<p>I went to my 30th several years ago. There were only 28 in my graduating class (very small private school) so we ReU with the classes of 70-75. Anyway, I couldn’t believe how many of the popular girls were now gray and dowdy. I, OTOH, got so many compliments my head almost exploded. They voted me Most Improved! I’m convinced if flat irons had been invented by then my life in HS would have been way better. ;)</p>
<p>As for the men, most were fat and bald. The high school quarterback and BMOC had to have weighed at least 350.</p>
<p>Emilybee, that is great, its so nice to get that kind of affirmation!
As to the Flat Irons I have a love/hate relationship, I have curly hair as does my entire family and for the most part we like it, look good in it, etc. BUT, sometime I go to get my haircut i decide to let them straighten it and I come back and everyone goes OH MY GOD YOUR HAIR LOOKS SO GOOD! It makes me feel like it looks like crap the rest of the time. As for me doing it myself, takes too long and I never get the same results! </p>
<p>PS In High School I blow-dried straight and slept with bandana’s to get my hair straight and god forbid it rained or I got sweaty then it was frizz city…needless to say I avoided all sports just on account of my hair…sad!</p>
<p>I went to my 20th h.s. reunion (class size about 250) years ago and had a blast. My BFF’s did not come, but I kept on running into people who wanted to talk and I don’t think I ever got to eat my dinner. One of the two highlights was a mini-gathering of about 18 folks who I went to grammar school with (even though some of them did not continue on to our high school). Just fun to see them and take pics. </p>
<p>But my dirty dark secret (and the most fun) was indulging my twisted sense of humor (which was mostly hidden from my peers in h.s.- I am pretty sure they mostly saw me as the serious humorless drudge A student). Well, two friends from h.s. brought their husbands. And the guys complained that every time someone walked by they would check out the name tag that indicated they were not a class member and the people would ignore them and keep walking by. They ended up “holding up the wall” much of the time. So I took both of them out to the name tag collection and swapped their’s for classmates’ that did not come. One of the guys chickened out pretty quickly, but the other guy and I made hour long circuits of the room talking to folks with him making up a whole new life. It was really, really funny (especially seeing him deal with “remember when” and spin tales about what he was now doing). I don’t think my h.s. friend’s husband will ever forget me/the reunion. Unfortunately my class did not have a 30th nor is it likely we will have a 40th, if I could guess.</p>
<p>Emily: Congrats on your triumph. The flat iron is a godsend. In HS, I slept with my long wavy hair in huge curlers on top of my head to make it straight but turned under at the ends.</p>
<p>2ED and BI: Enjoy your meet-up (and your sons)!</p>
<p>We were just talking about this over the weekend at the soccer fields (my home away from home).</p>
<p>I have very curly hair and growing up in the same time period you are talking about that was the last thing anyone wanted! Oh if there had been hair irons like today! My hair would have been impossible to try and keep straight so after trying for a while I gave up and accepted it as it was-and to this day now I don’t give much thought to what my hair looks like-what freedom!</p>
<p>Isn’t the grass always greener. I used to sleep in braids and pay a ton for spiral perms (oh yes, the 80’s!). Then I tortured my hair with flat irons. I now accept the fact that it’s not straight, or wavy, slightly frizzy, just funky, and takes a blow dry and fat iron to look presentable. A pony tail even at my age smooths out most ills. My girlfriends get that brazilian blow out to keep away the frizzies but I’m too chicken.</p>
<p>Kinder - That reunion sounds like a crack up. ID theft! Too Funny! :D</p>
<p>kinder–that is hilarious. “I’m an astronaut/cowboy/millionaire now!”</p>
<p>DS seems to be past his communication moratorium–he’s been in touch by email and Facebook with me and also DH and seems to be settled in. I saw on his school’s FB page that he’d answered the question “What are you going to dress as for Halloween?” with “Overly cynical liberal arts college student” so I guess it’s good that he self-identifies as a college student! I can stop waiting for that “Get me out of here” call (I hope).</p>
<p>I’ve never gone to a high school reunion; my BF throughout most of HS (we broke up my first year of college) went to another school and I really hung out with his friends more than mine (a story in and of itself). But I hear about my classmates b/c - small world - one of them married one of my sisters (he was also our next door neighbor)!<br>
Actually, no surprises that I’m aware of, but I can relate to the hair saga. I’ve always had impossibly straight hair that refuses to do anything but lay flat for more than an hour. I’ve pined for wavy, interesting hair while my friends slept with their hair wrapped in orange juice cans and spent countless hours trying to blow dry their hair to straighten it. Fortunately long, straight hair was in style but I was firmly in the “grass is always greener” camp and wanted something different. We have a “landmark” reunion coming up, which I will hear about from my BIL who regularly attends, with my sister.</p>
<p>I’ve never gone to one of my hs reunions. I graduated from a big high school – 800+ in my graduating class – and even if 100 people showed up, there’s a chance I wouldn’t know any of them. My husband has never gone to any of his either, so I’ve been spared.</p>
<p>As for hair, my hair reacts to the weather…bumpy, wavy, ugh! I use a flat iron now, but if it’s humid…watch out…here come the waves. I remember going to bed with tape on my bangs to keep them straight when I was in high school.</p>
<p>Certainly at my reunion some of them also had help from “Miss Botox”, “Miss Laser Treatment” and in a few cases, “Miss Plastic Surgeon” , haha! :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I love that story! There’s something about high school reunions that brings out the mischievous nature in people, maybe because we’re all reminiscing about crazier times.</p>
<p>Mark me down as a “permer”, I was never happy with my stick straight hair in high school, it appears we all wanted whatever we couldn’t have!</p>
<p>Yalemom/EAO yes it is wonderful that Miss Clariol, Botox and such can help those who partake fighting those signs of over aging too soon…
frankly I think almost every woman I know colors her hair now…until they get totally gray and in their 70s+…Some have gorgeous silver or white–and it looks stunning. Better than what my mom calls her natural “dead rat” color… </p>
<p>Kinder–that reunion fun is very cool!</p>
<p>As for hair…to control frizz and disobedient hari in the 70s I tried creme relaxers, int he 80s tried perms, in the 90s lots of gel…now I am a flat iron girl.
Like you EAO–sports and frizz don’t go together…I even dropped UNC Chapel Hill as a possible college becauseback then they required swimming and I didn’t want to be in a pool daily and all of the stress of being ready for class… ;)</p>
<p>She had given my sister and I strict instructions that if she ever needs to go into a nursing home we must make sure she gets her hair done once a week. We also have been instructed not to have her funeral on a Tuesday - it’s her golf league day and the ladies don’t like anything interfering with that.</p>
<p>My hair was perfect for the seventies - stick straight. I would go straight from shower to home room with it still slightly damp. One year I succumbed to the Farrah Fawcett look, cut it and did the sides flip, but that was short lived. I went to our thirty year reunion and found it very difficult to recognize people. I had not gone to earlier ones and moved out of town soon after HS, as did my parents. None of us women had that long straight hair and everyone pretty much colored their hair and with the extra thirty pounds, it was just weird. At my husbands, they always do those name tags with the little HS picture on them which really helped. Strangely enough, most people recognized me and said I hadn’t changed.</p>
<p>We’re leaving to go to family weekend in Vermont tomorrow. My husband has decided to join me - yay! I talked to my son a little while ago and asked him if he needed me to bring anything. “Yes”, he replied as I got out my paper and pencil, “I need my nerf gun and lots of nerf bullets. They play this game here called Humans vs. Zombies and I need a weapon.” Small world, eh?</p>
<p>Bawahhhhhaaaa Emilybee…love that about her ladies golf day and Tuesday!</p>
<p>My grandmother–is 92 next month and colors her hair. She went gray before 20 so it’s been her thing forever. She was the “modern” grandmother–dressed simply, yet up to date. Better on good day dress than 2 cheap ones is her mantra. </p>
<p>My mom (a cancer patient) has had her hair various colors from blonds, to reds…Recent treatment has her hair very short and sassy…she doesn’t like the “dead rat” color yet it was too fragile to color the vibrant red she had been sporting in recent years.</p>
<p>Kathie–a friend from the class of 81–had dark dark brown hair and was a little full figured years ago, Her recent pics–BLOND and much slimmer…she looks amazing though I bet in her natural shade or warm browns she’d look good. May have gone blond to combat silver/grays. I know I do!</p>
<p>Just got a nice picture from D1 showing trees with fall colors. It really is beautiful.</p>
<p>Now I want to go to my next high school reunion just so I can deploy emilybee’s strategy. </p>
<p>Yesterday was Take Money From My Kids Day. Remember back in the summer when many of our offspring were buying new Mac laptops that came with a rebate offer for $100 at the Apple App/iTunes/etc store? I gave one copy of the receipt to D1 and told her that the rebate was hers if she’d get it filled out and submitted. The summer goes by, and no rebate is sent out. She goes off to school–no rebate is submitted. It drifted up to the top of my list, so I sent one last text asking her if she was going to fill it out or if I should give up hope. :mad: So, I went into her room, found the box (huzzah!), found the other copy of the receipt in my files (huzzah!), and found out that I still had a week to get the thing submitted (angels sing!). New rule: if I pay for it, I get the rebate. If you pay for it and you want to blow off the rebate and waste your own money, that’s your call. </p>
<p>I also transferred money from her savings account to mine to reimburse me for the initial startup funding of her checking account. The teller couldn’t believe it when I said I wanted to transfer money from my child’s account to my account. </p>
<p>Finally, after a year of suggesting to D2 that she put some no-longer-used pet equipment up for sale on craigslist and pocket the proceeds, I got tired of it taking up room in the garage and listed it myself. Got an offer pretty much immediately. D2 asked if she could have the money. :rolleyes: </p>
<p>I should make Take Money From My Kids Day a more frequent holiday. ;)</p>
<p>(Based on kids touching down at home on the Wednesday before TG. Some kids may get the full week and will land at home sooner.)</p>
<p>Sorry for the late post today but I had a meeting first thing this morning and even missed the coffee. But I did get my hair dry after my shower and am having a good hair day! :D</p>
<p>Fun hearing the “hair” stories. I have fuzzy hair, too - my H calls it “itchogenic” (to him, not to me!). I did hate it as a younger teen during those “long and straight” years, and tried everything to keep it under control. But it has its positives - I am easy to find, I hear (except at Irish Dance competitions, we found out), and I really don’t have to think about it much, just shower, towel it and go. I don’t even mind the way it is graying; I think it’s kind of fun.</p>
<p>Trip to NYC is pretty much all set and planned - a nice mix of seeing her life at school, which she seems very excited now to show me! - and time in the city to see plays, etc. She even texted me last night that Saturday’s rehearsal got cancelled, so we have some extra time.</p>
<p>I’m just hoping the weather is a bit better than it is here - very raw and gray these past few days. Brrr!</p>
<p>All the hair comments make me laugh! I’m another one with thick, frizzy/curly hair and was miserable during the Twiggy days. I grew it long and kept it trapped in braids or in a bun, except when I was dressing up as Cousin It for Halloween. After graduation, I cut it all off (ah, the magic of a little wine and a little smoke when one is 22 and innocent!) one night, and it has been super short ever since. Now that I’m hitting menopause, my hair is straightening out. I don’t color it, but pretty soon I think I <em>will</em> need to buy a comb.</p>
</p>
</p>