She sold her soul to the devil!
I suspect there is one of those in every group, I accused one at ours of actually being her daughter and playing a joke. She managed to barely age between 17 and 47.
Someone has stasis pods somewhere and they are not telling us.
I made my 20th, 25th and 45th. Had fun at all three. But damn, we’re getting older.
I went to my 5, 10 and 20 year reunion. I had a pretty good time at all three. Then again, I didn’t hate high school, nor did I peak in it. And I pretty much got along with everyone and everyone got along with me.
Plus I have more hair now. Turns out if I just let it grow in, it looks pretty awesome. Wish I knew that in the 80s.
I have never been to a high school reunion. I have never seen any of them after graduation, and no desire to. This coming June will be our 50th (!!!111), and I’m not going.
I’m the OP and I did end up going to the reunion.
I was convinced that I would have to spend the evening having iPhones thrust into my face to look at pictures of kids and grandkids, but that only happened twice.
In a nutshell, it wasn’t that bad. Everyone looked older, plumper, and everyone was polite. Best friend and I agreed that while it was a nice time, we’re okay with not seeing any of them again for another 5 or 10 years.
Wife stayed attached to his side but he still managed to spend most of the evening staring moon-eyed at my friend. She just shook her head and laughed it off.
I went to my 10th and had a really great time. Looking back I don’t know what to make of my time in high school. It was inevitable that I would attract a lot of attention, but kind of went the freak route at the time because I felt sorry for the nerds and losers and wanted to generate some solidarity with them instead of being Mr Jocko or some such. The nerds and losers were the most human at the time you see. Then I graduated and didn’t see most of these people again for 10 years, and at the reunion was rather surprised at what a nice reception I got. It seemed like everyone knew me and was happy to see me (to a degree that had me taken a little bit aback), though at the same time it seemed like pretty much everyone was more successful at that point than I was. I actually felt like a total failure at that point in my life, but nobody at the reunion seemed to even notice, to the point of having an entirely different take on things. It was quite weird.
Anyway I did not attend the 20th. Too many hard feelings between myself and a person who I knew would be attending, and I just did not want to risk getting dragged into some kind of scene even if it would be in front of people who wouldn’t get together for another umpteen years. Fuck it, I got the hell outta there like I always wanted, I put together a life kind of like I always wanted and I really didn’t want to know what surprising opinions of the whole affair I might encounter. It is hard to explain- I really had to get out of that place, folks. Going back was 1) not particularly affordable at the time and 2) not especially desirable at the specific time of the reunion. I want to do what I’m doing now and I don’t want it tilted by the past. Sorry if anyone was disappointed, but as Sun Tzu says, “Invincibility lies in the defence"
I never went to my 10th. I never even heard about it. Last I heard, my sister’s class, who was 3 years ahead of me and had several hundred people in it, had theirs at an Applebee’s. So, yeah, I’d say reunions are pretty much dead in my part of the woods.
Out of curiosity, how exactly do they find people? I mean nowadays you can use Facebook, but what about the days before it?
In my dad’s case, and in the case of my high school, many ended up at the same university, so they had time to exchange phone numbers and addresses (this was in the 60s). Some also lived in the same neighborhood, so again, they kept in touch. Another way was, perhaps they moved, but their parents remained in the same house, so they’d send communications to the classmates by using the parents’address (if they knew they hadn’t died).
Our classes were/are not that big that keeping track was/is that difficult. And especially in my dad’s case, his class was really tight and inclusive, so even he, the youngest nerdiest guy, felt well.
I don’t think my school does actual reunions per class, but there are bi-annual drinks for everyone. I’ve been around twice and it was great. People are still cool to be around, it’s nice to catch up. Free drinks, if nothing else
Primary school however… I went to the most horrific, cruel primary school imaginable. My sister and I attended a reunion once, out of curiosity. It was so horrible that we got wasted and then went and got piercings because that just seemed more appealing. Well, it made sense when we were drunk…
I just attended my husbands 50th high school reunion. This was my third one with him. It’s a small town in the Country, and he said they always hated the city girls where I lived. At 68 years of age , it is still obvious, crazy, I know, but true. They don’t even try to be friendly. One lady brings a photo album of past photos. My husband of 17 years was married to a drug addict, that cheated on him, and abused his biological children, that are still scarred to this day. She was asksed to please remove the photos of the ex, whom I might mention did not graduate in his class. She told him , everyone has a past. Any reunions he or I attend from now on, we will have to continue to see those photos, and she wants to post them on the web for the world to see. Am I crazy to find this offensive??? I will not be attending the next one, you can count on that. I thought it was just plain insensitive. I have no problem with ex girlfriends or my step children’s mother, but this was a very painful situation for everyone involved. What do you think???
I think that this is the best reunion story that I have ever heard!
I’ve never gone to an “official” high school reunion.
Five years ago (my class’s 40th), my acoustic duo played at the “pre-party” held at a local bar the night before the actual reunion. It was the first time I had been involved with anything that had to do with my graduating class.
I was neither a popular nor unpopular kid in my high school. My school was extremely “clique-y,” and for sure I was not a part of the cool crowd. But I wasn’t a picked-on nerd, either. I had a few very close friends, and we basically made fun (privately) of all the other factions, from the elite to the jocks to the hoods.
At this event, I was happy to see a few guys that I had come to know casually through a mutual love of music, and especially one guy who was in my first real band that I hadn’t seen since those days. Beyond this, it seemed to me that the same old cliques remained. A few of the cool kids said hello and gave me a phony smile, and that was about it.
Video I saw later from the actual reunion revealed a bunch of people with leis around their necks (it was a Hawaiian-themed reunion) dancing in a conga line. I can’t begin to convey the horror the thought of this fills me with, so I was doubly glad I skipped it!
My family moved between 7th and 8th grade, so my first seven years were spent in a different school system. I had re-encountered one of the guys who came through those years with me, and he let me know that this graduation class (the one I would have been a part of had I not moved) was also have a reunion pre-party that same year. He suggested that I go, and I did.
I had a MUCH better time at this event than I did at my own high school’s. Even though these people hadn’t seen me in 45 years, they welcomed me and seemed genuinely glad I was there. I was especially glad to reconnect with someone who had been a very good friend all through my elementary school years, and he was the same genuinely nice guy he had been back then.
Never been to one (graduated in 1983).
I am also amused to learn from a high school pal who is still active in the alumnae association that I’m one of the ‘lost track of/whereabouts unknown’ people from my graduating class.
A quick vanity search of my name of Google brings up six pages of only me before it starts to bring up varied results (the combination of my first name and surname is unique, apparently). Including all of the stuff about where I lecture, professional organisations I belong to, publications, Linked In, etc., all of which includes easy-to-find contact details.
Maybe it’s because I have nothing on social media that I’m an unperson as far as they’re concerned? (No facebook, twitter, none of that stuff).
My 50th was last year. I didn’t go; nor did I go to any preceding one. Because they include all the January graduates along with June, there were over 1,000 in my class. Most of the kids I hung out with were a year older or younger.
Went to my 20th IIRC. Virtually none of the “brains” came back-it was mostly football heroes and cheerleaders. I kind of existed between both worlds, and in neither in the end analysis.
I do plan to go to my 40th in 6 years, if for no other reason than to blow everybody’s minds with how youthful I look.
My 35th H.S. reunion was last year. According to the photos in the alumni magazine only one person in my class showed up. He was photographed with the 30th reunion class so he wouldn’t be alone. I found it curious because it’s usually been the same rah-rah group attending every single reunion – namely, those who were jocks and cheerleaders. The rest of us evidently don’t care very much :shrug:
I went to prep school. There’s not so much a reunion as there is an Alumni Weekend where all the reunion classes gather on campus for several events leading to the annual dinner. The gym is turned into a highfalutin’ dining room. You sit with your class. Every table gets their own bottle of wine.
I went to my 10th and spent most of it babysitting a dear friend who was three sheets to the wind after two drinks (later found out he had – and maybe still has – a particular medical condition. Haven’t spoken with him in eons). Haven’t been to one since.
My undergrad reunion was a similar setup (tiny college, tiny campus, only 35 people in my graduating class). We all showed up for the 5th, 10th, and 15th reunions which were all held at the same restaurant in town. I bunked at my former roommate’s house. However the college closed, IIRC, a year or two before the 20th, and there haven’t any reunions since then.
I was never invited, and wouldn’t have gone, anyway.
I went to my 10th, which was fine but most people were still more-or-less getting their lives started, and although the cliques weren’t there anymore there was some jockeying for status by bragging on their jobs/children/houses. The 20th was better - most of us had been kicked around enough to be a bit humbled by life (myself included). That one was better for talking to people and seeing how their lives were turning out. My wife came to a couple of them, and showed a disturbing interest in who were my old girlfriends and how well they had aged.
I went to my 35th, and it was dreadful - all they did was complain about their medical problems, and all my best friends were absent or dead already. Those that had moved away from the area didn’t come, and the ones who stayed were stuck in their lives. It was kind of depressing.
My 40th was this summer. I didn’t go.
Regards,
Shodan
That’s why I might go to my 20th. I didn’t go to my 10th, but I saw pictures. I was surprised at how aged everyone looked at only 27-28 years-old. I think i will still look younger at 38.