<p>Emerald…you had your 30th HIGH SCHOOL reunion in 1975? Hmmm…that would make you 82 years old.</p>
<p>well ya know I am dyslexic 
but I look * really good* for 82 doncha think?</p>
<p>I went to both my “official” 30th and casual one this past summer. It’s the same small all girls school my daughter graduated from last year, so going back was not that special. We were both ready to be finished with it. If I had known how different the school was from when I attended she would never have gone there. </p>
<p>Anyway, I have not really kept in touch with anyone from my time, except for the others whose daughter’s were there when mine was. I went to the reunions to see if I was missing out on any possible friendships/acquaintances. I wasn’t. </p>
<p>However, I’m glad I went, because if I hadn’t I’d still be wondering what I might have missed. Plus, the school is only a mile away.</p>
<p>I went to my 30th a few years ago and enjoyed it. Although I guess some people mentioned what they were doing for a living, a lot of the talk was about our kids and applying to colleges, vacations and things you would talk about with any new person. We really didn’t talk that much about the good old days.</p>
<p>I went to my 20th, which was OK. I am not planning to attend my 30th this year. I am not that interested in most of my former classmates. I do keep up with a few old friends from HS (no Facebook for me!)</p>
<p>I went to my 20th, missed the 30th. I had a pretty good time at the 20th, much of it talking to people I didn’t know all that well in high school. I noticed that all the women looked great–I do think that those who didn’t look so good didn’t show up. I don’t think that affected the attendance of the men (although I was proud of my luxuriant head of hair, compared to many of them). By the 30th, I can’t imagine that appearance would matter quite so much.</p>
<p>I’ve been to most of mine and I really enjoyed it. But I went to a day/boarding prep school in the ‘urge to merge’ days of going coed. The reunions are run by the school, held on campus as a long weekend of events and it’s really sort of fun. </p>
<p>At my last one, I was talking to a friend from my class, who introduced me to his father 25 classes ahead us, and his younger sister 10 classes behind us … it’s really sort of a community celebration.</p>
<p>I did go to my 30th–it was the only one I ever went to and it combined the classes just above and below my own, which had some nice people in them (smallish high school so we all knew each other to some extent). It was actually fun. Some people were a lot nicer to me than they were when we were all in high school; I think they didn’t even remember the kinds of divisions that existed so much in my mind in those days. Not a time for deep or meaningful conversations, just to see how people turned out, and a general warm feeling of having come from a real town with a real sense of itself.</p>
<p>However, I would not go again and am not sorry I skipped the earlier ones; this one was just right–it is a number of years ago now. And as a frivolous aside I actually looked quite good for my age at the time of reunion–not glamorous but good hair, good haircut, nice suburban-mom clothes, so I felt comfortable about showing up in that mean, superficial sense, as well as having the slightly less superficial husband/children/interesting part-time job to talk about if asked.</p>
<p>Bottom line: if you don’t feel like going, don’t go. Reunions are meant to be good experiences and if there is stress or annoyance involved there is no point.</p>
<p>I just skipped my 30th. Went to the 10th and found few people willing to talk - they were busy with their closest friends. None of my close friends were there. Honestly, it was a very slender, good looking, well dressed, white crowd. The cost of these gatherings can discourage attendance, I think. It was interesting to see people. Now that they’ve posted photos from this last reunion, I really don’t recognize most of the people, and it seems that some of the big deals from HS were not present, and ‘lesser stars’ were very prominent. It’s interesting, anyway. People should go to at least one reunion, I think.</p>
<p>I wonder, in the era of easy maintenance of connections via Facebook, whether reunions will be as important?</p>
<p>By the 30th, I can’t imagine that appearance would matter quite so much.</p>
<p>That is the kind of remark that could result in injury! :)</p>
<p>Remember - I am thinking about going to my 40th!</p>
<p>I thought it was very comforting to find that everyone looked older and fatter, especially the guys. Even the women that was the head cheerleader had aged - yay! Frankly, it was hard to recognize most people. When I graduated 34 years ago we all had long straight hair but at the 30th there was great diversity in the hair style’s and the colors, that also made it harder to recognize people.</p>
<p>One reason I don’t go to reunions is that too many people I know who do go to them always seem to come back and report on how other people look, and seem to be pleased when others don’t look as good as they think they do.</p>
<p>
All I’m saying is that if only the thin, fit people show up for the 30th (or the 40th, even more so), they can have the reunion (for my high school, anyway) in one booth at the Dixie Pig.</p>
<p>Lol!</p>
<p>Maybe I * should * go just to see how many would fit in the booth.</p>
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<p>I have gone to my 25 and 35 year class reunions. I have changed, but then so have many others. I find it fun to hear their many stories.</p>
<p>I saw the most gorgeous man at my 25th and I couldn’t figure out who he was (think Sam Elliot). I guess I must have been staring, because he came up to me and ask me if I figured out who he was. “I’m still working on it.” He told me to think of the dorkiest senior photo in the whole yearbook. “Oh my heck, you’re XXX?!!!” (The photo was so bad that it was that memorable, even after 25 years.)</p>
<p>Oh to have been a woman with foresight and seen his potential in those dorky high school years…</p>
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<p>I married my high school’s version of that boy. Man, what a picture - outrageous 70’s bushy hair that filled up the photo. Somehow the wide purple tie didn’t help things. Thirty-seven years later he is the best looking man I know…yet he doesn’t know it. Yep, he was a keeper.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I would like to be honest here w/o giving away too many identifying details. </p>
<p>I dated one person all through high school, into college. For almost 6 years. As you would predict, we went our separate ways at some point. He married, so did I. I got divorced and remarried, very happily. I even told my DH when I first met him that he reminded me so much of someone I cherished as a friend. A couple of years later, former beau divorced, remarried. </p>
<p>We run into each other occasionally and we get along very well. We are relaxed and comfortable, truly still good friends. He has remained close to most of our HS friends, I have not. </p>
<p>I have no romantic ideas about this man. Not one. I do think, however, it would be awkward being with a whole group of HS people at a reunion. Maybe I am being overly sensitive, but I think my totally confident, non-jealous DH would not be real comfortable. </p>
<p>So, if I am honest, that is why I have avoided going. Silly, maybe. You’d think after 40 years it wouldn’t matter (I mean first of all we don’t have to worry about how we look), but I am not sure it would be an enjoyable nite for DH or for me.</p>
<p>Why should it bother DH? He was the ultimate winner!</p>
<p>There was a boy at my HS who was the prototypical nerd – tall, skinny, big Coke-bottle glasses. I saw him about 18 months after we graduated and, wow, what a difference. The one thing he did was get contacts, but I think that was enough to change the whole way he carried himself. He not only looked better physically, but he just projected more confidence. I was still dating my HS boyfriend so I didnt’ make a move ;)</p>
<p>I remember at my 10-year reunion a couple of tall, lanky guys who I did think had adorable potential in HS (why was I always dating someone in HS?!?!) had turned out as cute as I figured they would. One became a firefighter so was built amazingly; both were still so sweet 10 years later.</p>
<p>I do think Facebook has taken away much of my desire to attend. The people I liked and want to find I can/did; the others, not so much. One of my favorite boy friends from HS just friended me a week ago. It was great to see pics of his surprisingly young family, learn he’s now in Atlanta. He wrote last night about how it’s been great to see my posts and how some things never change – how I’m still so bubbly, blah blah blah. That’s how I figure it would go at the reunion, but now I’ve saved myself the expense of getting there!</p>
<p>worknprogress, that opens a whole other can of worms. My long-time HS/college boyfriend keeps popping up on FB as a friend suggestion.</p>
<p>Ellen: Seen that “Survive the 70’s?” insurance ad with the bushy-haired guy with glasses? --could be H’s senior picture–class of '78. He’s really cute and bald now. (Glad I met him quite a few years after high school!)</p>
<p>workn–If it makes you uncomfortable with old boyfriend there, skip it. If there are other people you’d like to see, (and H trusts you) maybe go with a friend? Reunions are so boring for spouses. Will anyone miss you and wonder why you didn’t show up? </p>
<p>I went to 10th and 20th reunions. I wouldn’t have gone alone, but I have a twin sister who was in my class and still lives in the same town. Her kids go to the same high school.
Sis and I went to different colleges. Her (serious) high school boyfriend, “Dave” went to the same college as I did, and we were in small study abroad group together. Dave married a European girl he met that year. Well, they came to the 20th reunion (Sis and I came without our husbands). I ran into “Dave” in the lobby. OMG he had changed so much (from rail-thin to overweight, big fro to bald, horn-rimmed glasses to contacts, tenor voice to bass–after smoking for years).
My thought was not “Wow, Dave sure has changed!” It was “Why is THAT guy wearing DAVE’s nametag?!” Anyway, Sis and Dave spent most of the evening talking, and I was feeling sorry for his wife, whose English isn’t the greatest. Sort of rude of Sis, but everyone is happily married with no romantic interest. Overall, I was glad to see some old friends I knew in middle school (not so much in HS) and catch up with what they were doing. It was more “interesting” than “fun.” Oh, and I won the prize for most kids. LOL
30th is next year–I live far away, but if the reunion is at a convenient time of year, I will probably go if my twin goes. I really hated high school–I was a nerd, a nobody in a big school. I don’t look good or have anything to brag about, but I still think reunions are interesting.</p>