My 50th reunion is coming up in a couple weeks. There is a Facebook page dedicated to it, and it is interesting to see some preliminary photos of (so far) just the planning committee.
Anyway, I’ve never been to a reunion. I would rather get a root canal if I had to choose between the two.
But, that’s just me. I understand why some enjoy them.
How 'bout you?
mmm
I was HS class of '76 also. Never been to one of my reunions. Since finishing college I’ve never lived within 300 miles of the high school and more frequently more than 1500 miles away. So not terribly convenient, and no ongoing contact with the area or anyone in it kinda dampens one’s enthusiasm.
in 1992, so ~34 years ago my wife dragged me to her Class of '72 20 year reunion. It happened we then lived only ~200 miles away and she still had family in that town. And had stayed in very loose touch w a couple people.
Of course I expected to know nobody and nothing about anything anyone was reminiscing about. So sorta boring and pointless for me. But she had a good time and renewed some old friends. I did enjoy comparing myself to the other spouses. So overall a decent experience that probably bears repeating a couple times per lifetime but no more.
I suspect it’s a lot different between going to a large high school versus a smaller school. My graduating class (1971) had a grand total of 62 students. Of course, we all knew each other. We had a 50+1 reunion (pandemic delayed) in 2022. At that time, there were 52 survivors, and 36 of them showed up for the reunion. We all had a great time, and we’re looking forward to the 55 year reunion this fall.
Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about that. My class had around 400 graduating.
I wasn’t super well-known in school, and, 50 years later, I’m sure I would be met with many a puzzled face.
Number 89 on my list of reasons not to attend.
mmm
This is only my 50th grade school (8th grade) anniversary. ~20 kids. If they have reunions for that, no one invited me. But I bet most of them still live there, probably in the same houses they grew up in. (I don’t)
If they did have a reunion, I would go. We made a short film, with everyone. I’ve never seen it, but I heard it still exists. Maybe they’d show it.
Class of '75; missed it by a year. Exactly one hundred graduates, although one guy was (as rumor had it) in jail on graduation day on a breaking and entering charge.
I’ve been contacted periodically over the years about reunions. Really, there are only a couple of classmates I’d want to see again to the extent that I’d go to any effort to do so. But it’s not that I have any particularly bad memories of high school or of anyone who was there with me. It was more like a big “meh.” I didn’t get close enough to anyone (except the aforementioned two) to be interested in a reunion years later.
Class of '76 graduate here. I haven’t heard of any getogether at my school, but I wouldn’t go anyway, because my brain surgery pretty much wiped away all memory of my high school years.
I graduated from high school in 1984 and the only reunion I attended was the fifth one. I had to review the yearbook to remember people’s names and faces and was surprised that even after five years, the haircuts looked odd.
That’s me too.
I was also pretty aloof in my class of ~600. But …
You don’t go to see old friends. You go see what happened to the bigshots and your enemies & rivals and feel smug about how much better your life turned out than theirs.
Revenge is a dish best served very cold. 50 years’ worth of cold.
Just had my 50th for 1974. We started meeting to plan it. Then we met every month for at least 10 months. The meetings became more important than the actual reunion. The actual reunion was a bit of a boring thing. We are still meeting, some people are dying and falling off the page, still we go on. Small town life can be a great thing someties.
Well, as I said, my experience at the time was mostly “meh.” I wouldn’t describe myself as “aloof” so much as just not terribly socially outgoing. But maybe you could call that aloof. I dunno.
I do understand your POV, but mine is more like, okay, these folks just happened to be at the school at the same time I was. So what? I don’t feel I have anything invested in how they’re been doing in life since then. But if I happened to run across one of them at the local dive bar, I’d have a pleasant beer with them if they were so inclined. That’s low effort enough. A second beer might be stretching it a bit, though.
My 50th was 2023, and I live within 20 miles of where I went to school, so I went and had a reasonably good time with some old classmates I’d liked, and with some I’d disliked but they’ve [I’ve] grown… One classmate’s guest was a kid sister who was a bit too young for me to date in 1973, but now I’ve been adopted by her 2026 reunion committee and I see her at meetings every month or so, and life is looking better than it has in a long time…
The folks on the Facebook page I mentioned are positively giddy about the upcoming party. They’re already sharing old photos, specific memories, music from '76, bicentennial remembrances, etc.
mmm
Our Big 50th Class Reunion is less than two weeks away also. As the reunion chair of a diverse committee - and we appreciate all of them - my job is finished as the coordinator and head Big Mouth Promoter for the event. So these days are fun, sitting back and listening to all the chatter from both the committee and the classmates!
Trust me, feedback from having our '76 class get-together 50 years later has been…interesting. For one thing, I was surprised that some had no interest in attending; sure, maybe they hadn’t joined us at previous class reunions, but I thought most everyone would share the excitement of a landmark celebration. And I heard that some classmates were bullied in school, so they were not interested because it stirs up demons (one family moved away from the school district to protect their younger siblings)! But the best feedback was from some classmates who’ve always felt a strong connection with each other that they can’t wait to reignite! And for that, I feel the spirit of the reunion will be the strongest we will have ever had!
This is insanely naive and shows a lot of privilege. Having a bad High School experience or bad home experience during the High School years is incredibly common. No one shares excitement over that and it’s not something to celebrate. I went to a rough urban High School with a class over something like 700 people. I’d be surprised if I knew more than around 40 of them. I’ve maintained a close connection with a few of them and that’s fine by me. I don’t need to revisit any of that. There is a small handful that I’d be curious to see but it’s not worth going to the event for that.
Mine was a couple weeks ago. I’ve moved far away so it would be a special trip. (I went to the five year reunion and none since). They advertised this as being special because of the 250 thing. They also put it at the same time as the city festival, so a lot of stuff was going on.
For me… It’s a large high school. I looked at the year book and it’s along the lines of:,
85 percent: I have no idea who they are,
10 percent, I recognize the name,
3 percent, Something like: you were in my English class. We talked a couple times.
2 percent. We had some connection but that was 50 years ago,
Maybe 3 people who I would want to talk to, including the guy who I consider to be my bully, to see things from his point of view today,
I didn’t go, but would like to see pictures (of old people).
My fortieth high school reunion would have been a couple of years ago, but I heard nothing about it. Honestly I would be curious what happened to people; who is still married, who is divorced, what professions people ended up in. And given that I graduated in 1984 and no one was out of the closet, who was gay all that time but we didn’t know it.
Ha ha…I said to myself, while looking at Facebook photos of some of my classmates, “why would I want to go hang around with a bunch of geezers?”
mmm
This thread caused me to look up my 50th reunion which is this year. Had this thread never been started I’d never have given the 50th anniversary of HS graduation any thought, much less remembered there’s a thing called a “high school reunion”. So thanks for that much at least there, MMM.
It’s in late August, so I haven’t missed it yet. Which frankly surprised me. But …
I get home from a three week trip on a Sunday, then depart on another three week trip on the Friday 11 days later. The reunion falls on the Saturday in the middle, 5 days after I get back and 5 days before I go again. And I’m in Miami and it’s in Los Angeles. Physically possible, but probably more trouble than it’s worth. My minimum gone time is 2 full days, and 3 would make being there easier.
I’ll think a bit, but that sounds kinda hectic, even for an inveterate traveler. No way in hell would my GF come along; she’s already struggling with the 11 day turnaround. And however unsatisfying the reunion might be, it’ll be a lot more so if I don’t bring somebody along to talk to / icebreak.
And ref @Author_Balk’s statistics, I’d probably have a similar breakdown among my 600 classmates. No bullies, just a lot of total strangers and the off chance that maybe a couple folks out of the dozen people I’m curious about would attend.
What High School? I went to Venice.