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Schools

Cornerstone Reception at GHS Was a Mixture of Old and New

GHS' Cornerstone Reception showcased the newly restored contents found in the 1922 cornerstone and left plenty of time for old friends to catch up.

After months of careful restoration, several items found in the 1922 cornerstone on historical “Old Main” building are now on display in the campus museum.

To celebrate, the museum held a Cornerstone Reception on Wednesday, mostly attended by current members of the Associated Student Body and alumni dating as far back as 1932.

“It’s just really informal, people browsing” said Connie Baer, the museum’s director who works alongside her sister, Lynn.

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Among the contents displayed were three newspapers—La Mesa Scout, Lakeside Journal and El Cajon Valley News—each of which contain the same article mentioning the school’s opening. Unfolded after 90 years and carefully washed with a special solution, they are now in remarkable condition.

Several badges honoring the Women’s Relief Corp, Grand Army of the Republic and American Legion were also restored after years spent inside an oxidizing copper box, along with some Civil War medallions.

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“People ask why there’s memorabilia from the Civil War,” Lynn Baer said. “I think it’s because they wanted to show what was important to people in 1922, and there were people still alive from the Civil War.”

Contents for the school’s future cornerstone were prominently featured, which will be placed after are completed. Compiled by 2010-11 ASB members, it also holds items considered important by today’s student population—including class T-shirts, a Grossmont sweatband and a map of the campus, and more.

Not the least of which is a packet of Twinkies bearing a piece of paper with the following inscription:

We heard that Twinkies don't expire, so we put this in here for you to try! Go ahead. It’s probably still good. :)

Among the alumni in attendance was Edna Kouns, class of 1932, a cornerstone donor whose family—the Fosters—spent more than 40 years serving the school board of the Grossmont Union High School District.

“I went here from ’28 to ’32 when it was the only high school in the whole district,” said Kouns, who became a teacher like 13 other members of the Foster family. “The first Grossmont was actually in Lakeside and originally called Riverview.”

Her grandfather, Arthur Bertram Foster, served on the board from 1920 to 1926, and, after the school relocated, would travel by horse and buggy to attend meetings.

“When AB Foster came from the East, the first thing he said was, ‘We got to get a school started,’ ” said Cathy Hansen, a cornerstone donor and a teacher at Grossmont in the early 1950s. “His wife said he probably died because he worked himself to death trying to get everyone to be supportive.”

In his place came sons Ralph Ebenezer Foster, who served from 1926 to 1935, and Clarence Henry, who was on the board from 1935 to 1960. It was this Foster that alumni members of the football team might best recall—he entertained them with a corn feed at the beginning of each season and a turkey dinner at the end.

Leroy “Coke” Foster, class of 1942, was one of eight of Clarence’s sons, and says he liked to have his dad involved. But he remembers his mother was a little less thrilled.

“I know Mom used to try to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t do it,” he said. “He was getting old. He died a year or two after he quit.”

The Cornerstone Reception provided many such insights, as well as a chance for people to peruse through the artifacts and reminisce. For some, it was less of an event than it was a reunion of sorts.

“Well, it was just that it was almost like family,” said Kouns of her greatest school memory. “I think there were 85 kids in my graduating class. Back then, the teacher relationship was a personal thing—you knew them and they knew you.”

There is no set date for the placement of a new cornerstone. Other donors of the cornerstone include the Ed and Mary Fletcher Fund, Dyan and James Pignatelli, Helen and John Ofield, Randa Gage, Virgiinia Kouns Embry and the La Mesa and Lakeside Historical Societies.

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