Winton Elementary School is 80 years old this year, and to celebrate, during the school’s open house on Sept. 22, alumni were invited to attend along with the current students and their families.

Bill Fout was born in 1923 and attended Winton from 1929-1934. He said they called him “Billy” in his youth. He met his wife, Margaret Fout, who attended Bryan Elementary, in high school at Coeur d’Alene High, and they were married in 1943.

“Generally speaking, yes,” Bill Fout said when asked if the school looked different. He pointed to the custodian’s work closet and said that it used to be the coal chute for the furnace that was in the basement. He said that the custodian, Mr. Weed, who was there during his schoolboy days, had lived right across the street.

Fout’s cousins, Chuck Vedder and Betty Benjamin, also Winton alumni, were in attendance. They arrived separately not knowing the Fouts would be there. The four of them had a good time reminiscing about days long past.

Geneva Brown Worst, 89, attended Winton in the third and fourth grades. Her grandson, Ken Worst, 39, attended Winton in the third- through the sixth grades, and now his daughter, MacKenzie, 5, has started kindergarten at Winton, creating three generations of Winton alumni.

Bob Eachon, 81, went to Winton from the first through the sixth grades. He and his wife, June Eachon, enjoyed the meal provided by the school while visiting with other alumni. The Eachons are newlyweds, having married six months ago. Some of Bob Eachon’s children went to Winton Elementary as well.

Pauline Feldhausen, 86, was a Winton student in the sixth grade. Her maiden name is Litzenberger, and her great-granddaughter Brynna Erban has just started kindergarten at Winton.

Of course, the current students and their parents were mixing with the alumni. Jill and Paul Buckland enjoyed the emotion faces their kindergartener, Sam, 5, did in his classroom with Miss Hanna. They also have a daughter, Sophia, 8, in the third grade.

It is heartening to know that the alumni from the very beginning still maintain an interest and fondness for their lovely old school.