FAIRMONT — In the spring of 1945, World War II was in its last waning months. Following the death of President Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman took over leadership of the country and ordered atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Gas was 15 cents a gallon, and the velvety voices of Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were playing on the radio.

The Martin County towns of Triumph and Monterey had yet to be merged into Trimont, but the two communities did share a secondary school, Trimont High School, which held graduation ceremonies for 28 seniors that year.

Eight members of this class held a 72-year reunion Saturday at the Ranch in Fairmont, and the vivid memories of these 90-year-olds flowed as freely as the rain on their graduation day.

“It rained eight inches that night. We drove through standing water three or four times on the way home,” recalled Robert Olson of Sherburn, who at the age of 89, claimed to be the youngest of the group.

The classmates commented about how it “rained pitchforks,” causing the ditches to overflow with water. One friend’s old Studebaker leaked due to the holes in the roof, and the deluge even prevented some students from attending their own graduation.

Five young men in the class were absent, due to their service in the U.S. Navy. Because of the war, the draft required men to register for military service when they turned 18. If they had waited until the end of school, it was highly likely they would serve in the Army. By leaving before graduation, they could opt for the Navy instead.

“We had five chairs draped with flags for those guys that joined the Navy,” Olson said.

“We went through war rationing. My boyfriend was in the service, and he’d send nylons because he could get them,” said Bernie Roebbeke, who was in the class with her twin sister, Beverly. The classmates remembered the rationing of shoes, sugar and tires as well as nylon stockings.

Although times were tough, the then-teenagers relished the good times. In 1945, there was what they described as a big hotel in town, and it had a juke box.

“We’d go down there after school and dance. We had a lot of fun there,” said Carolyn Nordstrom of Fairmont.

“We had a ‘Lovers Lane’ too, in the north part of town,” Olson said. “As a young person, we liked to drink a little bit. We couldn’t buy hard liquor in the store so we had to get it from the deputy. He was a bootlegger.”

“That was just the boys,” Lois Hartke of Fairmont quickly added.

Reminiscing about school days evoked a lot of laughter and produced even more memories. Buddy Burkhardt was swiftly declared the biggest flirt in the class, and long-time Fairmont resident Essie Edman, who was only a few years older than her students, was fondly remembered as their English teacher.

“Some of the boys were tricksters with Essie. They’d smoke pipes and everything,” Nordstrom said.

Inevitably, as with many class reunions, talk turned to the rapid passing of time and aging.

One woman commented that her daughter and son-in-law were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

“That makes you feel old,” she said.