BS: High school reunion

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: DougR
Date: 19 Aug 02 - 01:28 AM

Troll, Kendall? Perish the thought!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: RangerSteve
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 06:09 AM

I went to my tenth at a friends urging. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, in fact, I had a great time. The snobs, the ones that were supposed to be successful and live fabulous lives didn't show up. Most likely, they weren't living the lives they feel they deserved and couldn't face the rest of us. The star athletes were vastly overweight. There's some satisfaction in all that.

I was a lousy baseball player in gym class, due to poor eyesight, and I had the bad sense to wear brown shoes one year when black shoes were decreed to be the only suitable footwear. And I listened to Country music, partucularly, old-time and bluegrass, unheard of music in the 60's. For those reasons, I was accused of being gay. I had a few friends, but mostly I was miserable until I found the folk music crowd and got involved in school plays. At the reunion, a lot of the theater crowd showed up, so I had people to talk to. And I found that most of rest had grown up and no longer judged people by stupid high school standards.

I strongly recommend Classmates.com. Every high school class, college class, and military outfit is represented, and you'll probably find some old friends there.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Jimmy C
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 01:43 AM

My school has never had any sort of reunion in the whole history of the place, and it is close to 140 years old. but I was invited to a reunion of the Scout troop that I and my brothers belonged to. Unfortunately I now live 3,000 miles away and couldn't afford the trip at the time. I did see some photos of it and it also made the local newspaper and it looks like it was a hoot. We had a pipe band of about 20 pipers, 4 side drummers, a bass drummer and myself and my buddy as tenor drummers, and the majority of the band members were there, with their pipes and all. I'm sorry I missed that one. I would love to attend something like that as I have some great memories of the scouts and both good and bad memories from the school.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 10:20 AM

I've never made a high school reunion because I live a thousand miles away and when I go home, it's to celebrate a birthday, go the the 4-H Fair or go for a Holiday. I suppose that if an anniversary was close enough to any of those occasions, I'd go. I did have a good experience a few years ago, doing an outdoor concert in Court House Park in the center of town. Several classmates came, and came up and talked to me after the concert. There was a lot of shuffling of feet and, "So, how ya doin?" with reponses of "Fine, how you doin'?." I enjoyed seeing the people, even if they weren't close friends. Some would become close friends now if they lived anywhere near here. I've been amazed to get a chance to visit with old High School buddies who I haven't seen in thirty years. It seems like either you can't think of a thing to say and realize that you no longer have anything in common beyond memories, or you discover a new person who has kept growing since the last day you saw them. Never can tell, unless you do it.. :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 09:58 AM

I think I can add something different. I'm not invited to my h.s. reunions since I quit on my 16th birthday. (I'll put my disastrous h.s. years up against anyone. Anyone who survived theirs. )Wouldn't mind going, I wonder about people, don't know any of them anymore, would be fun to refresh that mental idea I carry of them, like those wallet-sized school pictures we used to trade, meaningfully.

I did go to a 25th elementary school reunion last month, and people say this is unusual, but it was a lab school for the university, there was only one class per grade year, and we knew each other--most of our parents taught at the college. There were one-way-mirrored observation booths in the classrooms, mics in the ceiling, futuristic optimism in the air. When people ask me about religion, how I was raised, I have to say I was raised as a science experiment. I remembered everybody, but only a few from my class showed up.

We were asked to write something about our most memorable experience, and although I remembered nearly everything, I settled on singing the Ash Grove in music class. You know it has a line "the friends of my childhood again are before me, each face" etc.--in the version we'd sung. I remember singing that, and looking around the room at us all, little kids singing this wistful, nostalgic song, and having an idea it was sort of funny, and sad. I think even as a child I was affected by children's faces.

All our teachers looked exactly the same or a little younger than they had been, they were mostly retired, travelling, bright and happy. My 3rd grade teacher was still the most beautiful woman in the world--if only she had waited for me, not married some jerk when I was 8. We, on the other hand, we looked like we'd been beat, been touring with the stones, done something to upset both Joe Pesci and Jackie Chan, we must've been living wrong. Cool!--I guess I look okay, then.

My little sister still holds grudges, although she was cute (the women in my family are attractive, the men potato-faced) and was popular, but not into all that. "Do people think I don't remember what assholes they were?" She's a little beyond cute now, and is single. But I have only one--a pathetic p.e. teacher in seventh grade who buddied up to the in-kids, and joined in calling a couple of unpopular kids by nicknames. If I run into that guy in an afterlife there'll be a scene. SharonA, I happen to know someone who lost a daughter the same way, and is still looking. How awful.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: kendall
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 04:24 AM

Never thought I'd see the day when good old Doug turned Troll!

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: open mike
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 04:22 AM

my but aren't we a bunch of old timers! 30-40 & 50 reunions-geesh what a lot of years we all have-i wonder how many put together from all mud catters?? probably eons!! I missed my 30th last year, whem i go I insist on playing a few folkie type tunes to counter the other music they insist on featuring. top 40 or whatever-- let's hear it for equal time!!

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: DougR
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 03:03 AM

Bobert! You attended a military school? Good show! That makes you better equipped than the average Mudcatter to meet the enemy head on when they launch their big offensive. Is the fact that you are the product of a military school responsible for your aversion to our country defending itself? The things we learn on the Mudcat! :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: John Hindsill
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 12:39 AM

My class is having a 45th reunion this fall and to my uncertain knowledge it is the first we've had. I haven't seen most of my fellows (and girls) since June 16, 1957, and nobody from that class in nearly 20 years. Judging from the "lost" list, I'm not alone in this failing.

But I know when I see them they will all be instantly recognizable, eighteen and cute; I know that I haven't changed a bit. Yeah!

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 10:56 PM

I have never been to a class reunion, but I would like to go to one just to find out if the guy who was extremely drunk at the post-graduation party and making everybody promise that they wouldn't forget him and promising that he would not forget everybody actually remembers or has been remembered by anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 10:52 PM

Vince, what a wonderful story!!

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 10:38 PM

Don't go to mine, but heck, military schoool?

BUT it love going to my wife's (non military school) and right in the miffle of where I own my business.

I've discovered that 1/2 the folks at reunions don't know anyone because they are spouses, and lots of these folks are purdy danged miserable... ahhh, or they were before they met the counter-reunion-bobert. Yep, talk about having something instantly in common with someone? Danged.

Plus, ya get to watch your spouse making a complete fool out of herself.

Don't get no better than that...

Bober

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 10:10 PM

My tenth is next month, but, dammit, I was too late to register for the party. Shucks! I bet all those dickweeds I didn't like in 1992 would be MUCH more interesting now, especially when they're drunk and showing snapshots of their ritalin-popping loinspawn. >:)

But really, I still sort of know most of the people I liked/tolerated in high school, and I even still like/tolerate one or two of them. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 07:28 PM

In that kind of gathering, we find only what we bring to it.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 04:11 PM

When my 50th came around, a few years ago, there were only two individuals whom I gave a damn about seeing. They were the two nuts I had been thickest with in junior high school and high school.

I emailed the contact person, and sure enough, they were going to be there, and had in fact asked if I was to be there. "Great! I'll show up!"

Turned out one is the tuba player and leader of a Dixieland band in Sacramento, CA, and the other is a pretty durn good photographer. I, of course, am a folk-song nut. We worked out a cultural exchange, whereby I sent each of them a tape cassette with an hour of me singing on one side and an hour of my Beautiful Wife playing the piano on the other; the tuba player sent each of us a CD of his band; and the photographer sent each of the others a wonderful framed color photograph of a Monarch butterfly on a flower whose name escapes me.

We have kept in touch by email since then.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: MMario
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 04:01 PM

I didn't mind school that much - just haven't had time to visit with anyone since I left. okay - I guess I've seen my cousin (who was in my class) once or twice in the past thirty years - and a couple other people once or twice - but heck - everyone has their own lives to lead - and besides which - it's a small town - we all get the gossip reports from our parents.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 03:56 PM

Or a cereal and a magazine!! :)

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: DougR
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 03:09 PM

Ron: or a box of chocolates? :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 02:29 PM

I found that those 18 year old idiots are no longer 18. Some of them are mature, interesting and quite humorous. The rest are 60 year old idiots.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Dani
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 02:13 PM

I'm with those who hated school, didn't have much of a good time there, and have been more happy every day of my life since then. My 20th is this year (I think?) and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go. What the heck would I say to those people?! If I remember 4 of them, or 5 things I did there, I'd be lucky.

It'd be too wierd.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 02:12 PM

Doug,

So you are the one!!! :)

Actually, I had a great time in high school even though I was far from popular. EVERY school has their cliques and I was in the clique that couldn't get into the other cliques. While I don't see 99% of the people I went to school with, I have one very close friend and a few others who I see occasionally. I went to our 10th anniversary and had a good time catching up. I missed the 25th reunion two years ago due to some prior committments but I wish I could have been there.

Life is what you make it.

Ron

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Kim C
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 02:09 PM

Kendall, what about being successful at looking good?!? :-D

I suppose, I was popular with my own group of friends... but we were the Smart Kids in the Advanced Classes and the general population figured us for Nerds. And I did get bullied by one girl in particular.

I generally disliked school for the same reason I generally dislike work: to wit, having to do other people's bidding on time that would be better spent writing songs. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: DougR
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 02:00 PM

L.L., your experience is similar to mine. Most of the people I graduated with (a class of about 40) I started first grade with.

And Ron, I'll say it. I was one of the popular ones and I had a great time in high school.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: harpgirl
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 01:36 PM

...I went to my ** year reunion a few years ago! Everyone was richer and most were thinner than I was! We were a close group and about ten of the original sixteen women were there! I went to the same school as "Emily Litella!" I think Gilda patterned her after our chemistry teacher, Mrs. Godefroi! hg

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 01:29 PM

My 30th re-union was held this month as well. It was the high light of my summer. We gathered on a small farm. Over the coarse of the weekend, people came and went. We BBQed lamb and salmon, camped out around a huge fire, laughed, cried, danced and sang! Most of the folk had gone through all their school years together, from kindergarten to graduation. We're a very close bunch. Yes, there have been some deaths and suicides (the class clown). We had a memorial service on the Sunday, I think the fact that we're getting older brings us closer together. Everyone was genuinely "happy" to see each other.

Musicman came along to provide the music and he entertained us around the camp fire. It was wonderful. All in all, it was a very emotional event and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Can't wait for the next one!

LL

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 01:13 PM

Just an observation. It seems that most people, when reflecting on high school, always catagorize themselves as A) Not fitting in B) Not one of the popular kids C) Outcast and/or nothing in common D) Couldn't wait to get out E) I didn't have any friends F) A combination of the above

You rarely hear people say "Yeah, I was one of the popular kids and high school was the greatest period of my life and I can't wait to see all my old friends who meant so much to me."

Face it, we are all normal even if we like to perpetuate an image of ourselves as brooding James Deans for whom high school was beneath us. We may take pride in saying that we wouldn't dream of attending something so low as a reunion, but who are we really kidding?

It was all part of growing up and teen angst seems to linger in some of us longer than it should. Celebrating success at the demise of those less fortunate (or lucky) wasn't something you enjoyed in high school and it probably won't serve anyone well to dish it out now.

If you can be honest with yourself and go to reunions for the right reasons, you will have fun and learn something about yourself. Maybe avoiding going is avoiding answering those questions.

Of course we've gone astray from the original posting to this topic, but then again isn't that a hallmark of us Mudcatters?? :)

Ron

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: annamill
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 01:01 PM

Funny, mu husbands 30th reunion was August 2,3,4 this year. It was fantabulous! Thing is, my honey hasn't changed in 30 years. 30 years ago he played the drums, surfed and listened to R'N'R. He still does all those things. He looks just like he did back then, except his long black hair is now long white hair. He still has the same electric blue eyes. You should have seen all the girls that came up and kissed him. He got to sit in with the great band they had hired. It made his night when all his old school chums came up and told him how great a drummer he had become. He beamed!

Oh, and I had fun too, watching him and meeting all his old friends.

Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 12:21 PM

Actually, success is the best revenge! Kim C, I want to think you are right!

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: MMario
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 12:18 PM

I just missed my 30th; I did go to one a few years ago as part and parcel of an anniversary gift for my parents (Our entire HS has a reunion every year - just "features" particular classes when "special" years come up) The big deal was my Mother was tired of having another family held up as "family with most graduates attending".

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Kim C
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 11:52 AM

Kendall, it's just because you have got so good-looking in the last 50 years. ;-)

I went to my 10 year reunion in 1995. I had mixed feelings about it. I wasn't one of the Popular Kids either. But Mister and I had a great time. A girl I never really got along with, got the prize for having the most kids (4 at the time) and she looked great. And I went up to her and said, Kathy, you look great. And she said, Thanks. So all that silly stuff you griped about as teenagers goes away.

One of my friends who had been plagued with terrible acne showed up, and she was Beautiful! Another girl who had been, as we politely say, Pudgy, had slimmed down and was also looking quite lovely. But the guys.... well, somebody help me out here, are men going bald at an earlier age? Everyone understand, I have nothing against baldness, it just struck me as strange that so many men under 30 were already losing hair. I think Mister started losing his in his mid-20s.

My 20th will be coming up here in 3 years. I am looking forward to it. Some of my friends I have kept in touch with (the ones of us that didn't leave Nashville!). I once thought about going to my 20th reunion in an ostentatious 19th century ballgown, but more and more, I'm thinking Tiny Little Dress... ;-) They say looking good is the best revenge, after all.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 11:51 AM

When the organizers of the 10th reunion called me, I advised them that I had not liked them in High School and I could call the people I wished to speak with. Haven't heard from them in the last 30 years. I probably have even less in common with them now than I did then.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 10:53 AM

Turns out that the mother of the bride was a woman that I had been VERY involved with in High School and we didn't even recognize each other. You want to bet, Big Mick? Women never forget...

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 10:16 AM

Ahhh, High school reunions. I discovered (through the 'net') that one of the schools I was expelled from (MacDonald High, in Montreal) was having a reunion a couple of years ago. Part of me wanted to go, and part of me started to recall the pain that I endured when I was there the first time. A lot of us folkies were nurds and worse, during those formative years, and although it may be very cool to be different now....it wasn't back then (I'm 56 now)

I asked for Mudcatters' advice and was rewarded with a highly entertaining thread full of opinions (I'd pull it up if I remembered the title) but the bottom line was that if I'd gone, I'd probably have been just as shy with those people as I was when I left....not to mention, downright hostile.

I can picture nervously standing in the decorated auditorium while everyone else danced (just as they did back then) and then finding Charlie B******, now probably a large bald bully CEO of something. Wanting to punch someone in the jaw is the wrong motivation for going to a reunion!

Glad you showed 'em Kendall!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Amergin
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 09:15 AM

my ten year reunioin is next year....doubt i will go....

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: SharonA
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 08:48 AM

My 30th reunion is coming in two years. I've got a lot of weight to lose before then; guess I'd better get started! *G*

I went to my 10th reunion only a few weeks after I'd broken up for the last time with my "high-school sweetheart", with whom I'd had a tumultuous on-again-off-again, break-up-to-make-up relationship for those intervening 10 years. At least I was wise enough never to have married him! Anyway, we managed to be fairly civil to one another at the reunion, but I remember that we both glared at a mutual friend who was trying to encourage the two of us to dance together!

I also remember listening to one of the guys who had been a "class clown" as he told his sad story: he'd married and had a daughter, but his wife had taken the daughter and disappeared. He wept as he described his attempts to find them. For me, that was quite an object lesson in the way life can change.

That's also where I'd heard that one of the kids who'd been in my "home room" had committed suicide. I had never suspected he'd been troubled in any way, but then he'd been a quiet guy who never drew attention to himself. No one seemed to know what had pushed him to take his own life... but then, no one seemed to know him as anything but an acquaintance (for all I know, that might have been the reason right there).

Some of my high-school friends were there, but far more of them – the ones with whom I'd had a warmer friendship – skipped that reunion. I skipped the 20th one, feeling that it would be just a repeat of the display of posturing (and, in some cases, downright lying) about people's post-high-school achievements. But I'm willing to try the 30th, hoping that my classmates will have matured past the one-ups-manship phase and will just enjoy chatting with one another. We'll see!

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Banjer
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 06:08 AM

Haven't been to a reunion yet and probably won't go to any in the future. Never was too much for socializing while in school. Besides why would I want to go someplace and hang out with a bunch of old folks? Unlike myself, it seems they have all aged considerably **BG**

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ian
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 04:21 AM

UK folk have you seen the site; friends reunited, you can catch up with school mates without attending a reunion.

ian

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 12:30 AM

I will never regret going to my 10 Year reunion. This girl sidles up to me and said "Vince Wilding! Fifth grade, wasn't it?" I said "No, it was sixth!" She thought I was a total jerk. There was a picnic the next day for the kidlets. She was there, and brought along the CUTEST little five year old kid. So, we hung around together and had a great time...

I've always told Randee that I've loved him about 2 or 3 seconds longer than I've loved his mother. Anywho (according to HER side of the story), I proposed two days later, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Aug 02 - 12:25 AM

I understand they're getting a few together for a 45th for my HS class - but they scheduled it all dead center in the middle of Walnut Valley, so I guess they'll have to do without me.

Although it might be different in a smaller class (mine was about 400), my earlier reunions were a great opportunity to meet some of the people I never had much chance to get acquainted with while I was in school. By about the 20th, you've got a whole new crowd. A few of them are going to show the expected "skid marks," and some are likely to be like meeting someone altogether new - of your own age.

John

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ironmule
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 11:48 PM

There wasn't a 10th, went to 20th and 30th, but am a few weeks away from skipping the 40th.

I never kept in touch with anyone, and what I am going to do soon is get in touch with people who were my friends and neighbors in Eugene,OR 30-15yrs ago (my post college years). They were much more a part of my adult life than anyone in High School.

There's only three or four people from my high school years I'd like to share a beer with, and I don't know what the significance of that may be. I suspect I'm too much of a hermit at heart.

Jeff Smith

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Big Mick
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 11:26 PM

I missed my 30th due to being in another state on an organizing drive. But a few weeks ago I was at a wedding for a friends son. He asked my band to come and play some music which we did. Turns out that the mother of the bride was a woman that I had been VERY involved with in High School and we didn't even recognize each other. Figured it out later.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: DougR
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 10:36 PM

Hell, Kendall, she probably couldn't see beyond all the barnacles you've picked up over the fifty years. Or perhaps she has learned of your penchant for Lamas! :>)

I went to my 50th in 1997, and had a ball.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 08:16 PM

I really regret not going to my 20th. I wanted to, but was then living with a complete skin flint.

In any case, when the 25th rolls around, I am there. Here's why. I think you learn a hell of a lot about life and especially yourself by looking at how others did view you, and how they view you as having changed.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: kendall
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 08:09 PM

I was treated like a poor kid from the wrong side of town in school, and, I wanted to "rub it in". Turned out it was great fun, and I'm glad I went. People change in 50 years.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 07:37 PM

Say What! ... you want me to go to my olde high school reunion? Whats the matter with you ... you think I got no taste? CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 07:22 PM

I didn't 'fit' in many social groups in HS...the few people I really liked probably wouldn't be there...(and now it's 1500 miles away)

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 05:43 PM

Never been to one, no desire to. I didn't like most of those people when I went to school with them and probably wouldn't like them now. The ones I would like to see don't do the Reunion thing either.

Subject: RE: BS: High school reunion
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 05:35 PM

I didn't recognize her either.

Oops. Wrong reunion.

Ron

Subject: High school reunion
From: kendall
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 05:16 PM

I went to my 50 year high school reunion last weekend. Came face to face with an old flame, and, (sob) she was so old, she didn't recognize me. Anyone else have such an experience?