GREENFIELD — A lot has changed since 1954. What hasn’t changed is the tight-knit relationships fostered by the Turners Falls High School Class of 1954.

On Thursday, nine of the class’ 19 surviving members got together at Terrazza Ristorante to mark their 70th reunion, sharing their memories of high school and beyond.

“We are a class that are not only classmates [and] best friends, but extended family,” said Charlotte Choleva.

“My time in high school was absolutely fantastic and I did not want to graduate,” added Phyllis Nelson Patten said, who was cheer captain. After high school, she joined Civil Air Patrol and became the first female commander in Massachusetts.

Nelson Patten remembers enjoying football games and basketball games with her friends, saying she loved all of the good times she had with her classmates.

“We’re all still together,” she added.

Like Nelson Patten, Valeda Peters, who organized the reunion, was a cheerleader who later joined Civil Air Patrol in 1953. She stayed in the service for 37 years after learning about Civil Air Patrol from an instructor in Northfield.

Mildred Green recalls playing music in high school as a member of the band and choir. After graduation, Green started Heat Fab Inc., a manufacturer of products for the hearth and heating industries, alongside her husband. The business was initially located in Greenfield, moving to Turners Falls in 1996. The couple sold the business in 2006.

Jane Baugh, the wife of Richard “Dick” F. Thompson who was the class president, attended the reunion in her husband’s memory, as Thompson died in 2021.

“He was loving, kind, caring, brilliant and creative — he could always solve problems,” Baugh said of her late husband.

Although they met after high school, Class of 1954 members would always tell Baugh about Thompson’s problem-solving nature.

“A lot of people from here have told me that,” Baugh said. To memorialize him at the reunion, Baugh wore his class ring on her right hand.

A digitized copy of the yearbook from 1954 is available at tinyurl.com/bdzmd32c.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.