It was as bold a move as one could imagine.

The Albert Lea High School Class of 1945 held a reunion in Austin on the turf of their arch-enemy, the Packers’ high school faithful.

Imagine that: Tigers on the prowl in Packers country.

The social occasion—- no insults were exchanged with their Austin High counterparts — occurred last Thursday, Sept. 25, at the Harvest Buffet restaurant at Holiday Inn of Austin.

No injuries occurred and police were not called.

More than 30 members of the ALHS class of 1945 gathered for lunch and the exchange of memories.

It was Madeline Collette’s idea.

“We started out having them every 10 years and then we decided to have them every five years,” Collette said of the 53-year skein since graduation. “Then, we had mini-reunions every three years.”

“Then, we realized we were older and losing some of our friends and classmates and we thought we would have them every year,” she said.

The passage of time — more than six decades — has turned the Tigers into aging pussycats. A group of happy octogenarians none the less.

The conversation was light and the laughter loud. The ALHS graduates were clearly having fun at their Austin reunion.

The group’s spokesperson, Collette, didn’t think hold an Albert Lea class reunion in Austin was unusual.

“This one started out, because while I’m from Austin, I graduated at Albert Lea,” Collette explained. “I had an Austin guy, which was vice-versa in those days, too.”

“Austin kids might have had an Albert Lea boyfriend or girlfriend and Albert Lea kids might have had friends in Austin,” she said, “but the guys from here seemed to get more girls from Albert Lea.”

As she recalled the Austin — Albert Lea romantic connections, the audience of classmates chuckled and laughed aloud.

Collette and a group of friends started talking about holding the next class reunion and Collette suggested holding it in Austin.

“I live here and a lot of the classmates, the girls and the guys, live in Austin, so ‘Why not?’ I asked them.”

“We got on the phone and started calling classmates in Albert Lea and told them about our plan and, before you know it, it escalated to 34 people saying they would like to get together in Austin.”

After a successful class reunion in Austin, the Albert Lea class of 1945 is looking ahead for a 65th reunion in 2010.

Donald Petran is in charge of scheduling that one and wouldn’t reveal if it would be held in Albert Lea or Austin.

The Albert Lea class of 1945 may have the most “wise-cracking” graduates of any.

Asked, what kind of student he was, Petran responded, “I was a high school student.”

Was he on the honor roll? “Maybe,” he replied.

Did he get called into the principal’s office?

“Not too often,” Petran responded.

Petran met his wife, MaryAnn, who is from Chicago, while the pair were in college.

He and his wife had a vegetable farm between Austin and Albert Lea before they retired.

World War II ended shortly after the class of 1945 accepted their high school diplomas in the spring of that year.,

Petran was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces and served a tour of duty for his country.

Madeline Collette will have to be a part of the committee that organizes the reunion; if not for anything but her sense of humor.

“When I was going to school, of course, I was a Wilson. That’s my maiden name, but I never worked at the Wilson meatpacking company,” she said laughing her the joke.

And again underscoring the novelty of Albert Lea holding a school reunion in the heart of their nemesis, Austin, Collette couldn’t resist another joke.

“When you write the story you might say Tigers were on the loose in Austin, but they weren’t dangerous. We’re all too old to be that.”