By Judy Hindal
How great it was to have had our own “day.” That’s just what it was, our time, our chance, our way. 1963 was a year when the Metro Population Data Statistics records the population of Ann Arbor as 70,000. Our one public high school housed three grades, 10-12. It was a different day than our children, grandkids and even our great-grandkids have today.
This May 25, 2024 will be 200 years since John Allen, a New Yorker, and Elisha Rumsey of Connecticut purchased 640 acres of prime Michigan land and formally named it Ann Arbor.
It is recorded that 13 years later in 1837, Ann Arbor had 2,000 citizens, four churches and two mills, as well as a college. The first public high school, Union High School, opened in 1856. Those were the days.
It may seem that our 1963 graduating class had so much figured out as we look back, but the truth is that change is the biggest factor in all our lives. The world keeps changing, moving on, and getting bigger or smaller, whatever view you choose.
By 1977, only fourteen years after the class of 1963 made its mark on the city/world, the population of Ann Arbor had grown to over 105,000. With two high schools, each with four
grades, 9-12, Ann Arbor Pioneer and Ann Arbor Huron High Schools were filled up.
After the terror of September 11, 2001, the city was over 114,000. In 2007, high school number three opened, Ann Arbor Skyline High School, and each year for four years added a grade level, to make the school 9th-12th grade. When we celebrated our 50th class reunion in 2013, Ann Arbor was still growing and moving ahead.
We can try to think of the many amazing events and changes that came to pass in all that time. There was the resignation of the president of the United States, Title 9 (meaning gender equality began in all areas of learning and opportunities for girls and boys), a human made it to the moon and back, a whole new war engaged our country in southeast Asia, there were amazing medical advancements, unrest in racial and cultural aspects of our society, and so much more.
As of 2020 when the world wide Covid19 pandemic began to dominate all our lives, we became aware again that we have had “our day,” and that may have been a very good thing. Hopefully when we speak of how life was in “our day” we know there are many more people not only in our little corner but worldwide. According to the World Bank, in 1963 the world population was 2.19 billion people, having grown to 8.4 billion 2024. Good old Ann Arbor has done its part. As of 2023, we now have a population of 125,000. We can be glad that we are still here for our days ahead.