"We're all in our late 80s," said Art Ehrmantraut, the reunion's 88-year-old organizer. "We can barely walk, much less dance."

The reunion's meal, served at College Hills' Twin Towers retirement community, will be a sit-down affair.

"Has to be," Ehrmantraut said. "Many of these folks can't get a tray from the buffet line to the table."

But they sure can reminisce.

"Especially the girls," Ehrmantraut said.

The guys can hold their own, too.

"We do like to remember the time we spent at Hughes, " admitted the retired accountant. "We were in the middle of the Great Depression. We were poor. Everybody was. But, we had a good time."

Members of Hughes' Class of 1934 have been remembering their glory days at the landmark Clifton school with the stone gargoyles on the outside and Rookwood drinking fountains on the inside for a long, long time.

Their continuous string of reunions is believed to be the longest of any high school in Greater Cincinnati. Now, they are gathering for their last hurrah.

"Seventy years is a good stopping point," Ehrmantraut said. "Attendance has been declining."

As have the ranks.

The Class of '34 once numbered 417 strong.

Today, just 65 classmates remain. Ehrmantraut expects 25 to attend the reunion.

The festivities are compliments of Chip Gulden and his sister, Cheryl Mahan. Their late father, Wynne Gulden, belonged to Hughes' Class of '34.

"Dad loved these reunions," said Gulden of Nashville, Ind. "And he was a generous guy. So, we like to keep the tradition going."

Vivid memories

Sitting in the living room of his College Hill home, Ehrmantraut reached for his class yearbook.

"Most annuals are elaborate, hardback affairs," he said, holding the paperback annual that's showing its 70 years of wear.

"But in 1934 there was no money for a yearbook. One teacher felt sorry for us. So, she converted the last issue of the literary magazine into the annual."

He pointed to his picture.

"I was just an ordinary guy," Ehrmantraut said. His finger lingered over his younger likeness.

"I wasn't a hotshot student."

Turning the pages, he pointed out a student who was. Paul Seebohm was a handsome lad, senior class president and drum major before graduating, going to medical school, becoming a doctor and teaching at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

The professor emeritus won't be able to attend the reunion. The 88-year-old doctor and his wife "have joined the ranks of the frail elderly."

Dr. Seebohm noted "memories of the days at Hughes have been slow to fade."

Speaking separately but thinking as one, Ehrmantraut and the former class president contrasted high school life, then and now. In 1934, there were no school gangs or cops patrolling the halls.

"We never heard of the word marijuana," Ehrmantraut said.

"We had 2,500 people in that school. I never remember any gal having a baby."

Dr. Seebohm observed: "We were at the tail end of Prohibition. Today, binge drinking's a big problem. Back then, no kids in our school drank to excess. No one had the desire. Or the money."

The accountant and the physician were of one mind about Hughes' faculty.

"Our teachers were great," Dr. Seebohm said. "They saw that 'no child was left behind' long before the political campaign was started to do just that."

One of those teachers went out of her way to kindle Arnold Spielberg's interest in science.

"This teacher saw I had an interest in radios," the retired 87-year-old computer engineer said from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

"She had a bunch of electrical parts laying around her house. She gave them to me. That sent me on to what became my life's work."

Spielberg shared his love of science with his son. But it took a while to take hold.

"Steven hated science in school," Spielberg said of his son, the Oscar-winning director of Schindler's List. "I'd help him with his papers. He'd come home from school and say, 'You flunked, Dad.'

"But since then, he has done a lot of science fiction adventure movies. So, his love of science has finally emerged."

Arnold Spielberg, Paul Seebohm and Art Ehrmantraut shared the same homeroom, Room 312.

Their homeroom teacher with the booming voice and avuncular manner was Otis Games. Students called him, King Otis.

On the night of graduation, June 14, 1934, at what was then called the Emery Auditorium, Games gathered the senior boys in one room and said:

"Fellas, this is the last time all of us are going to be together."

Ehrmantraut keeps hearing King Otis' words as he finalizes details of the last reunion for the Class of 1934.

"His words pulled you up short," Ehrmantraut said. He feels the same about the final reunion.

"This is so sad," said Ruth Schuler of Anderson Township. In 1934, she was Ruth Meister, a freshly minted Hughes graduate. Today, she is an 88-year-old member of the reunion's planning committee.

"Our years at Hughes were so wonderful," she said.

"We were so lucky to be able to go to school during the Depression. So many kids had to quit and go to work - if they could find a job - to help support their families. But we got a good education. And made lots of friends."

Those old friends have kept in touch through the reunions.

"And now they are coming to end," Schuler sighed. "When you get to be our age, you're coming to the end of everything."

Historic school

Hughes High School - now officially known as Hughes Center - has had a long history in Cincinnati. After opening its doors at a downtown location in 1853, Hughes first welcomed students to its present-day Clifton locale - a towering landmark at 2515 Clifton Ave. incorporating Gothic, Tudor and Jacobean architectural elements - in 1910.

As the high school's Class of 1934 celebrates its 70th and final reunion, members continue to marvel over how times - and prices - have changed. For instance, in 1934, some members of the senior class went to Washington, D.C. Seventy years ago, a round-trip train ticket cost $29.50. In 2004, Amtrak charges $113.

	1934	2004
Hughes enrollment	2,500	1,457
Graduating class	417	225
Art gum eraser	5 cents	75 cents
Ruler, wooden	5 cents	$1.25
Paper clips, box	5 cents	26 cents
Fountain pen ink, bottle	13 cents	$2.95
Gasoline, gallon	19 cents	$1.85
Stamp, first class	3 cents	37 cents
T-Bone steak, one pound	32 cents	$7.99
Chocolate soda, Graeter's	10 cents	$3.25
Per capita income	$474	$22,794

E-mail cradel@enquirer.com