothed in a purple embroidered covering, emblazoned in metallic gold thread: “VCHS Class 1946.”

Today, only a few buildings and families remain in the bottoms area of Old Valmeyer.  But a new Valmeyer has been built, high and dry on the bluff above. And it includes the continued tradition of a high school that carries on the name of the Valmeyer Pirates – and their traditional colors of purple and gold.

Nobody walks miles to school and then home again.  But one thing remains. They are still proud Pirates – like their predecessors from the Class of 1946.