I have only one friend I stay in contact with from HS, went to the 10 year reunion and spent most of the time talking with him and his now ex-wife (also from our class). Looked at who got fat, said hello to a few people and listened to the gossip. Pretty boring and haven’t been to any of them since. They already announced that there will be no 40th reunion so it looks like I’ll wait and see if I go to the 50th just to see who died and who ended up in jail or filthy rich.
I didn’t actually graduate with my class (long story…) but have always been included on the reunions since most of us started 1st grade together. Here’s my take.
10 year reunion: people trying to impress each other with their success. Cliques abound.
20 year reunion: fewer people trying to impress each other with their success, but still a major deal
30 year reunion: hey, I remember you! how are you? Much friendlier, less cliquish
40 year reunion: Fuck it, I know you! Everyone talked to each other, even people who would have never spoken in HS. NO ONE trying to be all high and mighty. Everyone who came seemed to have a blast, I sure did! we voted to do it again in 5 years.
My advice? Try it, you might have a great time and even heal some old hurts from HS
I have 0 interest in ever going to any of my HS reunions. I got into a lot of fights in high school - some I won, so I lost. Though I’m generally indifferent about this now, if I were to go to a reunion I would probably have to get into some fights with the same people - so it would probably not be a good idea to go. Plus, the reunion would almost certainly be halfway across the country from where I live now, and it’s definitely not worth the plane ticket.
However, interestingly enough two of my favorite high school reunion movies are both 1997 comedies about people going to a 10-year H.S. reunion: Grosse Point Blanke & Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion - LOL. A lot of my enjoyment re: these films probably stems from the fact that I myself graduated at the tail end of the '80’s (i.e., my 10th year high school reunion would have been in the late '90’s as well, as in these films), so I really like the '80’s pop/rock soundtrack.
Missed one, went to another, managed to keep from pointing and laughing at the ‘Butter would not melt in mouth’ mean girl with the 3 month marrage and the 8 month belly…
For the 30th? There was radio silence. I can find no evidence it was even tried. 40 is in two years. I wonder how many are still on the right side of the grass? One buddy bought it in Beirut the week before the bombing, and another had the misfortune of being home when her brother came home. (Think Richard Pryor ‘Live on the Sunset strip’) Another friend didn’t make it past Labor Day the year we graduated–he got Fox foured by a drunk coming home from work.
I went to a large high school, with a student body of about 4500. I’ve never been to a reunion. My 30th will be next year.
Next month, the school is hosting an “all-class reunion,” for every graduating class back to 1976, when the school opened. Whoever is organizing it is trying to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for largest reunion ever. Last I heard, they’re expecting upwards of 6000 people.
Just… no. What would be the point? Hell no, ain’t going. Wandering around a stadium-sized crowd, covering 40 years… would I even have a chance of finding anyone I knew? FUCK NO. I didn’t for one second even entertain the idea of going.
I never went to a high school reunion. The next one will be our 60th. :eek:
Hell no. The only trouble is my good buddy is the guy who organises it every ten years. Being in a different country is a good excuse for not going though.
High school was a nightmarish experience I try not to think about. I despise the people I went there with and never want to see or hear from them again. So no; I’ve never gone to a reunion and would never consider doing so.
Leaning hard towards not going. No bad feelings/memories, just not interested.
Remembered an incident maybe 15 years out of HS. I was at a Bulls game, and it happened that a few rows behind me were 3-4 of my best buddies from the HS track team. We chatted during the game, and it just seemed clear to me that we were living in very different spheres. ISTR they even played poker regularly - something I also did at the time, but even that wasn’t enough to propel us to follow up on this chance meeting. We exchanged numbers, but I never called them, and they never called me.
So if I wasn’t interested in following up w/ some of what had been my best friends 15 yrs after HS, why should I think I’d be interested in random classmates 25 yrs later?
Thanks for the thought, folk.
No need. Everyone I liked from high school I never “lost.” For a while a lot of us even lived in the same neighborhood (which was not the same one we grew up in). Over the years people have moved away to different cities, but we’re all still each other’s first [del]phone call[/del] mass text/email when we’re back in town.
The lack of social media in the seventies might have made it very easy for some of us to walk out the HS doors on the last day and never look back. For me, it was time to move on to a new stage of my life.
I went to my 10th, it was more to show off a 56 T-Bird I had more than any other reason. I was one of the few single guys there and it seemed most of the females were on the prowl after failed marriages. This provided for some good times for a few months but things tailed off. It’s now been 43 years since gradutation and I doubt I will attend another.
I live 3,000 miles from my high school, so that’s the main reason I usually do not go. There were 450 in my graduating class.
I only went to 20, and that was enjoyable enough. There were about 70 there, plus spouses / SOs. I recognized many. In high school I was the kind who wasn’t super popular but I knew most of the kids and could talk with them, across cliques and different groups, from the jocks to the nerds and most in between.
I enjoyed seeing many people I hadn’t talked with in decades. And while it was true for most that ‘assholes remain assholes’, what was truly enjoyable was conversing with the exceptions.
I’ve never been contacted to attend a hs reunion.
I would like to attend the 40th in 2020 but have no idea who to call. Who organizes these gatherings?
Our class has never had a reunion. It’s like my friend said, most all of them still live in my hometown so you could just as well meet at the bar.
They occasionally have an all-school reunion but I’ve never been to one of those. It’s usually at a poor time and I really have no desire to go back to my hometown anymore. It was a good place to grow up in but it has deteriorated immensely since then.
Check Facebook, and/or contact your school and they should have contacts for these.
I’ll call the school. It’s in a new location but I assume the records are still there.
Thanks
My 30th should be coming up this year. I’ll go if it’s convenient to attend, I live about an hour and a half drive away. Nice enough to see folks I haven’t seen in a long time, at the last one I hooked up with a small group on Facebook, we’ve kept in loose contact since.
Went to my 30th (Class of '77). Sadly the people I would have wanted to see the most were not there; many attendees were people I had little interaction with back then. So, rather boring.
I had a much better time at a tangential event. My high school had its 100th graduating class in 1991, so they invited every living graduate for a big shindig held on the football field and inside the gymnasium. Teachers (old and new) were also invited. Long tables were set up by decade of graduation. There were even a couple of attendees for whom this was their 70th reunion. My brother (who is older) couldn’t come but I wound up connecting with many of his friends who still lived in the area. It was funny as they last saw me as a pesky 6th grader. And in a bizarre coincidence back then, I was telling an older acquaintance at my health club (living in another county) about the impending event. Turned out he was a grad from the late 1950’s and hadn’t known about the reunion. He went and wound up reconnecting with a handful of friends he hadn’t seen in decades.
Went to my 20th -will try for the 40th in '20
would necessitate a plane and a hotel or beg a bunk
summer time usually - S Fla