For me, such tags came into their own recently at the annual Saratoga Grammar School reunion picnic held at Wildwood Park. There is something rather embarrassing about looking into faces that were familiar over 60 years ago and not being able to come up with a name. That's where the tags came in, and the large letters were a great help.

This was the 11th such reunion, attended by more than 150 people. Of those attending, 85 were eighth-grade graduates from 1931 to 1965. The latter year, being the last when the school had classes through eighth grade, was the cutoff date. Today, Saratoga Elementary is kindergarten through fifth grade.

When we talk about grammar school alums, we're talking senior citizens, and there were several canes and one wheelchair in evidence. But overall, it was a lively, convivial gathering, the atmosphere enhanced by the music of Les Landin and his Skillet Likkers. The consensus was that it was the best gathering ever, and a lot of credit is due Patty Reschar and Mary Lou Teeple Butera, who handled most of the details.

In past years' columns on these reunions, I have commented on the significance of having a reunion at this level. College and high school reunions are a given and are to be expected, but at the elementary school level, such a gathering has to say something not only about the school but also about the community. That's one of the good things about Saratoga: it's that kind of place.

For one thing, the school, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, had been a center of the community when Saratoga was a small town in the center of orchards, and that concept has survived to a certain extent. Before there was a civic center, the school was a gathering place for community meetings and a center of cultural activity. For performances, Saratoga had Villa Montalvo, the Foothill Clubhouse and the grammar school. The school auditorium, with its proscenium stage and draw curtain, was a real asset. Today the media center occupies the cultural space.

About that grammar. I have commented on this in previous columns, noting that, while I'm unsure when "elementary" came in, it's reassuring to have the reunions use the original designation. It was Saratoga Union Grammar School, or SUGS. In my primary-grade days, I remember we sang a school song to the tune of the collegiate "Fight on for Victory." The lyrics included, "Fight on, for victory; fight on and on, for SUG. Fight on, but play it fair. Fight on and on, but play it square."

As to those primary-grade days, my memory is sharp and clear. I may not be able to recall what I was doing on a particular day last week, but I can remember clearly my first day of school in September 1929, when I walked the quarter mile from our house at the end of Marion Avenue (who said Road?), through Wildwood Park, across the streetcar tracks on Big Basin Way, up Fourth Street past the old town jail and up a flight of rickety wooden steps on the hill to Oak Street and the school.

There I presented myself to the first-grade teacher, Miss Pearl Davis, and began my academic career. My mother had already taken care of registration. Back then, it was no big deal for a 6-year-old kid to walk a distance alone to school. Usually I was with my brother, who was in fourth grade, and we always walked home for lunch. This was because my mother wanted us to have a hot meal, and the family couldn't afford the 20 cents or so for lunch in the school cafeteria.

Partly because I had already learned to read before starting first grade--courtesy of A.A. Milne and his Winnie the Pooh books--I skipped into the next grade for a few years, then dropped out for a time and went back in the fall of 1935 into my old class. As a result, I graduated from eighth grade in 1937 with the same kids I started with in 1929. There were 21 in the graduating class. Some of those who were in that first grade have attended previous reunions, but there were none besides me this year.

The good thing is, there's always next year. Fight on for SUG.