This year’s Manteca High freshman class is 494 members strong.

It’s a long way from the 1953-1954 school year when  Manteca High’s senior class had 106 students

It’s a fact that Nancy Myatt would appreciate.

She’s one of the members of the Class of 1954 gathering on Saturday, Sept. 7, for their 70th reunion.

The class has conducted annual reunions for the past 50 years.

Myatt offered up some observations about Manteca High back in 1956.

Here they are with a few other tidbits.

*Manteca High opened this school year with 1,944 students. Manteca High’s student body in 1954 was almost 400 strong.

*Manteca High was the only high school in town. East Union High didn’t open until 1966. Sierra High was the Johnny-come lately opening  in 1994, 40 years after Myatt graduated with her fellow Buffs.

 *There was only one traffic signal in Manteca. It was at Main Street and Yosemite Avenue. Today, the number of intersections with traffic signals is now north of 70.

*All female students and teachers wore dresses or skirts and a top. No pants were allowed.

*There were no fast food joints. There’s fast food places galore today with a fifth McDonald’s on the way at Atherton Drive and South Main Street.

*All cars had stick shifts.

*Highway 120 flowed through town and past Manteca High as Yosemite Avenue.

*The initial four-lane freeway for Highway 99 wasn’t completed yet meaning the state highway passed behind Manteca High on Moffat Boulevard before heading north to Stockton via Main Street.

*Manteca had just over 5,000 residents. That compares to 16,000 today for the City of Ripon.

*Spreckels Sugar was the big private sector employer in Manteca, providing over 300 jobs between fulltime and seasonal. Target today stands where the main factory for processing sugar beets was located in 1954 just east of Manteca High.

 To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com