I don’t know exactly why I’m going tomorrow except for the curiosity factor. I didn’t go to the 10th or 20th reunion so I have no idea what to expect.
I only found out about this through Facebook and I remember about half of the people on the list who are going (around 90), some were friends but most were just classmates.
Throughout the past two months or so there have been good natured chats with some of the guys and some silly flirtations with some of the women, (no exes).
So I’m thinking this might be kind of fun but I would like to hear any stories or anecdotes from some of you as to what I might expect.
Oh and since I don’t drink anymore I won’t be doing anything I will regret in the morning hopefully.
I am washing the bed sheets and cleaning the house though, you know, just in case.
I’m planning on going. I set up the Facebook page for my class, most of whom I haven’t seen since 1981. But I come from a very small town and kept up with some friends in classes both older and younger, so I have a vague idea of what most of them have been doing. I’m looking forward to it! But of course I’m always up for meeting people, and these will be new/familiar people and it sounds very interesting.
Sunspace went to his a few weeks ago and wrote a very comprehensive analysis.
I went to my 25-year reunion a few years back. I wasn’t expecting much (frankly, I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school), but I really enjoyed it. Most of the people whom I had hoped would be there (i.e, the folks I did get along with) were there, and it was a fun mix of reminiscing and catching up with each other.
OTOH, my wife refuses to go to any more of her reunions. She’s still in touch with a number of her friends from high school, but she really hoped that some of her other friends, with whom she’d lost touch, would show up at the reunion. They didn’t, and she spent a boring evening being ignored by the same people who ignored her in high school.
My mom went to her 30 year reunion last year, and had a really good time catching up with people. She wasn’t looking to hook up with anyone, but I would think it’s not an impossibility (so yes, clean sheets are good).
She and Ron Kittle graduated within a few years of each other from Wirt, so he was there (I think he’s gone to every reunion around his; being a former jock they tend to like that hometown adoration) and she added tons of the people there to facebook after the event. Including him. That was the talk of her night, lol.
I’m looking forward to my 10 year reunion, actually. Assuming there is one, of course, but that’s not for another 2 years yet.
I went to my 25th high school reunion last month. I didn’t have many friends in high school and was regularly picked on, but everyone I talked to was very nice. I struck up a few conversations but they were all of the “Where do you live? How many kids?” variety. Since I didn’t really know anyone we couldn’t talk about old times and stuff we had done together - I hadn’t done anything with anyone in high school. I lasted a few hours and then said my goodbyes. I may go back for the 30th to try again now that I know what to expect. I won’t feel the pressure I felt this time, with it being the first time I had seen anyone in 25 years.
I did talk with one woman who I was close to in high school. When I was leaving she asked for my email address and I tapped it into her phone. I didn’t get hers (I figured that I would get it when she wrote to me), and she hasn’t written to me. When I told someone at work that she asked for my email address he said that she wouldn’t write. According to him, asking for an email address is just a pleasantry and people don’t usually follow up on it. Looks like he was right.
I’ve only been to my 10th so far. Something like 80% of the people there had graduate degrees (naturally the other 20% were the former cool kids). If that trend continues, my 30th will be attended only by CEOs and law firm charpersons etc.
I went to my 25th last year and had a really great time. Like many, I was a little apprehensive about seeing people I hadn’t always had the greatest relationship with, but time heals many (not all) wounds, and I found that with a big smile and with “great to see you! I was hoping you’d be here” on my lips, I was quickly able to act my way into feeling like…well, feeling better than I had during high school, actually. Go, enjoy…
here’s what I discovered: 10th year reunion = Fun. Interesting, to see people who you remember-- some fairly well, others only vaguely.
Conversations are personal, but superficial. After the 50th “how are you, are you married, where do you work, oh, that’s nice”— it gets tedious; but it’s interesting to see how people turned out, some people surprise you by how much they have changed, and you see a couple of familiar faces with whom you actually have something interesting to share. Of the people who show up, almost all are the “successful” types, but there are one or two of the burned-out dropouts --still wearing sandals and working (barely)as bartenders or musicians.
20th year reunion =Less Fun.
Only the “successful” types are in attendance. Conversations are even more superficial. Many people wearing suits ,and want to discuss the stock market, or their business ventures.
30th year reunion.
I say to myself “why bother?”. But I read the invitation carefully before tossing it into the trash can.
I haven’t been to one since the 5 year, which was almost a waste, as most of us were either still in school or were just starting out and hadn’t really changed much.
However, after thirty years, I think that the statute of limitations has run out for most of the bad behavior. I’m already in touch with ~25 (out of ~600) on FB and see several more when I go up to visit my folks. So, yes, I’m driving 6.5 hours and attending. Could be interesting.
I disagree slightly with chappachula. Here’s my take.
The 20th reunion is the pivot point. The class has broken into single/attached, child/childless and stayed there/moved away. 20 years is where you discover how much you don’t have in common with a lot of people.
By the 30th reunion, peopeveryone has gotten really mellow. They’re all pushing 50, their careers have gotten about as far along as they’re going to be, the ones who had kids are now empty-nesters, and you realize that now you DO have a lot in common with them.
I went to my 40th last fall. By then a good number of the graduates had passed on, and a lot more people came back, presumably because they were worried they wouldn’t be around for the 50th. Some of the “lifer” types had already taken early retirement, and everyone talked about how their investments had taken a hit, their various chronic conditions and how well their knee replacements had worked out.
I have a few emails from a classmate for my 40th high school reunion, coming up in August. I don’t think I am going to go. I didn’t really have all that many friends in High School, and the 30 year reunion was not really very fun.
I have made contact with some people from elementary school, and there is a reunion planned for the eighth grade class of 1967 at the end of July. I am really pumped about this and I think it will be a great time.
I’ve gone to several of mine (the last being last year). Interesting dynamics in my case: The people I spent the most time with in classes, never show up, and (most of whom are on my facebook list), I can never get a response when I send a message–and on those odd times when I see them in person, I can hardly get half a dozen words from them. The people who do come to the reunions, for the most part, I had few classes with, but get along famously, and can end up talking with them a while.
I went to my 10th (closer to 9th than 10th, tho - idiots…) and it was mostly a disappointment. I heard rumors of a 25th and a 30th, but always after the fact. It’s not like I’d be hard to find - my family is the only one in the state with our last name, and while my mom lives in a different house, she’s still in the phone book, as is my brother and my unmarried sister. Yet no one managed to track me down.
My 40th will be next year, if there is one. But I doubt that I’ll waste the gas to attend. I’m in touch via email with 2 of my closest friends from those days, and beyond idle curiosity, I can’t think of anyone else I’d particularly care to see. High school was just a little blip in my life and I was just a face in the class of 849 folks.
