High School Reunion

fel bautista · Post by **fel bautista** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 4:58 pm

I've gone to every single one of them (35th was the last, 40th in 3). I enjoy seeing the "adults" of the group as opposed to the campus clowns of yore.

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:48 pm

The closest I ever came to attending a school reunion was the wake of a parent of one of my daughter's friends.
His daughter had earlier told my daughter that her parents knew me from HS.

At the wake his widow told me a lot of the people we'd gone to HS with were there, but I didn't recognise him, her or anyone. We were all 30 years older and I imagined we looked very different from what we did back then. Since she was busy with family, after chatting with her I mingled with who she pointed me towards for a while to appear sociable.

It was a big class, a thousand students. I'd never learned the names of everyone.
I had no idea who I was chatting with until people started talking about old times
and then I realized they were the people who used to do things like lock me in my gym locker and other cruelties.

I quietly made my exit before they figured out who I was.

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:39 pm

I went to my tenth, but skipped the ones since (20, 25, 30, 40). If we make it to 50, maybe I'll go just to see who's left.

My take on high school reunions is that they're for two groups of people - those who want to remember those 'wonderful' times and those who want to brag on what they've done since. I hated high school and, as I told someone else recently, my sucess in life was to have achieved a lifetime of comfortable mediocrity and anonymity. Nothing to brag on either, unless you count still having my own hair

Buckeye67 · Post by **Buckeye67** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:51 pm

I skipped the 10th, but went to my class' 20th reunion (Class of '85 WOOO! ). I wasn't quite sure what to expect. On one hand I expected people to be the same as they'd been in school. On the other, I hoped that since we were all nearing 40 that we'd pretty much be over ourselves and just be happy to see one another.

I was really quite pleasantly surprised. Yes, there was sort of a surreal quality to the whole thing - in my mind they were all still the kids I went to school with, and here I was suddenly confronted with near-middle aged adults.

After the initial weirdness went away, we all had a great time.

I'm looking forward to our 25th.

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:04 pm

All I ever wanted from High School was the F*** outta there, and if they ever had a reunion, I'm glad that no one ever troubled me with the news.

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:06 am

gonzo914 wrote: There is not enough liquor in Kansas to get me back to one of those.

What he said..... (only change that to Washington)

M

rhulsey · Post by **rhulsey** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:26 am

I didn't like high school, either - and were it not for music - I'd probably have been a dropout.

My class ('76) had a 20 year reunion along with the classes of '75 and '77, as I recall. I didn't go - ii would have been an 800 mile trip.

But the people I care to keep in touch with - and there are 2 of them I think - reported that though the playing field has been leveled somewhat with more than a few bald heads and additional pounds, that the nice folks are still nice, and the jackasses and drunks are just older jackasses and drunks...
That's all I cared to hear...I think I'll opt out of the next one, too!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:53 am

The variety of responses is interesting.
I'm perceiving two distinct camps--

a)Those who view reconvening with old schoolmates to be a continuation of, or new twist on old teenage politics,

and
b)those who feel like they've gotten over that crap and are willing and able to meet their old classmates on new, neutral ground.

I will grant that even if you go with plan b in mind, it is possible that your classmates have remained so stuck in their ruts that it won't work,
but I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one who's had a more positive experience.

Even so--that is, even though I did re-meet people who were well worth knowing--there were some who were behaving remarkably like their old, silly selves...misbehaving in the ladies room, forming little power-cliques, and whatnot. But they ignored me then, and I am more than willing to be ignored now. You're looking for the not-stupid people, and if you go with an open mind they'll be there.

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:09 am

emmline wrote:You're looking for the not-stupid people, and if you go with an open mind they'll be there.

On behalf of all the stupid people, I protest this openly bigotted attitude you have chosen to cop. Just because a person is stupid does not necessarily mean they are insensitive to .... what as I saying?

djm

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:53 am

Chuck_Clark wrote:....my sucess in life was to have achieved a lifetime of comfortable mediocrity and anonymity. Nothing to brag on either, unless you count still having my own hair

Gee Chuck, maybe we could have our own reunion. We have at least a few things in common

.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:04 am

My high school class (1983: 412 students) had a 5-year reunion. I didn't bother to go because it was a formal dance at the swankiest hotel in the nearest city to our rural school. (Hey, they practically had to force me into a tux for my own wedding; I sure wasn't gonna wear one to try to impress a bunch of people I barely knew.) As far as I know, there haven't been any reunions since.

My dad, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoys his high school reunions. He went to a small (very small) rural school in the mountains of western North Carolina. The school closed many years ago, but the building is now a community center. They have "all class years" reunions, and the remaining population of former students is small enough that they all enjoy visiting with each other.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:14 am

emmline wrote:The variety of responses is interesting.
I'm perceiving two distinct camps--

a)Those who view reconvening with old schoolmates to be a continuation of, or new twist on old teenage politics,

and
b)those who feel like they've gotten over that crap and are willing and able to meet their old classmates on new, neutral ground.

I will grant that even if you go with plan b in mind, it is possible that your classmates have remained so stuck in their ruts that it won't work,
but I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one whose had a more positive experience.

Even so--that is, even though I did re-meet people who were well worth knowing--there were some who were behaving remarkably like their old, silly selves...misbehaving in the ladies room, forming little power-cliques, and whatnot. But they ignored me then, and I am more than willing to be ignored now. You're looking for the not-stupid people, and if you go with an open mind they'll be there.

I take your point, but I think for some people it isn't so much that they thought their classmates were stupid or that there was politics involved----it's that they didn't know many of their classmates at all and life was difficult for many reasons, home wasn't fun, school wasn't fun, etc. and the memories from that time just aren't good. Their experience wasn't what you think of when you think of the normal high school experience---the sort of stereotype of that experience, I guess I'm thinking of. The negative feelings, at least for some people, aren't aimed at specific people but just at that time in life. I don't want to go back and visit it. I guess one could say that it would be a step forward to revisit those times and deal with the feelings, but .......

straycat82 · Post by **straycat82** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:01 am

I actually have gone back to my high school a few times since graduation. It's the oldest high school in the area and the only school in the state that allowed Asian students to enroll during the years of World War II. When I attended, the buildings were old and interesting but last time I visited the campus it was drastically different; old buildings were demolished and new ones built in their place.
The reason I went back was because I was one of my art teacher's only students that went on to attend art school and stayed with it through graduation. A while after I graduated college, she somehow caught wind that I had done so, tracked me down and invited me to come into her classes to give demonstrations or presentations to the class. I haven't been back there for about five years but I drive by it now and then and the campus looks different every year. That's about all the reminiscing of high school I can stand. Our graduating class was so huge that I can't imagine knowing more than three or four names/faces if I were to go to a reunion... and even those would barely qualify as an acquaintance.
I just don't care enough to go back. I was the most indifferent high school student. I never had "school spirit" because I knew that the only reason I attended that school was because I lived on that side of the tracks. I didn't choose it and I didn't celebrate it. I went everyday because I wanted to have a future but I didn't subscribe to all the meaningless (to me) stuff that consumed most people's time and money, I was too busy working after school to buy my first car. I wasn't picked on and I wasn't homecoming king, that's how I liked it. I was "popular" among my friends and that's all I needed.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:30 am

Cynth wrote:...for some people it isn't so much that they thought their classmates were stupid or that there was politics involved----it's that they didn't know many of their classmates at all and life was difficult for many reasons, home wasn't fun, school wasn't fun, etc. and the memories from that time just aren't good...

Yeah. Obviously your mileage may vary and all that.

(oh...and I'm stupidly using stupid as if it were a synonym of socially petty.)

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:50 pm

They have "all class years" reunions, and the remaining population of former students is small enough that they all enjoy visiting with each other.

That's what this one is-all years. If it was only mine I'd be tempted not to go.
They are expecting at least a thousand people. That's a big deal in a town with a present population of less than 200.

Since I work in the same town I see a lot of these folks everyday on my route. I do look forward to seeing some new/old faces.

They've asked for us to bring memorabilia, so last night I actually found my old school letter sweater down in a cedar chest, class ring was dug out of the old jewelry box(I'm not a jewelry person so finding the box took a while) . I'm happy- sweater and ring still fit !!!! OK, I'm feeling better about this now.

(I'll admit I'm fighting the urge to wear something really outrageous)