Bemidji's average age climbs as class reunion hits town

If you're planning a trip to Bemidji this weekend, good luck getting a hotel room.

For one weekend every five years this small northern city swells to nearly half again its normal size. Hotels are booked up, restaurants filled and the streets bursting with visitors.

Bemidji's all-school reunion is this weekend, and people are starting to arrive.

By the time classes organize their floats for the Saturday evening parade, reunion organizer Char Blashill estimates, the city will have more than 5,000 visitors. A few annual events are adding to the crowds, but most of the visitors are former Bemidji High School Lumberjacks.

Most hotels and resorts are booked solid for the weekend. Carol Olson, with the Chamber of Commerce, said that while it will be a bit easier to find a meal than a bed, Bemidji restaurants will be packed with 40 or 50 separate class parties.

Brigid's Pub in downtown Bemidji is hosting class groups from '71 and '72 Friday night. Pub owner Kristi Miller had to ramp up her staff by 25 percent.

"It's a big weekend," she said. "All the bars and restaurants that can accommodate groups have classes booked."

Though the crowd is large, it is not young. Most alumni who signed up in advance are in their 60s or older. The reunion will temporarily raise the average age of Bemidji's population by roughly five years.

Glen Desizlets said that's because it takes time to really want to see old classmates. It's been 67 years since he graduated, so he's pretty excited.

Desizlets helped organize gatherings for his own year — the class of 1948. It's one of the oldest classes still bringing in a lot of visitors. He's counting on 30 or 40 people showing up for a meal at Sparkling Waters Restaurant.

In his small Bemidji apartment Wednesday he flipped through an old yearbook, pointing out kids in black-and-white photos of the 1948 basketball team. One became a judge in California. Another, a local dentist with a successful practice. Another, a lawyer in Florida. They're all retired now.

"I want to see who's left," he said. "Where they are and what they're doing."

That basketball team went to state in 1948. The kids on the team were the most popular in school, and they're still the most popular now. Desizlets said they're the ones arriving in Bemidji with new cars.

Desizlets wasn't on the basketball team. He was too busy working evenings at the local lumberyard for 73 cents an hour. He worked most of his life as a trucker, and these days he doesn't drive a new car.

The beauty of going to a reunion more than half a century after graduation is that new cars don't mean much.

"People brag about their kids," he said. "And all of mine made out good."