Friday, November 6, 2026
Fifty years ago, as the nation celebrated its bicentennial, a generation of Rockville Centre students was preparing to turn the page on high school and begin the next chapter of their lives. Last month, many of those classmates turned back the clock, gathering at the Tap Room in Rockville Centre for a reunion marking the 50th anniversary of the Class of 1976.
The Oct. 17 celebration brought together approximately 130 people, including graduates of South Side High School and the former St. Agnes High School, for an evening of reminiscing, laughter and reconnections. Some traveled from as far away as California, Texas, Florida, South Carolina and Chicago to take part.
Organizers Lisa Wohlfarth Acerno, Marianne Giampaolo Talbot, Cindy Klemons Steinberg and Theresa McDonald Watkins spent months tracking down classmates and spreading the word. Planning began around January or February, with the group relying on contact information from previous reunions, social media and word of mouth to reach as many people as possible.
Acerno, owner of Front Street Bakery in Rockville Centre, said the idea of bringing the two graduating groups together came about after her sister-in-law, a St. Agnes graduate, mentioned that the former school’s classmates were not organizing a reunion of their own. Acerno welcomed the opportunity to include them, with the St. Agnes group helping spread the word and locate former classmates.
The decision to include St. Agnes graduates made the gathering particularly meaningful, recognizing the friendships and connections that extended beyond the walls of either high school.
“Just talking with people,” Acerno said when asked about her favorite part of the evening. “That’s basically what we did. The music was very low because everyone wanted to just talk.”
She said the response afterward was overwhelmingly positive, with classmates expressing how happy they were to attend and reconnect. For some, the reunion felt as though little time had passed.
“Some people, it was like you saw them yesterday, which was really nice,” Acerno said.
Carolyn Stone, who attended St. Agnes Cathedral Elementary School before going to Maria Regina High School and later graduating from Oceanside High School, said the reunion reflected the community connections that brought people together long before their high school years.
Many attendees had known one another since childhood, whether through elementary school, neighborhood friendships or family connections. The reunion offered an opportunity to reconnect with people she had not seen in decades.
“It was totally a Rockville Centre thing,” Stone said. “It didn’t matter whether you went to the Catholic high school in the village or the public high school in the village. We all knew each other from Rockville Centre.”
For Stone, the evening was especially touching because of the warmth with which former classmates welcomed her and recalled their shared experiences.
“It’s nice to know as you get older that not only were you a good person, but people remember that you were a good person,” she said.
The evening featured a slideshow of photographs submitted by classmates, displayed on televisions throughout the room. Nancy Heiberg Houser created a memory video that brought together images from their high school years. Name tags featuring photographs of attendees as teenagers also helped classmates recognize one another.
The music, much of it from the era in which they graduated, played quietly in the background. The priority was giving everyone the chance to talk and catch up.
“It was amazing,” said attendee Susan Martin. “It was so good to see everybody and reminisce.”
The Class of 1976 graduated during a milestone year for the country, when red, white and blue decorations, bicentennial celebrations and the nation’s 200th birthday were part of everyday life. Fifty years later, as America marks its 250th anniversary in 2026, the classmates have another milestone to celebrate — five decades of memories and friendships that have endured.
And while the evening was a celebration of the past, the possibility of another gathering is already being discussed. Acerno said some attendees have expressed interest in a 55th reunion, giving classmates who could not attend this time another opportunity to reconnect.
