high school reunions

Class of over 500, and I have kept in close contact with only one classmate. I have a nodding acquaintance with a couple others via Facebook. My 40th was a few weeks ago, and I hadn’t gone to a reunion since I was sorry to attend my 10th. Several friends (not from my high school) encouraged me to go, saying that I might enjoy it.

I decided to attend a pre-reunion gathering at a restaurant/bar the evening before the reunion. It made me very happy that I didn’t invest the time, effort and money to commit to the reunion. The gathering was awkward from the word go … bros who have never progressed beyond their high school days of being in the cool group, women who are still reliving their cheerleader/homecoming court days. I left after a short time, going to a local restaurant where H & I had dinner at the bar and made friends with lovely people I had never met before in my life. It really drove home the point that I had no interest whatsoever in the folks at the reunion. After seeing pictures of the actual reunion, I knew I made a good call not to go. I later ran into one of my FB acquaintances at an event, and she told me she went but wished she hadn’t bothered.

Every school is different, though. I know people who had really good experiences at their reunions. You have to gauge it for yourself, based on your gut instinct. Personally, I found that 40 years wasn’t enough time to make it something I needed to subject myself to. YMMV.

My college reunions are a totally different story. I went to a reunion of friends from college who were all turning 60 this summer. I hadn’t been close to a number of them in school, but I thoroughly enjoyed talking with them at the reunion. I had a much better experience in college than I did in high school, and my peers in college were much more “like me” than those from high school.

My school’s reunion is always last weekend of May during Alumni Weekend. We have also had a few other alumni gatherings in Las Vegas organized by Steve Wynn. He put everyone up st the Bellagio but everything else attendees had to pay for. I never attended as I don’t do Vegas.

Not only is he not going to be doing that anymore - on my school’s wiki page he’s been removed from notable graduates list.

We also have a quarterly magazine with class notes - so it’s easy to know what’s happening in everyone’s life. The FB page is dominated by much younger alums.

@emilybee Is this college reunion alumni stuff as opposed to high school?

@sevmom,

No. This is my high school. It’s a private school.

OK I was confused because his bio says he went to a private boys school in NY and is 76 years old?

@sevmom, two schools merged in 1970 when I was freshman. It became co-ed because his school merged with my school (a coed school.) My graduating year was the last year it was a day school and a boarding school (the other school was a boarding school.)

Graduates of all 3 schools (there was a merger with my original school with another school in the 40’s, iirc.) are all considered alumni of the merged school.

1971 HS class of 270. I may have attended the 10th, not the 16th (they didn’t get around to a 15th, not surprising when your class song is “I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends”). That one was family centered (park events one day) at a time I was barely married and lived out of town. Went to the 25th alone since H was on call. Wish more people I hung out with in HS had attended- they are the ones I wanted to see. Went to another, more casual one for our 40th? That was basically a local nice bar area with appetizers- much easy to mingle. H had fun talking with several classmates he’d never met. I had moved away, first for many years of schooling, then a different instate city. Now far from WI- in Florida.

Courtesy of the internet I now get the emails about recurring local events. Recent one had a picture of a bunch who mainly stayed local but with a few from afar. So many look so old! My life was so divergent from theirs. I do intend to attend the 50th reunion and hope a lot of people do like for the 25th. Childhood was so long ago but so formative. Those are the people who know what you went through in school and community.

My undergrad college was not structured like HS where you would care about who started and ended when you did. Thought at that time my small group of close friends would want to get together 25 years later but we had scattered by then and kept up or not. btw- I loved my school, would never trade it for a small school. Too independent, reflecting the place.

My medical school class of 120 has its 40th reunion next spring. Had been to a couple. The school starts with the 10th (by then most/all done with training) and has a dinner for the five years with tables , photos et al. They give junky speeches trying to drum up donations. We ignore them. Medical school the first two years is intense with everyone in the same lectures before splitting up for clinical rotations. A lot of shared memories as in HS. For the 25th the school also offered a free dinner the next night- great to see people. I think we disappointed them by not being enthusiastic about bidding for a class photo. We were there to see friends, not donate! Have talked to a classmate friend who eventually became local and it seems as those who stayed in the area go much more.

For those not intending to go to a HS reunion. Please go for those (perhaps few) who would love to see you. Maybe because I am curious about people and want to know. I certainly left my childhood behind. The end of senior year people had matured enough to get beyond cliques- so much friendlier and able to look outside their own growing pains.

I grew up in Pittsburgh. Here is an example of a local guy who helped fund high school reunions and never forgot his roots and his hometown has not forgotten him. His dad worked in the steel mills and eventually became superintendent in the schools. He gave millions to the local community.
https://triblive.com/news/adminpage/10323166-74/campbell-valley-homestead
https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/postscript-bill-campbell-1940-2016

I like my hs reunions. I only attended 3, but I follow the FB pages for others and my friends go and let me know whatis happening.

For my college sorority, a small group started traveling to away football games a few years ago. We decided to have a ‘staycation’ about 3 years ago and went to a home game with few from OOS flying in, so about 12-15 of us. It became so popular that last year we had 40 (plus friends and spouses) from an original group of about 50. Demand is already there for another reunion next year and now some children are planning to come because we all have so much fun and they want in on it.

I find I enjoy talking to some who I was never friendly with in hs or college at the reunions. They are people I knew and maybe was in a class with but didn’t socialize with, yet we shared the same experiences and perhaps studied the same things in college or grad school.

Old friends are the best friend, IMO. First of all, you aren’t getting any more old friends. Secondly, they knew you when. So they know you in ways your “new” friends never will.

I’ve attended all my high school reunions. Everyone has been so nice to each other. I’m not sure how the 2020 reunion will unfold, given the great divide in philosophies (political) made public by former classmates on Facebook.

Some of those who stayed in our rural area use rhetoric and name-calling on fb that surprises me- not at which way they lean but at the way they engage online. Many who moved away seem to have opposite views. Hopefully the reunions continue on as before, where aside from politics, everyone genuinely cares for each other and is happy to catch up.

Our classes each have their own fb pages and they have been pretty depressing lately, focused on classmate deaths. I guess we are no longer spring chickens.

I have never attended any HS reunions due to distance, having young kids at the time., or schedule conflicts.I really hope to attend my 45th next year. The class started a FB page a few years ago and I have connected with several people.There is an informal lunch gathering several times a year, but I haven’t been back at the right times.