Congratulate me, I just survived my 25-year high school reunion

I went to my -- gasp -- 30th last month.

And wouldn't you know it, the same little cliques were in their little groups all over the banquet hall.

 

Mr Glass,

Precisely why I wouldn't go to a reunion even if I was paid Tiger's appearance fee.

YHS, etc

 

Indeed. The reason I suspect it will be my last.

 

No. 20 coming up this summer for both of us. I just hope the class doesn't applaud this time like they did at No. 10 for the guy who had a job as morning show anchor at the ABC station in the No 2453 market in the country.

We had police officers, school teachers, engineers, and even some dorky sports writer for the Big City Gazette. No comments, no applause, not cheers for anyone else in the class of 1987. But when Mr. Good Morning Spuderica updated us on what he is doing, the group starts clapping. :

 

I'll add myself to the roster of those who skipped their reunions. My 20th was this last weekend, and I skipped my 10th, too. The last time I've talked to anyone from my high school class was 1994, so I felt a bit odd about paying $65 a head to see people I hadn't seen for at least a decade. (I'm not a snob, mind you -- I just fell out of touch with one high school friend, while the high school friend I remain close with was from the next year's class. Not counting one friend who graduated from the same high school eight years before me, but whom I became friends with through college and work.) However, I am shelling out $20 for the "Where Are They Now" book, though all I have to do is turn on Morning Edition to hear where one of them is.

Plus, when you graduate from high school anwyhere from about 1983-89, you're going to be subjected to lots of the cheesiest music ever produced.

I also missed the chance to see the Warren Central Fighting Whitlocks drill my old school 28-0, which I believe was the same score when the two teams played my senior year of high school. So, yes, Whitlock, the Warren Central dominance of Carmel is back.

 

A few things I've come to realize, having attended some reunions and skipped others because I was on the road.

1) People whose lives are absolutely in the shitter, aren't where they thought they should be, RARELY show up at reunions. They don't want anyone to rub it in. Or if they do, they absolutely lie about where they're at. Only people who think things are dandy (even if, to other eyes, they're sad), show up.

2) As a woman, it's totally worth going if you've gotten your act together since high school. The reason is that if you're really, really hot when you're 17, you have nowhere to go but down from there. Even if you're a great looking 37-year-old, you'll only be a shadow of the unbelievable 17-year-old your classmates remember.

Those of us who bloomed a little later can just walk in there looking like our fabulous selves (with the help of a little side trip to the salon), and enjoy that contrast. Believe me, when my boy-toy husband showed up up at my 20th later on, when I was having dinner with a bunch of the ladies, with two of his very hot 25-year-old rugby buddies, it was worth the looks on their faces. And I didn't have a bad high-school experience.

When he told me my classmates looked like old bags and asked if I was sure I was with the right class, I knew I had made the proper decision there, too. ;-)

And, finally...
Like never stops being like high school, especially if you're a woman. You never stop having flashbacks when your allegedly mature women friends gang up on one, backstab each other, give the silent treatment, etc. I fully believe that we really never grow up; our toys just get more expensive.

 

Ugh. I'm allegedly organizing my 30th this year (so far, that means just sending a few emails; other folks are doing the "real" work).

But after reading all this, maybe I'll bag it.

 

My 20th is next month. They've set up a web page where everyone is sending in their reports about what they're doing and sending in family photos, etc. Ballscribe nailed it. There's one picture of a very striking woman. I didn't remember her name even, but I looked up her yearbook picture and she was beyond awful. She'll definitely get the last laugh.

The one's that were money at age 17? Let's just say I wish I hadn't seen the before and after photos.

 

CradleRobber told me to ask you to get him an invite for your 15th reunion.

 

Just got the invite for my 25th. Party one night and then the next day we can all get together and walk the halls of the school while we talk about all the great times. Oh yeah, kids invited, too. Kids? Uh, no thanks. I haven't went to one yet and I ain't going to this one. Keep in mind, the woman organizing it also organized our senior class trip ... to a farm where we could pet animals. Wild times indeed. Yes, I went to school with a bunch of dorks.

 

Went to my 20th back in the summer. It was good to catch up with a couple of old friends. Many people told me the 20th was when the old cliques break down and people aren't so caught up in what people are doing for a living. They obviously didn't go to my high school, which was the snooty, country club high school in the city.

At my 10th, I hooked up with a cheerleader who I had a wicked crush on back in 1986. Good times.

 

Whitlock wouldn't see the field for current vintage Warren Central.

My 20th is in three years. I might go, but I doubt it, besides, I moved away from the area in the summer after I graduated, and other than my close friends, no one else knows where I am or whether I'm still alive.

I'd be more interested in going to an 8th grade reunion in Milwaukee than my high school as a move-in to Indianapolis.