12wonderY
I graduated in 1972, and my class has never had a reunion. We are doing it this year, but only because the class behind us planned their 50th and were gracious enough to let us piggy-back.
No, I correct myself. We piggy-backed with the class before us in 1981 for their 10 year.
I’ve kept up with just one classmate, and met up with a few others just a couple of times since then.
I moved away from the Pittsburgh area, so I really was removed.
So when we got the announcement, I came up with the idea of composing a document to share containing everyone’s one page biography.
About a third of my classmates responded. So I made stuff up for the rest of them.
I sent out the draft document yesterday, and that got some response! We’re up to 43%.
There are one or two that won’t ever respond; but I see this as an evolving project.
The really great part is that I have become acquainted with some very nice people. I will certainly not feel estranged Saturday evening.
Class size? 29 plus 1 who moved away her senior year.
No, I correct myself. We piggy-backed with the class before us in 1981 for their 10 year.
I’ve kept up with just one classmate, and met up with a few others just a couple of times since then.
I moved away from the Pittsburgh area, so I really was removed.
So when we got the announcement, I came up with the idea of composing a document to share containing everyone’s one page biography.
About a third of my classmates responded. So I made stuff up for the rest of them.
I sent out the draft document yesterday, and that got some response! We’re up to 43%.
There are one or two that won’t ever respond; but I see this as an evolving project.
The really great part is that I have become acquainted with some very nice people. I will certainly not feel estranged Saturday evening.
Class size? 29 plus 1 who moved away her senior year.
2alco261
>1 2wonderY: A few years back I went to the 50th reunion of the high school I graduated from (I went to three different ones). I only had a passing acquaintance with a handful of the students when I was there but, regardless of whether I knew them or not, I looked forward to hearing how people had spent their lives and I wasn't disappointed. I hope you have a good time.
3WholeHouseLibrary
Class of '70, graduated 240 in northern NJ. We had a class reunion every ten years, mostly.
Mind you, the vast majority of them had never heard me speak. It was my autism super-power. At best, I was a peripheral associate of a few groups, but never really a part of them. That didn't stop me from playing drums in three garage bands, though. I had one best friend, though, the lead singer on two of those bands, and we called each other no less than three times a year up until he died in 2014 -- on my birthday.
At our 10th reunion, one tenth of our class was married to a classmate, including me. I got some recognition in that it was decided that I had had the most interesting and unusual job. I had worked for a pipe organ builder. (More to that story, but, another time perhaps.)
I didn't attend our 20th because we had moved to Texas, and my 3rd son was born six weeks later.
I didn't attend our 30th because I got a divorce and was in court nine additional times for issues related to that divorce. In short, I couldn't afford the plane ticket.
Our 40th (2010), everything changed. Karrell and I were married nine years, and I wanted to show her off. What was originally planned as me and a friend getting together to play guitar for a few hours ended up being a full-blown music fest open to the entire class. Nothing rehearsed, and it went on for four hours. They were still talking about it at our 50th. My ex (I refer to her as ThiMs,) was there, and I simply avoided her as best I could. It was decided that we were going to go to start doing this every five years after that. Best. Reunion. Ever.
Our 45th ... Karrell decided she didn't want to go with me, so I made all the arrangements to fly solo. Four months later, she was diagnosed with cancer, and by the time of the class reunion, she had responded well to the chemo -- actually gained weight, and the tumors had shrunk considerably, so there was no reason for me to not go to the reunion. I did, but I missed her terribly; couldn't wait to get home. No music fest this time, although I brought my guitar with me anyway. Now, in high school, ThiMs was best friends with another classmate (CR), who had since moved to Arkansas. We visited with CR and her husband several times over the years, and I got to play music with them every time we did. It changed the dynamics of the BFF relationship. I'm going to leave a whole lot out of this narrative, but suffice to say that ThiMs drove to CR's place, and they drove together to our home town for the class reunion, except ThiMs hadn't paid the required fee to cover the formal dinner nor the Goodbye Brunch, yet she made her presence known. I got to talk with CR at said brunch, and she admitted to me that she was dreading the drive back to Arkansas, but wouldn't say why.
Our 50th ... Postponed due to COVID.
Our 50th+1 ... Postponed due to the Omicron variant two days before I was to begin my drive to NJ. I went anyway. All the hotels were paid for, most with no refund.
That's why I went. I also was going to visit various friends and family along the way, so I called it the BMW Tour -- Bodacious Meandering Wanderlust. My second stop was to visit CR. She hadn't spoken to ThiMs since ThiMs left her place to head back to Texas. The tour took me to Minnesota, out to Long Island, up to Maine, down to Connecticut, and the Catskills before arriving in my home town to not celebrate the high school reunion. Instead, I had to get a PCR test for COVID because I had gotten two (false) positive results from an at-home test I was finally able to purchase in northern Maine. I spent 19 days and drove just under 6,000 miles by the time I arrived home.
Our 50th+2 ... I flew this time because no one was being Saran-wrapped to their seats anymore. Things were much calmer in the skies. About one quarter of our class was there. It was nice; a tour of the high school (almost everything except the library was different,) a formal dinner, and the Goodbye Brunch; plus an announcement that the two who had coordinated the reunions all these years were not going to do another one. CR didn't attend; she had driven to NJ just a month prior to attend a family function. (We talk on the phone at least twice a week, though, usually when one of us is heading toward - or back from a gig.) We had entertainment -- the cousin of a classmate (who has never attended a reunion) accompanied by another classmate (who sings professionally, apparently). I got really bold and asked if I could play a tune. I had my guitar (in my room at the hotel where the dinner was) because the following day, a friend had talked me into doing a house concert. I refer you back to the second line of my narrative. Go ahead, read it again; I'll wait. The first two lines of the song I played are: "I saw a friend today; it had been a while, and we forgot each other's names. But it didn't matter because deep inside, the feelings still remained the same." Everybody stopped talking to listen. Can you say, "Mic drop?"
Our next reunion ... "We'll see," said the Zen master.
Mind you, the vast majority of them had never heard me speak. It was my autism super-power. At best, I was a peripheral associate of a few groups, but never really a part of them. That didn't stop me from playing drums in three garage bands, though. I had one best friend, though, the lead singer on two of those bands, and we called each other no less than three times a year up until he died in 2014 -- on my birthday.
At our 10th reunion, one tenth of our class was married to a classmate, including me. I got some recognition in that it was decided that I had had the most interesting and unusual job. I had worked for a pipe organ builder. (More to that story, but, another time perhaps.)
I didn't attend our 20th because we had moved to Texas, and my 3rd son was born six weeks later.
I didn't attend our 30th because I got a divorce and was in court nine additional times for issues related to that divorce. In short, I couldn't afford the plane ticket.
Our 40th (2010), everything changed. Karrell and I were married nine years, and I wanted to show her off. What was originally planned as me and a friend getting together to play guitar for a few hours ended up being a full-blown music fest open to the entire class. Nothing rehearsed, and it went on for four hours. They were still talking about it at our 50th. My ex (I refer to her as ThiMs,) was there, and I simply avoided her as best I could. It was decided that we were going to go to start doing this every five years after that. Best. Reunion. Ever.
Our 45th ... Karrell decided she didn't want to go with me, so I made all the arrangements to fly solo. Four months later, she was diagnosed with cancer, and by the time of the class reunion, she had responded well to the chemo -- actually gained weight, and the tumors had shrunk considerably, so there was no reason for me to not go to the reunion. I did, but I missed her terribly; couldn't wait to get home. No music fest this time, although I brought my guitar with me anyway. Now, in high school, ThiMs was best friends with another classmate (CR), who had since moved to Arkansas. We visited with CR and her husband several times over the years, and I got to play music with them every time we did. It changed the dynamics of the BFF relationship. I'm going to leave a whole lot out of this narrative, but suffice to say that ThiMs drove to CR's place, and they drove together to our home town for the class reunion, except ThiMs hadn't paid the required fee to cover the formal dinner nor the Goodbye Brunch, yet she made her presence known. I got to talk with CR at said brunch, and she admitted to me that she was dreading the drive back to Arkansas, but wouldn't say why.
Our 50th ... Postponed due to COVID.
Our 50th+1 ... Postponed due to the Omicron variant two days before I was to begin my drive to NJ. I went anyway. All the hotels were paid for, most with no refund.
That's why I went. I also was going to visit various friends and family along the way, so I called it the BMW Tour -- Bodacious Meandering Wanderlust. My second stop was to visit CR. She hadn't spoken to ThiMs since ThiMs left her place to head back to Texas. The tour took me to Minnesota, out to Long Island, up to Maine, down to Connecticut, and the Catskills before arriving in my home town to not celebrate the high school reunion. Instead, I had to get a PCR test for COVID because I had gotten two (false) positive results from an at-home test I was finally able to purchase in northern Maine. I spent 19 days and drove just under 6,000 miles by the time I arrived home.
Our 50th+2 ... I flew this time because no one was being Saran-wrapped to their seats anymore. Things were much calmer in the skies. About one quarter of our class was there. It was nice; a tour of the high school (almost everything except the library was different,) a formal dinner, and the Goodbye Brunch; plus an announcement that the two who had coordinated the reunions all these years were not going to do another one. CR didn't attend; she had driven to NJ just a month prior to attend a family function. (We talk on the phone at least twice a week, though, usually when one of us is heading toward - or back from a gig.) We had entertainment -- the cousin of a classmate (who has never attended a reunion) accompanied by another classmate (who sings professionally, apparently). I got really bold and asked if I could play a tune. I had my guitar (in my room at the hotel where the dinner was) because the following day, a friend had talked me into doing a house concert. I refer you back to the second line of my narrative. Go ahead, read it again; I'll wait. The first two lines of the song I played are: "I saw a friend today; it had been a while, and we forgot each other's names. But it didn't matter because deep inside, the feelings still remained the same." Everybody stopped talking to listen. Can you say, "Mic drop?"
Our next reunion ... "We'll see," said the Zen master.
4librorumamans
At my 50th reunion I was perturbed to realize how many of my classmates have committed suicide over the years — 6 or 7%. I have no way of comparing this rate to other all-male schools in peacetime, but I wonder if it's unusual.
6John5918
I don't know whether we even have high school reunions in Britain; certainly my grammar school hasn't had any, although I'm still in touch with half a dozen of me old mates from the sixth form, which we left 51 years ago, and three of them have been out to visit us in Kenya. My wife went to a reunion of her old school in Kenya a few weeks ago, an old former missionary school based on the British pattern, and she seemed to enjoy it, but then she's far more sociable than me! I am still in touch with the girl that I sat next to in class in primary school from the age of four to the age of eleven, 65 years since we first met!
72wonderY
Well, it was a very satisfying get-together. There were about a dozen of us; a good number to circulate and get re-acquainted. Not making any judgements about those who chose not to come; but those who did come all seem pretty happy and content with their lives.
And the biography project served as a good ice breaker. Most of us knew a little bit about the others and conversations flowed nicely.
We agreed to try to gather again in just a few years and not bother with a rented hall; possibly just meet at someone’s house.
And the biography project served as a good ice breaker. Most of us knew a little bit about the others and conversations flowed nicely.
We agreed to try to gather again in just a few years and not bother with a rented hall; possibly just meet at someone’s house.
