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Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
Crazy eights – it’s great to graduate under the eight
Four generations with more than 100 years of Galt High graduates
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Heather Graham, Carrie Maylum, Linda Graham and Fred Gudel proudly represent the “crazy eights” of GHS as their family has stayed in Galt for more than four generations.
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By Gwen Stevenson
Staff Writer
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Four generations of the Gudel family have stayed here in Galt, for more than 100 years. However, that’s not a real unusual circumstance for many families who have settled in this great little town and never left, raising kids, grandkids and great-grandkids as the cycle of life goes on.
The thing about this particular Galt family that makes them unique though is the succession of generations who have graduated from Galt High School in years ending with the number eight. Not just one generation, or even two, but all four generations have had a number eight graduation, a history you probably couldn’t have planned if you tried.
With Heather Graham about to walk the board and graduate in 2008, the family has started calling themselves the “crazy eights.”
The magical years are 1938, 1968, 1988, and now, 2008; countless memories from a 70+ year time span, from the days when life were simpler.
Kicking off the trend is Fred Gudel who was born to Ernest and Marie Gudel in 1921 on their ranch and raised just south of Galt. The couple had moved here from San Luis Obispo in 1911 and purchased 168 acres, running a dairy near the corner of Liberty Road and Lower Sacramento Road.
“I was the bashful type,” said Gudel. “I was a country boy.”
Gudel recalls riding the bus to GHS but having to walk home.
“I didn’t play any sports because I had to come home to do chores, milk cows, and so on,” said Gudel.
There were about 240 students at Galt High at that time, Gudel recalled.
“I liked all the teachers, and I think we respected them,” said Gudel. “I wasn’t the teacher’s pet, although in grade school I was. I wasn’t really a grade A student, but my sisters were. There were no problems with the students back then.”
The teacher that Gudel remembers the most was Mr. Littleton.
“He made the rounds of the classrooms to ask any students if they were interested in playing in the band,” Gudel said. “I had to say no because I didn’t think I had any musical talent.”
Gudel graduated in 1938 and eventually joined the armed services. He married Alice in 1949, and they bought 50 of his parents’ acres in 1950. Some of the property was sold into development, while the remainder was sold to the couple’s son Ernie, when he moved into town; he still owns the land today.
“We like to drive by there, on Speiss Road, and say how we used to cut hay here or irrigate there,” said Alice. “It’s a really nice subdivision now.”
Gudel has pretty clear memories of high school, even though it was 70 years ago.
“I am proud I went to Galt High School,” said Gudel. “Out of seven children, I am the only one left, so I am the historian of the family.”
One of the Gudel’s four children is the second of the “crazy eights,” Linda Graham, who attended Galt High in the 1960s.
“Our class was about 100 people,” said Graham, who graduated in 1968. “The whole school had about 400 students, so you knew everybody in the school.”
Graham recalled the first school at the present location burned down; the second one was a two-story brick building, and it was finally torn down to make way for the existing campus of today.
“I remember that there were bats in the belfry,” said Graham.
Graham remembers having to wear dresses and, if the counselors thought a dress was too short, you had to go home and change.
“And we had those big bouffant hair-dos,” said Graham.
Graham said that homecoming was always a big deal, and everyone went all out on the floats and decorations.
“Our football teams were really good,” said Graham. “We were winning championships.”
Back then, said Graham, the girls didn’t play on competitive sports teams, and she said she remembers the senior benches that no one else could sit on. She also remembers a Galt when kids had something to do with their time.
“On Friday nights, we would cruise up and down Lincoln Way,” Graham said. “We would go to the bowling alley and get a hamburger. We had really good dances after the football games too.”
Graham’s daughter, Carrie Maylum, who graduated with the Class of 1988, makes up the third “crazy eight” of the four generations.
“Three or four of my teachers were the same ones my parents had,” said Maylum. “There were about 200 in my class, around 800 or 900 in the school.”
Maylum remembers open campus, music with a DJ at lunchtime at school, and paying a dollar to get on the bus for an away football game.
“We didn’t have gangs or drugs,” said Maylum. “There wasn’t really much to do in Galt; sometimes we would go to Stockton to go cruising on Pacific Avenue.”
School spirit was still high then as Maylum remembers the rallies, games, and dances after games, the garage bands, and general good times.
“There was more respect back then,” said Maylum. “There weren’t too many fights. We didn’t have cell phones and all that. There were the skaters, the jocks, the aggies, but we all somehow blended together.”
Back then, as Maylum jokes, fast food wasn’t a big deal as there was just Baker’s Deli and the Pizza Palace to go get a bite to eat in Galt.
Maylum’s daughter, Heather Graham, graduates this year and is proud of her heritage, and proud to be the fourth “crazy eight” in her family.
“I think it’s pretty exciting,” said Heather. “Not many people have four generations going to the same school.”
There’s nothing like everyone knowing who you are at a high school, said Heather. Many of Heather’s teachers have either been close friends of the family or had her mom in their class, or even went to school when her grandmother was there.
“Oh, you must be a Graham,” Heather said teachers would say as she walked into class, since she resembles her mom quite a bit.
Heather’s favorite part of GHS has been her involvement in the Health Careers Academy as well as part of AVID (Advanced Via Individual Determination) classes for three years.
“Both were successful for me,” said Heather, who plans to attend Cosumnes River College and then transfer to San Diego State, wanting to eventually become a flight nurse.
Regarding graduation, Heather is excited but nervous at the same time.
“I don’t know what to expect in the real world,” Heather said, “… and all our friends will go separate ways.”
As what naturally happens after graduation, friends may scatter, but maybe the family will stay close to home as with this group who are fortunate enough to have such a rich heritage to pass down to those who follow in their path.
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