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

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by pressboxer, Oct 2, 2006.

  1. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Opted not to go to any, tho I did consider going to my 25th. Then the school hired a football coach I'd sparred with when I worked in Ann Arbor (high school, not Lloyd) -- whiny ass miserable prick of a person.
    Some kid from the school called one day following up non-responses. I asked him if Ass Clown was still football coach. I told him, I;'d pass because I want nothing to do with my school until they fire that prick. He started laughing and said "I can't tell Brother Pompous that, but I know what you mean."
     
  2. Xsportschick

    Xsportschick Member

    5-year reunion: The homecoming queen was fat ... and a waitress. I had an office job and felt superior. Made out with a classmate I barely knew in high school. Got home at 7 a.m.

    10-year reunion: My senior homecoming date came over to say hi to me and a girlfriend. She mentioned she'd gotten married a few years earlier. He looked at her, puzzled, looked at me, puzzled, and said. "Uh, I didn't think you'd EVER get married."

    My best friend's husband makes dance-floor passes at all of her girlfriends. I left at 1 a.m. with my platonic girlfriend. She was still mad about the whole lesbian inference. We debated about how to break the news to my best friend that her husband was a skank.

    20-year reunion: Met my clique there, including my best friend, with her second husband. We ate, drank and danced. The Macarana, several times. I was about to be d-i-v-o-r-c-e-d; the homecoming queen was still married, to her high school sweetheart. Reconnected with the guy I started dating just before graduation. (most of our dates were graduation parties...) We ended up going for breakfast with some other classmates; I got home at 3 a.m.

    25-year reunion: "What!? There was a 25?" /discovered last month perusing the message board about our ...

    30-year reunion: A third of the class and a handful of teachers showed up. The football coach, long retired, chats me up over a beer. I mistake another teacher for a classmate -- he says, pointing to his head, "What? With this gray hair?" and I reply, "Uh, look around, there's a lot of gray hair here tonight." He agrees.

    My closest friends aren't there; I see an odd assortment of people I remember fondly, some from third and fourth grades. We talk about a classmate who's now a keyboardist for a major rock 'n' roll act. He's still as cool as he was in kindergarten, apparently, which was pretty damn cool. Mostly because he doesn't put on any airs.

    At 11:30 p.m. Saturday, on the way out the door, I see a bunch of guys I didn't know well (30 years ago or now) gathered in a corner for a group picture. They've coaxed a late arrival into their midst, a guy I've known most of my life, who stumbled into the place after reading the MHS '76 sign out front. He's had some harsh life and his brain is kind of scrambled. But the guys treat him like everyone else, a classmate. And I think of the Dar Williams' song, ''The Blessings" ...

    "Yeah the blessings, can we meet? Can we meet again,
    At the crossroads of disaster and the imperfect smile,
    With the angel in the streetlamp that blinks on as I walk on a mile, the blessings.
    ...
    I'm finding the pictures, and I finally know what I kept them for,
    I remember, I can see them, see them smiling, see them stuck,
    See them try, I wish them luck and all the blessings."

    A former neighbor had invited me to a brunch the next day, but my best friend, who skipped the reunion to avoid talking about her recent (painfully long) layoff, doesn't want to go. So I don't, either.

    This year, the reunion organizers suggested an informal annual gathering at a hometown bar. I'll probably go whenever I can.

    The thing about reunions is not so much about who remembers me as it is about remembering who I am, where I'm from.

    So, congratulations, pressboxer, on surviving your 25th class reunion. Here's to many more:
    [​IMG]
     
  3. Hed bust

    Hed bust Guest

    Sad
     
  4. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Attended my 10th, 20th and 25th, but not the 30th.

    Had fun at each one, most fun at the 20th. I moved far away after HS for college and all of my jobs have been at least 1500 miles away so it was fun to reconnect with people I hadn't seen since the summer after my junior year.

    My hometown has had a specific "reunion weekend" for more than 20 years. So even tho specific classes have special get-togethers, it's also an all-school weekend so you can see friends from other classes as well. There's always a huge party on Friday night; classes having reunions get together for a brief pre-party on Friday, and then for a dinner, etc., on Saturday.

    My parents have moved but I'd love to go back next summer for the 35th.
     
  5. terrier

    terrier Well-Known Member

    Survived my 25th, although my class' attendance sucked (my school has a big event for everybody - I was an '80, and the 75, 70, 85, 90, etc. classes were in with us). An adventure of an evening - ran into my old babysitter (her husband was a '75), learned that guys I expected to have hottie wives didn't and vice versa (my wife was too chicken to go, but she had nothing to fear), our best-traveled classmate (a musician down in New Orleans) made the trip a few months early thanks to Katrina, and I wound up sneaking outside with a couple of my classmates for, let's just call it a little illuminated nostalgia...
    Thanksgiving weekend probably wasn't a great time for it, at least we Class of '80s (guys who've moved away and have families are probably well booked that weekend). Works well for more recent classes, though.
    I went to an all-boys Catholic school that has a Thanksgiving Eve informal all-classes bash (haven't been for awhile, but think I'll go this year). The first few years after college, it gave me a great ego boost. As sports editor of the local twice-weekly, the feeling of classmates making four or five times as much money being even more interested in what I was doing...priceless.
     
  6. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    I lived on Guam when my 10th reunion came up, so I had to miss it.
    The 20th should be next year, as long as someone's actually putting one together, and I really hope I can attend.
    I enjoyed high school, and I think I'd enjoy going to the reunion.
    Although, I might be embarrassed by how many names I've forgotten.
     
  7. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Well, one burnout became a lawyer and makes every reunion. He was the biggest dealer, too. Another did show up; he taught high school for a while but now installs heating units. Another had plane tickets to come but was hospitalized with what was initially thought to be a heart attack; he coaches high school wrestling. Another supposedly showed up, but none of us saw him. Another dropped by for a couple hours and we had a good talk; he runs a restaurant. Another had no interest in attending. Another always attends; she's a housewife. Another always attends, but I don't know about next year since she's in Iraq. So much for the bong crew I knew best. The rest of the burnouts pretty much showed up. We had about two-thirds of the class for our 25th. They were and are a partying class.

    I find myself interacting with people I didn't hang out with much back then. Some of us have more in common now than we did then.
     
  8. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    I wish I had the option of going to a reunion. Due to being in a heavily depressed economic region, most of my class bolted to parts unknown following graduation (Our senior year was a living hell due to a tax levy failure). A fifth reunion was not held and the 10th year has came and went without word from anyone.

    I get depressed when I think about it because our lack of communication doesn't bode well for the future.
     
  9. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    My 25th is in two years. I'll go, because not only do I get to see some people I don't see often, one of whom refied my house the following year, but the whole dynamic is fascinating from a social commentating role.

    At my 10th reunion, my wife was pregnant with our first child. After observing my former classmates for about 10 minutes, she went around the room and starting labeling who were the jocks, the popular folks, the geeks, etc. Didn't miss a one.

    Went to the 5th (a waste of time, it's just glorified HS), the 10th (which was pretty nice) and the 20th, which didn't have as many people as the 10th, but was pretty fun nonetheless.

    The best part is that I look better than I did in HS, when I was basically a Q-tip: 6-foot tall, 125 pounds with an Afro. At my 20th, I got a lot of looks from some of the girls I went to HS with, largely because I've filled out, cut my hair and don't look like a 2-iron with a fuzzy head cover anymore.

    This explains why in the class awards, I got voted "Geek to Chic'" and got a partial standing-O.

    The weirdest part was sitting at a table with some friends I hadn't seen since the 10-year reunion in 1993. Two of them had kids at our old HS (one of whom was a senior), two others were grandparents (???!!!). At that time, my oldest was going into fifth grade and my youngest was going into kindergarten.
     
  10. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Geek to chic? Good Lord. That alone would drive me away from my reunions, though I admit, I'd be a contender in the Pork The Dork award ... or maybe not. Perhaps the Still Won't Pork the Dork award ...

    I'm sure it was done in fun, but the fact that people hang on to those high school cliqish caste systems is pathetic.
     
  11. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    Estimable Frank,

    That's a good one, and heartening. As far as I know, none of my former cohorts in the Bakeage Brigade have exceeded anything more than Domino's night manager. One is dead, but for a different set of reasons. I know this, if I chose to go to one of my reunions, I'd most assuredly get "Chinese-eyed" first. And keep it going. I don't know how I could tolerate any of those people otherwise.
     
  12. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    My class had a reunion for 5, 10 and 20 years, yet didn't have one for 25. How effed up is that?

    At 5 years, I was still hanging out with the HS friends I wanted to see. Too early for a reunion if you ask me.

    At 10 years, I was on the local NBA team beat for the hometown daily, so it was cool to go and be able to say what i was doing. The reunuion was at a major downtown hotel. Should have been a great night (and actually was pretty good), but unfortunately, it came just weeks after the most painful breakup of my life. Then on the way home I saw her car with her new guy driving and her in the passenger seat. Shoulda run 'em off the road.

    At 20 years, we had a really cool reunion at a K of C hall. Good times and great to see those who showed up.

    In 2008 it will be 30 years. Since we didn't have a 25, I'm doubting we'll have a 30th. But we'll see. If we do, that gives me 2 years to lose 30 pounds.
     
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