# High School Reunion - 50 Years

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 16, 2025, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031 "2025-01-16T03:14:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/41 "2025-01-17T21:04:42Z")

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> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#):
>
> Reunions make more sense for the people who stay in the area, or have strong ties to the area.

That may be true for you and others, but certainly not true for me. We had a lot of locals at our 50th, as well as folks who traveled from out of state. As I mentioned above, 36 of the 52 living members of my class attended our 50th, almost 70%.

I think, however, that it’s a lot different for smaller schools than larger schools. In my class of 62, everybody knew everybody. When a class member passes away, everybody remembers him or her in some fashion or another. Thus, reunions for my class are a fun time of catching up.

I really cannot imagine going to a high school where one class numbers in the several hundred, as some of you have described. Hell, my entire high school (grades 9-12) had probably a total of 200 students, and I knew everybody’s name each and every year. I didn’t interact much with many of them, but I knew their names.

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**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/42 "2025-01-17T21:12:22Z")

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> [@Railer13](#):
>
> I really cannot imagine going to a high school where one class numbers in the several hundred, as some of you have described.

We only had three years in our high school, but every class had more than 900 people, and it was basically a small city. When I see all the people signed up for the reunion, I only recognize like 20% of them.

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/43 "2025-01-17T22:00:37Z")

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> [@Railer13](#):
>
> I really cannot imagine going to a high school where one class numbers in the several hundred, as some of you have described.

My graduating class was over 1000 people. I never knew 900 of them, plus or minus a few.

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**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/44 "2025-01-18T03:19:50Z")

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I went to my 50th last year and it was fun. Big school, big class, very “diverse” but everyone got along well even if we didn’t hang out together much at the time. A lot of folks have been pro musicians and when one guy who has been singing lead with his HS band ever since graduation arrived, I tiptoed over to the DJ and asked him to play a song that they’d recorded shortly after graduation. It was great fun to see his head snap when he heard himself from 50 years ago.

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**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/45 "2025-01-18T09:01:55Z")

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> [@Pleonast](#):
>
> The locals who never went anywhere did not to come. It’s mostly alumni who left the area, but are within driving distance, that participate.

I consider driving distance, to be in the area, especially if it’s less than 4 hours. Even when I lived in the US, I had a 6-hour flight to get to my hometown.

My husband’s high school class is very different. Over 80% of the class is in the Facebook group. Those who are not part of the Facebook group refuse to have any contact with the ones who are in the group.

As the the entire class was \< 50 people and it is a private religious school, everybody knew everybody else and many of them attended the same church. One of those classmates is on the board of directors for the school, so he often posts pictures of the new graduating classes and other happenings.

Pre-Covid, we would time our visits with his high school reunions, which were much more rewarding than my high school reunions. There might be only 20 people, including spouses, there, but it’s still a relatively close-knit group. It’s nothing like my class reunions.

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**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/46 "2025-01-19T03:55:43Z")

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The high school my dad went to was in Buffalo New York. He didn’t like the city, he and his mom had moved there to be close to my dad’s oldest brother. He left asap when he graduated and came back to the midwest. The school had closed but reopened as a specialty tech high school. Dad got a notice for the 50th and he was excited to go. He’d liked school, just not Buffalo. He and Mom rode there, from Kansas, on a motorcycle.

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**Author:** ![sbanton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sbanton/32/21545_2.png) [@sbanton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbanton)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-school-reunion-50-years/1013031/47 "2026-07-15T16:33:47Z")

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Time, the undefeated champ!

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