Fifty years and three days after graduating from Konawaena High School as the final graduating class in the Territory of Hawai'i, 67 members of the class of 1959 reunited Saturday evening.

"Seeing them for more than one day, it all comes back," said Toshiko Fusato, who lives in California and became a secretary after attending business school in Honolulu. "I'm so happy that everyone is still so close-knit. We can still talk about the old days at school like it was yesterday."

The 136-person class graduated Aug. 19, 1959, two days before Hawai'i became a state. Twenty-five members have died since then. Reunion participants traveled from all over Hawai'i and the Mainland to see each other and reminisce about their days at Konawaena, as well as observe a moment of silence to remember their lost classmates.

"I can't believe how good and how young all of my classmates look after all of these years," said George Shimamoto, who lives in Captain Cook. "It was a little hard to recognize some of them at first, but when we began to talk, I realized that they are all the same people that I went to high school with. They never change."

The classmates remembered a time when Kona-waena was small enough that students from each class, freshman through senior, befriended one another.

Many also joked about how much better school food was in the 1950s as compared with school food today.

"Konawaena back in the 1950s, oh, it was so innocent," said Loretta Berdon, noting that fights rarely occurred on the school's grounds. "Everyone dressed with pride. No one wore shorts. Everyone wore shoes, not slippers, and were dressed in the style with crinoline skirts and the like."

Thomas Timbal was brought into contact with his former classmates after being found on the social networking site Classmates.com.

"I was so excited when they found me," said Timbal, who has worked for NASA's Ames Research Center in California for 30 years. "It's the first time that I've gotten a chance to see any of my classmates in 50 years. For 50 years nobody knew where I was. There's just so much catching up to do. ... I feel so fortunate."