As a partially eaten salad sat unattended in front of her, Georgia Grisham ranted about how a test question from a home economics exam in high school still haunted her.

“I kept sitting there trying to remember what Mrs. Roberts had been telling us all year,” Grisham said.

“Sit down and be quiet,” chimed in a woman at the table.

Another round of gut-busting laughter ensued and Grisham’s salad remained neglected.

For the past two months, lady graduates of Langley High School have met at the Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun Club every fourth Thursday of the month for lunch and laughter. This meeting, last week, was typical.

“It’s just a bunch of old gals talking about old times,” said 1959 grad Linda (Crawford) Feit.

It’s this over abundance of laughter that often brings back a youthful exuberance and adds to the storytelling fun for grads ranging in age from the class of 2003 to classes from the 1930s.

Back on the subject of Mrs. Roberts and delirious from the lack of oxygen from laughing, Grisham repeats “Sew a seam, press a seam. Sew a seam, press a seam. It’s still in my head to this day.”

More laughter ensues. More memories are shared.

Just as if they were still in school, the ladies at the various tables tend to gather by year they graduated. The rowdy 1960s group sits off near a window as tables of older generations sit nearby.

“That’s the young table over there,” said Marleys (Kloster) Burley, class of 1942.

It’s only halfway through the lunch meeting of Langley High School lady graduates and already the dirt has been spilled.

Ladies at the “young table” admit to running out behind the Snack Shack, a fast food joint once located across the street from Langley High School, and out to friends’ cars to go smoke — or at least acknowledge knowing that’s where everybody else went.

The 1950s and ‘60s grads say Saturday night dances at Bayview Hall were the hot spots for trouble and fun.

“They were so packed people would have to get up on the top of their cars and crawl through the windows to sneak in,” said 1966 grad Donna (Smith) Doty.

High school students from as far as Oak Harbor and Everett would flock to Bayview Hall to hear bands like The Wailers perform live.

“Louie, Louie was my song,” said Joan (Burley) Blasko, class of 1965.

The “young table” wasn’t the only group to have a little fun. Marleys Burley got giddy as she told how she earned a week’s suspension after she and two other class of ‘42 girls broke one of Langley High School’s strictest rules.

“We were in the bushes smoking and a teacher walked right by,” she said. “I guess she saw the plume of smoke.”

Mixed in with the memories of the good and crazy times in school, the grads also remembered the history they lived.

In the 1940s, World War II brought many a teacher out of retirement as many students left school in their senior years.

“Guys were disappearing left and right,” Burley said. “They were being drafted all the time.”

The class of 1959 saw polio vaccines, the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union, the end of World War II and the infancy of the Cold War.

In the 60s, Langley High School students lived through Vietnam and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The latter event is something the grads who were at the school can still association with exactly what they were doing when they heard the news.

“We had just finished P.E. when we found out,” said 1964 grad Betty (Blasko) Galbreath.

Elsewhere in the school, juniors had just entered history class when someone entered the room.

“I still remember how somber they looked, and all they could say was ‘the president has been shot,’” Georgia Grisham said.

The memory still makes tears well in her eyes. The women at the table nod their head in agreement; it was the first time they were quiet all afternoon. They take the opportunity to go back to the various soups, salads and other lunch fare they had ignored while they gabbed.

The women could take breaks in the talk. It’s not as if they don’t see each other. In fact, almost all of the over two dozen women who attended the lunch still live on South Whidbey.

“It’s the nature of Whidbey and the spirit of the community that has brought people back to the island if they did leave,” Feit said. “I couldn’t wait to get off the island, then I couldn’t wait to get back.”

Within this group, there are family links between mothers, daughters, sisters and cousins. The reunions are a reminder that the women they see at the grocery store or talk to at the doctor’s office are also often classmates.

“It’s weird, I know most all of these women,” said 2003 South Whidbey High School grad Shannon Brown.

The tables at last week’s meeting were filled with a yearbook sampling of women representing Langley High School’s history. They were former homecoming queens, student body leaders, drill team members and valedictorians.

The women return to their glory days in this once-a-month lunch hour, which often stretches into two hours of laughter and side salads. In their stories, return to the hallowed halls they once ran down in saddle shoes and peddle pushers. They glance back and see that dreamy guy in homeroom. They feel the rush of a cheering crowd at football games. They remember the classmates who are no longer with them.

Within this lunchtime reunion they can all relate — no matter where life has taken them. Within this lunchtime reunion they are classmates once more.