Class Reunions

[Melki]

Would you go? Have you gone?
Too painful a subject to even think about?

[Melki]

I get a high school reunion invitation every five years.
(My college apparently cannot find me. Therefore, they cannot hit me up for an alumni donation, so I'm pretty happy about that!)

I've never gone. I keep in touch with every one I liked from that era, and feel no need to waste an evening of my life standing around socializing with the ones that I didn't.

Still, I have this intense, burning curiosity...

What does everybody look like now? Who's still married? And please, please tell me all the cheerleaders have gained at least 50 pounds and have skin that looks like an elephants knees!

Anyone else have any details they'd like to share?

[Mathew]

I used to get 'class reunion' emails, just a bunch of locals who wanted to meet at a local bar/club...it was always kind of a joke.
I still live in the same town, kept in contact with the few friends I wanted to keep, and really have no desire to see what others are upto (that's what Facebook is for if I'm really interested)...I hated high school anyway.

My University also sseems to have lost my address, but, I have no desire to go back for a reunion either. Wow, I'm just a negative nilly ain't I?

[Melki]

Yeah, really. Way to kill a conversation. No wonder no one wants to reunite with you! ☺

[Mathew]

Sorry. I'm really interested to know how much more successfull all my old classmates are.
Actually, a couple of years ago I got a quote at work (I'm in insurance) and I recognized a name. It was my old University housemate. He is a partner at a chartered accounting firm. I emailed him and he remembered me (thank god) and told me a bit about what he was up to...turns out after the work, golf, and travel that guy doesn't have much free time - hah, I had more free time that him. So, I didn't feel so bad.

Anybody in particular you wonder about Melki?

[Melki]

I can't think of anyone in particular...just a general nosiness, I guess.

A friend of mine went to one a few years ago. Keep in mind, it's been a LONG time since I was in high school... She showed me some pictures she had taken, and the women, well, they looked the same as they did in high school! I would have recognized them anywhere. But the guys? Well, they looked like little old men! I was prepared for male pattern baldness, but PLAID PANTS??? SWEATER VESTS??? They looked like they should be standin' around the shuffleboard court at the senior center! Why? I don't get it. I always heard that men age better than women. Not in my graduating class, apparently.

[Rebecca]

I went to the first couple (maybe at 10 and 15 years?), but skipped my30th last summer. Just too much hassle to travel to it, though I would've dropped in if I we local. I don't Facebook, so I might have found it interesting to see the changes. I really do look just like I did in HS--jeans, t-shirts, and a long red braid. Just a few more wrinkles (and my hair is going grey, starting with the area around my face, so that I now look like a blonde from the front).

[Rebecca]

Besides, I figure I'm one of the successful ones--two good-looking teenaged sons, still married after 18 years, published my first book, etc.

[Joel]

High school reunions don't hold much attraction for me. But my college reunions are the stuff Vegas weekends are made of! Our class was small, so most people at least knew of each other; and the reunions are in Saratoga Springs, which has more bars than people. What's not to like?

[Rebecca]

Geez, it's been three years already since I skipped my 30th reunion? Maybe I'll go to the 35th, assuming my classmates pull one off. I could show off 2 pretty much grown sons, a husband, and a half a dozen books. Maybe more (books) by then.

[Melki]

I've got nothing to show off but my incredibly wrinkle-free face...and thanks to Botox, everybody has that.

[Melki]

Joel wrote: "High school reunions don't hold much attraction for me. But my college reunions are the stuff Vegas weekends are made of! Our class was small, so most people at least knew of each other; and the ..."

I lived at home and commuted to school, so I didn't make too many friends in college. For some reason, I tended to hang around with older women students who were returning to school after raising a family. I did get quite a lesson in life listening to these gals complain about their husbands and sex lives.

[Jim]

I've never gone to any of my high school reunions. I only went to the high school I graduated from for 1 year, because I got kicked out of the other one, a stuffy prep school, the very end of my junior year. (Boarding school, finals over, senior prom night, & I got caught with a girl in my dorm room in flagranti. They obviously had no sense of humor. Good riddance.)

I made some good friends at both & still keep in touch with a few. Our 40th is coming up soon, but I've moved out of state, so I'm sure I won't go to that one, either.

[Rebecca]

I haven't been back to my college since graduation--not even for my brother's grad the next year, since I was in Europe then. Nothing against the place. I got a good education there and had a better time than in high school in many ways. It's just never been convenient to go to Spokane.

[Pseudonymous]

The following story is true, though the names have been changed to protect me from black eyes.

Since there were only 60 people in my high school class, I recognized all my classmates at my 5-year reunion. The same was true of my 10-year, 15-year, and 20-year reunions. The 25-year reunion was different. A mysterious woman strode into Strikers Bowling Alley VIP Suite and sat down a couple of tables away from me. She had short auburn hair, wore a short blue dress, and had legs that went all the way to the floor. I had no idea who she was, and neither did any of my classmates at my table. Someone suggested she might be one of those reunion crashers you hear so much about. Then a little later, Danny, the Duck, Donner, who must have overheard our conversation, waddled over to our table, looked me directly in the eye, and said, "You don't know who she is, do you, Pseudo" nodding not inconspicuously toward the stranger. I admitted I didn't. "That's Noms Deguerre. You know, the girl you went steady with our senior year and took to the prom. Not so smart now are you smart guy." (The Duck had never been a fan of mine, not since he found out I had once read a book.) I felt horrible. I should have recognized Noms, though in my defense, she was . . . well, no longer 97 pounds. I liked Noms, and I was really embarrassed. My wife was supportive though. She put a gentle hand on my knee and smiled and smiled and smiled.

[Melki]

[Lisa]

My husband recently had his 30-year reunion. He'd never gone to any of the previous ones so wasn't up to date on all that has happened with his classmates. It was an awkward night for him, but hilarious for me. The best was when he asked a woman he barely remembered how her sister, Alice, was doing (a girl he remembered with great fondness). The woman said, "It's Al now, and he's doing fine."