<p>Yes, 20th was more fun than 10th.</p>
<p>I’ve been to two of my husband’s, but never my own. My connection is with my college class. I keep in close touch with a group of college friends, but I love reunions because I talk to classmates I didn’t know and/or haven’t kept up with. It’s a joy. But high school? Better left as a dim memory!</p>
<p>Went to my 10th and 15th hs reunions and was disappointed. The people I wanted to see weren’t there. People I didn’t think would even remember me were really friendly, though, which was nice. One girl said, “How come these guys weren’t this nice in high school? The boys wouldn’t give me the time of day back then!”</p>
<p>But last December I went to a “reunion” of sorts - our high school choral director held a Messiah Sing-In. Our high school chorus performed The Messiah yearly for about 10 years, and they reached out thru the internet to as many choral alumni as they could find. Saw quite a few people I had actually known well in high school, not only my year but 1 - 2 years ahead and behind me. My class had 400 kids, and at the reunion I didn’t know many people, but the Messiah Sing-In was all musicians, and I knew a high percentage. For some reason I had expected everyone to look the same and was fretting because I’ve gained 30 lbs since graduation. Well, a lot of people had gained a lot more than that! We ALL looked old! But it was a joy to see people and sing with them again. And it was a joy to sing for our choral director, who was a terrific director and a fun character. He must have rehearsed us well way back then, because with NO rehearsal we made it through every song and sounded quite good!</p>
<p>We’ve never made it back to college reunions, even though DH and I attended the same school, because early June is not a good time of year for people with kids who live 5 hours away from their college.</p>
<p>I went to my 10th, 20th and 30th. All were fun in different ways. At the 10th, everyone basically looked and sounded the same. The women uniformly looked FANTASTIC (one person quipped “if you think someone here looks fat tonight, imagine them three months ago. NO ONE came here without being on a diet.”). They were dressed fabulously and just looked wonderful. The guys all looked the same…dark suit, red tie. Boring.</p>
<p>At the 20th…you could tell folks were putting their best foot forward. The women again looked FABULOUS (I mean it). The men were all on the paunchy side…all were a little broader in the middle than in high school. Folks were talking about their kids… how they were doing etc. Lots of discussion about travel and homes.</p>
<p>At the 30th, the women were more varied. More grey hair, more great color jobs, and “sizes” were more varied too. The men all looked the same…paunchier than at the 20th…and balding. Discussions were about college graduations or college plans for the kids (depended on the age at which the kids were born…my own kids were not in college yet). One person, however, was planning her daughter’s wedding.</p>
<p>I have to say…I’m looking forward to the 40th. I figure at that one we’ll be hearing about grandchildren and retirement. The only thing is that I hope the garage band (yes…from high school) doesn’t play at the 40th. They played at the 30th and that about put me over the edge.</p>
<p>I only keep in touch with two people from high school, but in all three reunions, I had fun talking to folks I hadn’t seen in year. Oh…maybe this time I’ll take my husband. He’s taken a “pass” on the other reunions.</p>
<p>It is funny how some of the people seem exactly the same. I guess it makes sense, but it still throws me off a bit. We had a very bossy gal in our class who used to speak to me as if I were in preschool back then, and she did the same thing at reunions 10 years ago! Maybe this time I’ll give her a good swat if she does it again!</p>
<p>Funny that I just came across this thread after a former classmate called me today to plan our “just girls” mini reunion in September. H.S. was not the best time for me. I came from the wrong side of the tracks and was bused into town. I had a MUCH better time in college and many years later became a lawyer. At the last reunion one “popular” classmate gave me a hug and told me how proud she was of my accomplishments. I tell you, that felt weird. Guess I didn’t show much potential in H.S.</p>
<p>I had a wonderful reunion with my happily married grade school boyfriend though and it was as if all those years hadn’t intervened. It was fun (and perhaps some thoughts of the what might have beens) seeing how our lives had turned out and his sweet wife was very tolerant of our reminiscing. </p>
<p>My close friends refuse to attend these events. I think I understand why but I’m grateful to now have the self-confidence to be the event planner.</p>
<p>I noticed the same thing as Thumper, many women looked as good or better, but a lot (though not all by any means!) of the men had gone to seed. I had trouble recognizing a lot of the men especially if they had gained weight and lost hair. (And sometimes it wasn’t nature - it was just that shoulder length hair had turned into staid haircuts.) In general the people that I didn’t like were much nicer.</p>
<p>Three or four of them must have the same plastic surgeon. They were friends in H.S. and are all blonde now and look so much like each other these days that no one could figure out who they were.</p>
<p>Just came back Sunday night from mine. I felt like I was back at the dining hall in '70…although we’ve had life experiences that have shaped our outlook on certain things, basically we’re the same people we were back then. How scary is that!</p>
<p>I went to my 10th and 20th reunions. At the 10th I was about 7 months pregnant. People wanted to touch my stomach. At the 10th it seemed as if the same cliques were doing the same things for the most part. I did catch up with some old friends though and found out one lived a block away from me in a different state. (We were moving the next month though.) </p>
<p>DH went with me both times. I thought we could share a rubber chicken dinner, and If I needed a quick escape he would be the means/excuse. </p>
<p>The 20th was much more enjoyable but far fewer people attended. It seemed that those of us willing to forget about the cliques and who we were in HS had the most fun. A few women still wanted to be the Prom Queen and for the most part were ignored. I talked to people I “knew” in HS, but didn’t really know. Even the “popular” boys were nice. </p>
<p>One of the saddest things I heard was that one woman didn’t come because she had gained weight and was embarassed by her appearance. She had been the girl with the Farrah Fawcett hair everyone wanted in HS/jr high. Her twin brother shared this info with me. The other sad story was that the boy I secretly loved throughout grade school was drug addicted and living in a park. </p>
<p>Overall it was nice to reconnect with that part of my life. My HS class shared a history of some great things and some not so great things.</p>