Exponentially OT: High School Reunion

What even MORE weird is to have a total hottie walk up to you and say "I had the biggest crush on you in high school", and try and figure out what class she was in...

...then go home and haul out the yearbook to see what she actually looked like in H.S.

Or talk to the guys who were in your classes who were BMOC and see bald and fat dudes with tired-looking wives...

It's amusing, and excuse to dress up and talk to people who have no idea who you are now.

:)

E.P.

I went to my 20th reunion in 2002. It was the first time I was stationed in the same time zone as my high school and fortunately, I was about 120 miles away. It was very strange seeing girls who were

17-18 years old at graduation with children almost that age. Most of the men remained relatively the same, but some of the girls looked totally different.

I had a really good time and do not regret going. My 25th reunion is this summer and the distance is around 1200 miles. I may pass this one up, but hopefully I can make the 30th.

my 40th is coming up this summer. so i had a choice, reunion or a friend's bat mitvah. gas prices don't allow both. sooooo........... shalom! i wasn't an in crowder, anyway. i rode motorcycles and didn't relate.

I remember going to my 10th anniversary High school reunion. At the time I was still blessed with looking younger than my chronologic age but while some of the girls (women) still looked decent, many were already showing the miles. Additionally, many of the more desirable and popular guys in my class were already looking older, thickening around the midsection, and thinning on top. I was in Hawaii for my 20th and was again unable to attend. My 30th, was in late summer of 1995. I was in the midst of being reassigned to the Pentagon and was in the process of moving so, again, I couldn't attend.

Last September was my 40th anniversary reunion but we had just bought a new (to us) home and were moving in that weekend so I was unable to attend again. I was particularly disappointed because I was intent on attending and was planning it until the closing of our house got pushed up a week. Sadly, this may be the last reunion with a substantial number of classmates in attendance (there were about 50 there).

One of the organizers, a (then) girl with whom I was friends but never dated) sent me a copy of the class picture they had taken at the reunion. A couple of the girls were immediately recognizable. Others were still recognizable by their facial features but little else (sadly, some of the cutest in the class). I recognized a couple of the guys in the pic but I was very happy with the majority of them that their name tags were visible in the picture. ;~).

My humble advice is this; if you have a chance to go...........by all means, DO NOT miss the chance!

Ditto - did my 20th in '02 and likely passing on a 25th if they announce one this year.

I have a theory that three types of people go to reunions. The people with something to toot their horns about (25% at my reunion), the people who view a reunion as a rare opportunity to get out (about 40%) and the rest (like myself) are just too morbidly curious for our own good.

Of the people that did not attend that I've run into since, most volunteered a reason for not going. A large percentage voiced reasons that approximated a consensus that they felt like attending a reunion would be a lot like returning to the scene of the crime. And from what I recall, some of them had good reasons to stay away.

The second leading reason among both men and women I spoke with was the lack of a date. I was one of the ones that flew in solo and could have cared less - seeing as how I was one of the ones that had aged better than many of the classmates I've come across.

This year with an extra 15lbs around the waterline - maybe not so much. ;-)

WmB

It's only one event and an opportunity you don't get that often. I went to the last two reunions our high school had - my wife and I graduated the same year - maybe that helps. It is sort of weird - some people you take one look and and imediate recognition, on the other had the first we went to - one of the foot ball heroes walked by and he was just a fat balding guy we had a hard time recognizing. Some folks get off on the jocks got overweight and bald, and some of the pom pom girls are way too wide. In general though we found many of the kids were the same now as then - maybe a bit grayer, and in some cases those who found causes - a bit stranger. But we had a good time - got to see who made their goals, who enjoyed making their goals, and just in general how everybody made out. If we have another we'll go again and hopefully enjoy ourselves as much as last times. One interesting aspect is the MIAs who just disappeared, including some of the top students who found odd ball causes.. My recommendation is go - you won't get many chances.

Val Kraut

By all means, if you are able - go! I too will be going to my 30th later this year. I went to my 10th and 20th and am looking forward to this one as well. We are not getting any younger and I suspect, these reunions will be more special to me as time moves on. I echo what others have said about ironic changes in classmates: BMOC's turning to bald slobs. Beauty Queens have morphed into worn out shells of their former selves. Also, a few "ugly ducklings" really coming into their own. The class dunce becoming the millionaire, and the most likely to succeed, an unemployed ex-con.

One of the fascinating lessons I've learned is that time has a way of putting things in perspective. Whether or not you loved your HS experience, these reunions give you an interesting perspective on yourself, if not your former classmates. For some, it reaffirms the "Glory Years", for others, a form of "payback" or other accounting for past experiences - good or bad. For me, I had both good and bad experiences, but as time has moved forward, I look more fondly on my high school years. Sharing jokes with classmates about quirky teachers and silly incidents or even the "Big Game". Perhaps, its reflecting on my youth and its unchartered possibilities. Perhaps, enough time has past to heal those wounds inflicted on a awkward youth. Most likely, I take it as a celebration to be with friends and rejoice over how much I have grown and lived, or at least survived, and to share it with the people who can most relate to my past. Besides, although I've gained a few pounds, I've been successful in life and family, still have my hair and probably shape up pretty well with everyone else - and my wife's a babe. Take that Donna! ;)

Go and enjoy. One day you'll hear of someone with an old but familiar name who has died. You'll regret having not see them one last time to say how much they meant to you.

My 30th is supposedly this August...doubt I'll go.

that's when my 40th is. let's go riding....

Which direction? I'd hafta go east.

I went to my 20th a few years ago, mostly because I was married, had kids, had kind of a cool job, and still had my (non-gray) HAIR. It was the first reunion I attended since I skipped the 10th. I think by the 20th, most people are over the "look how great I turned out" phase and are more relaxed, personable, and nostalgic. Here's some of the interesting things I recall:

1) Most of the "girls" were HOT! I think this statistic may have been skewed since I'm speculating that the ones that were no longer hot stayed home. Man... if I knew how some of those girls I sat next to in class were going to turn out, well, I would have put a lot more effort into dating! 2) One of my best friends, who I also went on to college with, was gay. We were completely clueless back then and just thought he had more style than the rest of us. ;^) 3) The classmate with the most unusual job was a professional treasure hunter. When they announced his name, not one person seemed to know who he was. 4) A friend I knew since the third grade was the weather anchor for a television station in Kansas City or somewhere around there. 5) Our most famous classmate, Michael Winslow who found his fame making the "sounds" in the Police Academy movies, was a no show. 6) One of my best friends who now reminds people to address him with the title "Doctor", didn't even recall that we were in the same grade. Good thing he's not a brain surgeon! 7) The Big Man On Campus Football Star was a car salesman. The Head Cheerleader had gained (quite) a few. For some politically incorrect reason, this brought a smile to my face. 8) Some of the total overachievers turned out to be painfully ordinary. 9) Some of the total underachievers were on the verge of becoming partners in their law firms. 10) One of the classmates announced as deceased works at the same place my wife does and she was shocked since she just talked to my former classmate a few weeks before. She was even more shocked when she ran into her at work and she told her that people think she's dead! 11) I still live in the same neighborhood where I grew up. I NEVER see any former classmates and I assumed that the all moved away. As it turns out, a large number of former classmates still live in the neighborhood and they also say that they never see anybody either. Weird!

In summary, it was a totally surreal, surprising, entertaining, and fun experience. I recommend going.

Martin

Gee, Bill, you and I are about the same age. Class of '65?

Tenth was kind of so-so. The people that really needed to change hadn't and the ones that needed to stay the same hadn't, either. Twentieth was really good. I helped out finding people so the in crowd folks found the one girl that I had a crush on in school. They had me believing that they couldn't find her until the first night, when she came up behind me and asked me for a dance. She had aged well and we still correspond a little. Turned out that her "A-List" friends sent her round trip tickets a week before without notice and she actually made it.

Twenty-fifth was small with a great BBQ. Having just broken up with my then-wife I hooked up with one of the class hotties who had kept her looks and unusual personality. She moved in with me off and on for years, eventually drifting away, taking her emotional vampire act with her. Nobody told me about the 30th, so I crashed it with a couple of classmates. This year they did the 41st (nobody wanted to do the work last year) in party with the class of 66. I couldn't think of anyone that I would pay $50 per head to see again.

Maybe the 50th. In the mean time it's more fun to see all of those modelers from years ago at the Nationals. We have more to talk about, too.

Tom

my class was about 150 strong, but the email tree for this reunion only has around 30 people in it, the same group that has held reunions the other years, none of which, except for that 9th grade sweetie, I had any real contact with. No one who was in the band are on the list. I spent every extra breathing second in the band room for 4 years..... I guess, on a more cruder note, if I couldn't get my hand down her shirt back in 1974, what chance do I have now? :-) Let it Be.

Craig

screw that, i know a couple of crazies cuties in portland. they teach at reed, you know, aka whacko u?

...I'd much rather ride to Portland (and through to Vancouver) than head east anyway...like I said, doubt I'll go.

FWIW, I eventually got together with every one of them (not at reunions) and told them about those one-way crushes I'd had. In every instance, we're both long married and not goin' anywhere. Their responses were interesting, at the least, and a bit sadly regretted (by both of us) once.

Ah, hell, whaddya got to lose? If *you* weren't the jerk somebody's been waiting 30 years to tell off, you'll be fine. I've found nearly every one of mine to be better than the last. We were too disorganized to do one at 5 years - or an attempted sixth.

My first was ten (in 1980 - so you can do the math). I was halfway through law school and I wore a f***in' *black 3-piece pinstripe suit* to the reunion. Whatta moron! You know what I vividly remember? Connie. Connie was a hottie in '70 (and still is). We'd always been casual friends. No romance or even a hint thereof. But she was (and still is) an unrepentant hippie who'd gone off into the WVa hills to be artistic - and help others doing the same. She was in jeans and sandals and I found myself walking out for a class picture beside her. I observed how I was overdressed and overinhibited and she was the opposite - and we both laughed about it.

Fifteen found me in my new-to-me trademark Panama hat and standard- issue mid-'80s tan slacks & coat. Except for the hat, there were five or six of us (two lawyers, a chemist, a couple of general lunatics) all dressed nearly identically. But we had more fun. I was also in my first BMW (a 2002 - *very* unusual for my southern Ohio hometown) by then, so I spent some 'motorhead' time with another guy who had had one - at least until Reagan fired him from his air traffic controller job.

At twenty years, it was a blowout party that lasted nearly all night. A couple of my closest friends who hadn't shown up before came at my urging, so outrageousness ensued. One rode up to the motel entrance on his '45 Harley 45 with his 13-y-o daughter on behind ("I always wanted to ride up with a gorgeous blonde on the back seat.") and the other settled a 20-year-old insult to his family by telling off the 'superjock-now-mattress-salesman-who-deals-coke-on-the-side' that he was an a**hole ("... and then I apologized to his wife. I told her I was sorry she was married to such an a**hole."). I spent a good half hour gently talking an overly-Baptist classmate, whom I'd relentlessly tormented with my incorrigibility in school, through the issues she was facing in her impending divorce. We are still occasional friendly email correspondents - but that never would have happened without that night. I think I was in the Don Johnson 'Miami Vice' look at the time ...

Twenty-five years brought us to the place where my wife and I had gone for our first date (2 years out of h.s. - we met in college). Memorable only because it's the last time she deigned to go with me. She hates this stuff and realizes it's all harmless fun for me, so I now go solo.

At thirty years, I had my 'walk-out line' all ready. I planned to look around, say, "Yer all OLD!" - and leave. But I couldn't do it. There are some women who simply refused to age and I was in awe of them. While it would have been psychologically impossible for me to do 30 years earlier, nearing 50, I was not disinclined to tell them so. I think one was even hotter than she'd been as a teenager - and that's saying a lot. It also brought an 'age-guessing' game. Not for us; for some of our dates. Sitting beside an old acquaintance who'd 'pumped up' and become a cop - and gone through at least two wives (maybe 3) by then, he asked me to guess the age of his stunning blonde date. Graciously considering her feelings, I refused as he held up four fingers: two on each hand. Yeah; a 22-y-o 'trophy gf' with him at 48. Our former all-time-school-records fullback had had a quadruple bypass by then, but he was happy to be still up and about. Saw a few others I hadn't seen in over a quarter century and we had a lovely time catching up. I remember one guy who probably never actually spoke to me in school. I'd been talking with his wife (same story - she'd been a major wallflower) and he looked out over the crowd, saying, "I don't remember ANY of these people." Within 5 years, he'd died of cancer.

In between, we lost a few more to various things including AIDS. The last one (35th) was a surprise because two of our former exchange students came to join us. One Brazilian (HOT then; HOT now!) and one Australian ('dumpy' by her own description then; hot now). I was stunned by both and spent most of dinner talking with the Ozzie (who'd left her husband of 35 years home). Oh; and Connie's still hot, considering she's as much over 50 as I am. ;^)

In the end, if you like people, you should go. My class was big enough (~300) that I really didn't know everyone while I was in school, but I've had a delightful time getting to know them since. I don't know how much difference it makes that I left town 3 years out of school and I now live 600 miles away. Probably some. But I still don't plan to miss a reunion for the foreseeable future.

-- C.R. Krieger (In one of THOSE moods today)

me neither.

Mine's in Sept. and it's local so I'll probably go. Had a good time at

10th and 20th mostly just talking with people I hung out with and a few I didn't back then.

Class of 65 indeed. Bremen HS, south side of Chicago. And, no, I don't know Leroy. ;~)

Remember the short-lived TV show from a couple decades ago; "What ever happened to the class of 65?"