High School Reunions

Never been and never will--I didn't like 99% of those people 50 years ago and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't now. Besides, a trip all the way across the US to attend it is a priority so low as to be non-existent.

What’s up, OP? Tell us what happened.

What a great thread. 😒

They canceled our 25th and 30th reunion due to lack of response. My class was very strange, though. The HS opened 4 years previously with 1 freshman class; no other classes. The next year, that group became sophomores & a new group became freshmen, but the was no junior or senior class.

Eventually the first freshman class became seniors when my class came in as freshman. So my class made the school 100% occupied, but all of the teachers and administrators were obsessed with the senior class, which was the very first graduating class. They had all kinds of fanfare for the first graduating class and were completely uninterested in my freshman class. The teachers and administrators didn't know what to do with us. So they did nothing. No one bothered to try to learn our names. So we aren't exactly the most rah-rah class. We were as indifferent to them as they were to us, so we just kind of floated through 4 years, shrugging our shoulders.

I went to my 5 year reunion, and that was it. I won't go again. We had our 10 yr last Fall, and I skipped it, and plan on skipping all others. My best friend from HS died in a car accident a few years ago, so I'm sure in the hell not going now. I was actually well liked in HS, in clubs, all that stupid shit, but I never gave a shit about those people.

Wish I'd talked to you before I went, R2. This was my 50th, so somehow I thought it would be a good thing to go. Back in high school I was a big cheese - was editor of the yearbook, newspaper and literary magazine, (all of which were chock full of my own work :) and I always sort of had the position of the "historian" of the group. To this day I can remember every single name of not just our class, but the classes three years ahead and behind us, as well as every faculty member. (Granted, it was a small school - we only had 66 in our class, but I just have a good head for names and faces)

Anyway, it was to be held at a local country club, so I figured how bad could it be? We had the smallest room in the joint, way too small for the size of the crowd. The room we should have had was empty and available. The tables were crammed together, making it difficult to circulate throughout the room. Despite the $40 per person cost, there was the forbidden DL CASH BAR! There was one of those awful "photo booth" things crammed into one corner, with those stupid frames and things on sticks like mustaches and crowns that you were supposed to use for "funny" pictures. The food was a BUFFET line (not that the waiters could have gotten through those tight tables) and it was mediocre at best - it was an "Italian buffet" - lukewarm pasta, meatballs, tortellini salad, and pathetic little chicken parm sandwiches. Dessert, which we'd been told was tiramisu, somehow ended up as chocolate chip cookies. Ghastly. We have only had three deaths in the class, but there was a shrine set up just outside the room with each person's 8x11 senior portrait flanked by red roses and votive candles. One poor woman who is evidently on a liver transplant list showed up in a wheelchair looking very VERY ill - she was immediately rushed into the "photo booth" where a cheap CROWN was placed on her head and a feather boa draped around her neck, and everyone rushed to take photos with her.

About a half hour in, while listening to someone I considered a friend,(getting progressively shitfaced on this nasty red wine they served and blathering away with all kinds of made up half truths about incidents from the past) I started to feel like I had dropped in from another galaxy. The souvenir was a cheap looking red thermal cup with a plastic lid that had the school's initials, (not the full name) and "50 yr reunion" laser printed on it. It looked like one of those corporate travel mugs you get. I did not take one, although now I wish I had, so I could have peed in it and thrown in out the car window on the way home.

Today there is a Catholic Mass scheduled at the school at 5 pm. I had already declined this event, as I would rather poke chopsticks in my eyes than attend this. The school has very limited parking and sits on top of a high hill; this Mass includes every other class that graduated with a year ending in 8, so a crowd of literally hundreds is expected. Severe thunderstorms, rain and hail are expected at the 5 pm hour and all evening. If you don't get one of the fifty or so parking spaces on the school grounds, you have to park in a lot across the street and about a half mile away, and then start the climb up that hill.

Tomorrow there is a "farewell brunch" scheduled for 11am at the same country club. The whole thing was a tacky and disorganized mess. I shouldn't let it aggravate me this much, but it's going to take a fucking week to shake this off.

Thank God for the friendly confines of DL and for allowing me this long rant. And take my advice and SKIP your high school "reunions!!"

Anyway

Too many assholes in my class. I’ve gone to a few, but it’s not especially interesting to watch aging jocks get drunk and vomit. That’s Wisconsin for you.

That was me at R6.

People who are perpetually stuck in high school are boring.

I didn’t go to any of mine for many of the same reasons stated above. Glad I followed my instincts and avoided it.

OP, I loved your description. I was never tempted to go to one. I know people for whom that was the pinnacle of their lives! Pathetic.

My 20th was a lot of fun, but went last year to my 35th and it was kind of dismal: many of them look like crap. But I accomplished what I set out to do which was take my gay self and gay husband and show up. Nobody gave us any problems.

Of course you won’t go if they are all doing better than you

None of them will ever top C. Estes Kefauver's.

OMG, THANK YOU, R14!! I have that book and am going to go dig it out now! Just thinking about it makes me feel 1000% better!

"Dicta" = Communist "Tatership" = Torture

Amanda "Fridge" Pepperidge! Purdy Spackle! "Wobbles!"

I actually loved my twentieth. Hubby and I were by far the most popular people there, and we looked about ten years younger than most everyone else (especially the men)

I didn't even go to the graduation ceremony with those assholes, so why would I spend $ to fly back for reunions? I visit my friends when I go back for vacation, but have no interest in seeing anyone else from that shithole school.

I'm "friends" with a few people on FB, and man, they look old. They posted pictures of the last reunion....no thanks.

I liked my 20th and still live in the area- it was fun. Not sure about the next though. They had an entire weekend of events, Sunday was family day at the beach. Skipped that.

r15 Chuck U. Farley

I’m fat and single and have an unremarkable job so I have no interest in giving my haters fuel to hate on me even more. Bleh.

[quote]Despite the $40 per person cost, there was the forbidden DL CASH BAR!

40 fucking dollars would never cover an open bar you fucking rube. That should have been your first clue. $40 for a class reunion? I’d expect hot dogs and a paper cup of warm juice.

I would only go if I had a slutty young twink on my arm, such as Tom Daley.

R23 There are plenty for hire.

When I visit my parents I drive past my high school and still get the chills. The school motto should have been: "No one here gets out alive."

Yet one more reason I hate Facebook. My HS class is all over it. Adorable teachers too! Painful.

[quote] [R23] There are plenty for hire.

Omg, at my HS reunion this guy Ed - who never had a gf - showed up with an obvious hooker. Bleached hair, kohl eyes, black mini outfit she was bursting out of. Nobody wanted to sit near them. I went over and said hello and chatted for a few minutes because the whole thing looked so painful I just couldn't let the guy sit there with everyone side-eying him and his "wife."

I suppose there is a reunion next year. Didn't like those people in the first place and haven't encountered any of them in my life since. I didn't even bother to buy a yearbook. Going to a reunion now would be no different then being in a room with any 300 random strangers. Pointless.

I went to mine but it was really weird. My Spanish teacher was now a Jewish woman pretending to be Italian and our Ko-rean exchange student looked very different. Then had a heart attack in front of all of us. This other woman lost her husband in a tar pit.

R14 I owe you a debt I can never repay! I am screaming with laughter over the 1964 KALEIDOSCOPE! Forrest Swisher! Faun Rosenberg! Dead Howie Havermeyer! Dead JFK!

Once again, THANKS!!!!

[r14] I also have that National Lampoon Yearbook. I graduated in 1963. Still laugh thinking about the class pictures. Rocco Vaselineo!

Ours was good.

I would love to go to a class reunion so I could put arsenic in the punch bowl.

I went to a friends 40th last year and had a good time. There was a trans person there. I wonder how common trans is.

My 40th is this Summer. I’m not going, nor have been to any before. I have a twin, and she still lives in my hometown, and is going. She seems to know everybody.

Marry me, r29!

I recall receiving an invitation to my 25th Anniverary reunion. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided not to go. High school was okay for me, and I had several friends that would have bene nice to see, but I decided against it. These type of events are a total crap shoot as to how they turn out, and I wouldn't want to experience a bad renunion and have that be my lasting memories of my high school days. I prefer to remember my classmates as I left them on graduation day.

R21, you’re special to us.

Mundane job, belly and all!

Luv ya!

I was only at the high school I graduated from for 1 1/2 years, so I never really made any good friends during that time. I'd never go to a reunion. We had our 25th reunion a couple years ago. I looked at the pictures on Facebook. The people who seemed to be enjoying themselves went to that school from 7th through 12th grade, so they all knew each other pretty well. I just can't imagine going back for that. I had a couple people I knew ask me to come, but I live far away now, and like someone wrote upthread, I can't justify the cost of going to a reunion, especially to hang out with people I barely knew during those 1 1/2 years.

My brother went to his 30th reunion, though, and had a good time, but he stayed at the same high school throughout and went to school with some of those kids since grade school. He and his wife had a good time. He understood why I wouldn't go to mine, though. He said after the 30th reunion, he got notices for his 35th and he won't go. Once was enough.

Three of my high school friends called me from the 30th reunion last summer. I don't know why they thought I would care about the event, but I made nice with them for a few minutes before returning to my dinner companions. Like some one else said further up, I find it sort of pathetic that people are still rehashing high school 30 years later. They definitely were NOT the best years of my life and I feel sad for my friends that the reunion was more exciting to them than anything they'd done recently.

Most of my class was either redneck, jew or jewish redneck- awful group of nasty assholes. Wtf

My cousin was in the National Lampoon Year book -- the authors went to his high school and basically decided who would be whom, based on photos they took. The kids had a blast. My cousin, who's totally preppy and very smart, was cast as a greaser type.

I’ve never been tempted to even think about going, fuck those people!

Cool, R41!! Was he Dominic Xavier Broccoli or Vincent Anthony Lambretta?

I had completely forgotten what a fucking work of genius this thing is - it has COMPLETELY snapped me out of my funk!

The SAR has been great help in my genealogy research.

I've decided to go to the brunch tomorrow (after all, I paid for it too - another $25) but in my mind I will be appearing as Chuck U. Farley!!! Will keep you posted.

Shoving bamboo shoots under my fingernails sounds like more fun than attending a high school reunion. Never went to one, my 50th should be coming up soon, I hope they are unable to locate me if they even bother to have one. I enjoyed high school, but left the city a couple of years later and never went back. There were over 350 people in my graduating class, I would have trouble remembering more than 20 of their names. Saw pictures from the 30th reunion and I couldn't even recognize people who had been good friends.

I finally got into the pants of the class jock. Still a great body.

Hated high school so much I graduated early just to get out of there. Less than zero desire to see any one of the 600+ people in my graduating class.

All these people who graduted 40-50 years ago and they are still damaged by it. Wow.

*graduated

When I came across my yearbooks a few years ago they went in the recycle bin.

50 years? Yikes.

I went to my 5-year and most people got very drunk as you would expect 22-23 year olds to do. I went to my 10 year but honestly remember nothing about it. At my 20 year in 2000, all the gays were out of the closet and we all hung together talking about which straight classmates we blew or made out with in high school, some in college. I got stoned in a hotel room with old friends and went back to the ballroom in a truthful mood. I told several people how much I had admired them in school and a couple how bitchy they were. Good fun!

I haven't been to another one.

I've never bothered because the few people i got on with I have stayed in contact with anyway and I don't even remember anyone else. Those people are only strangers I was forced to spend time with because I legally had to attend high school.

I love my high school reunions! It's only the nice people who show up, because all the bitter meanies don't want to socialize.

Mmm I think it’s the other way round^

I threw out my yearbooks too.

I recommend not going until your 25th. In my experience, it's only then that the women stop dressing up in gowns and people stop boasting. Even after then the same cliques stick together: but if you think about it, they were friends back then, so why not be friends again 25 years later?

The only people who go to reunions are people who lived for high school after high school, people trying to prove something and people who think/say their high school years were their best years.

Three sad and pathetic groups.

Any hot lesbian action at reunions?

I never went to any but my buddy went his 25th at some hotel and hooked up with the former class jock quarterback. Said the QB was really into rimming. Make of that what you will.

Nope.

Skipped both 10th and 20th. 25th coming up next year.

Actually no one even bothered trying to contact me for 20th like they had for the 10th. Facebooked one of the very few friends I have from high school and we joked that we weren't "the cool kids."

First two years of high school were a living hell but the final two were great. I have no love or hate for any of it. Just indifference.

My 25th would have been last year. I've never gone to any.

When I was in my 20s, I dated someone 12 years older and went with him to his 20th reunion. My stepbrother had died in a car accident and I came right from the funeral. My bf was mingling and I was with his former friends at a table. One of them started picking on my suit (plain black) and insulting me. It was strange, awkward and discouraged me from ever going to my own.

After his asshole friend shut up, I went and slept in the car until it was time to leave.

Well, the brunch wasn't too bad; it was held in the room we should have had Friday evening. Food was much better, but you can't really fuck up breakfast too much. Talked to several people about the affair at the school, and they all complained about how long the Mass dragged on, after which there were several speakers (!!) including the principal, the "development director", and some other people, all strong arming everyone for donations. This from a high school that costs $13K a year - for starters!! They were also told they could "adopt" a scholarship student in order to pay the "mandatory" fees, which run an additional $3 - 5K - these are for things like sports, a class ring, and other various activities.

I am SO RELIEVED this is over! It was all I could do not to tell people to take a good look now because they will never see me again!! Oh, and a fucking GOLF BALL hit the hood of my car as I was parking - fortunately it was far enough away that it didn't do any damage.

MORAL: The past is THE PAST and should be left there where it belongs!

I think you should adopt a hot gay scholarship student.

[quote]One poor woman who is evidently on a liver transplant list showed up in a wheelchair looking very VERY ill - she was immediately rushed into the "photo booth" where a cheap CROWN was placed on her head and a feather boa draped around her neck, and everyone rushed to take photos with her.

Hilarious, R6!

[quote] all strong arming everyone for donations.

You should have referred them to the NRA scholarship program.

I don't know if my class even has them.

I did no go to mine. Who cares about high school? I was happy to move on with my life, and my high school experience wasn't even bad.

And yes r59, the segment of people obsessed with high school as if it was the peak of their life are just sad.

My 40th will be in 2022. Be interesting as I know a number have died and there were a few of us who made it good. About 8 years ago they published an alumni directory - friends of mine were retail workers, others of us in I.T., Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians etc.

Facebook has kind of made them obsolete.

I don't keep in touch with people from high school, it is better left in the past.

Yeah Facebook killed my interest in reunions. After seeing how many of the people I went to school with were still born and bred right wingers with a small town mindset (even if they moved to a big city) I decided I’d rather go on vacation to Hawaii. Now with the Cult of Trump you might end up gay bashed or dead.

That National Lampoon Yearbook has a teacher named "Dwight Mansburden". Decades later, it finally came to me what his name was spoofing - and I read Rudyard Kipling!

What r73 said. Why would anyone want to hang out with a bunch of Repigs who vote against us?

R70 My 40th will be in 2020, also. I graduated with 60 others. Of the 61 graduates, 42 of us went K through 12 together in our small town. Hell, I graduated with three first cousins.

I attended the 10 and 20 year reunions, the latter of which I took my (now) husband. The 10-year was a cook out/bonfire affair at the town park on Saturday evening, followed by hours of drinking and reminiscing. I do not remember how I got to the hotel room, but I awakened the next afternoon smelling of firewood and smoke. I overslept the morning breakfast and drove to the airport hungover and almost missed my flight.

The 20-year was at a country club one of my classmates owned. That was the one at which the divide between hard life and easier life became apparent. All but six graduates showed up and we had a really nice dinner and open bar. I skipped the golf but managed to get up for the Sunday brunch. Our school was so small that there were not really dramatic cliques -- we all played sports, were in the band, student groups. If anything drove wedges between us, it was that some kids did the vocational classes in 11th and 12th grade and others did the college-prep. But we still had core classes and lunches together. Of the 61 in my class, two have died and seven of us are gay/lesbian.

The only unpleasantness I have experienced with regard to my HS graduating class was last summer when I went home for a week and ran into a few classmates at a town festival. One of them owned a big house in the country and contacted 20 members of our class (the ones who are still local) to come over for appetizers and drinks one night that week. The (nonnative) wife of one of our classmates expressed her disgust at my being gay. All of my classmates went silent and turned toward me. I blithely gave a retort that shut her up, embarrassed her husband, and got a big laugh from everybody else.

So I guess it depends on a variety of factors whether one should participate, or not. I actually enjoy seeing my old friends at these gatherings; except for a couple cousins, I do not really keep in touch with them. After all, we spent the first 18 years of our lives with each other -- youth groups, camp, sports, school, puberty, first kisses, first sexual experiences, etc. -- so no matter what, we are intertwined with each other forever. I feel sad for people who were tormented in high school. I used to feel inadequate because I went to a small, public school in BFE, but those feelings have faded and now I am happy that I am from where I am from, and, of course, that I no longer live there.

The names in the NatLamp yearbook were a scream, especially the ones in the underclassmen pages. I distinctly remember Bessie Mae Mucho and Hedda A. Borshun.

There were nearly 500 people in my graduating class and I was only at the high school (and town) for a year and a half. And I moved away after graduation, so there's just no reason for me to return. I didn't bother to keep in touch with any of them and I'm an introvert, so I've never even felt remotely tempted to attend.

I didn't have any real problems in high school, no bullying, no humilation, but I attended three different high schools (military brat), so I also didn't make any real connections.

They had a real push at the 25th reunion a few years back, apparently, as I got two letters in the mail asking me if I was who they were hoping I was and urging me to attend. I didn't reply and I didn't attend.

Meh. They’re just ok. Can be exciting in the moment, but the afterglow fades quickly.

My sister went to her 10 year reunion with her husband. He insisted on being introduced as our brother, Frank. Frank was 6’ tall and skinny. BIL was maybe 5’ 8” tall and 220 lbs. Then he told some random chick that he used to look in her window when she was dressing. They had fun.

My husband went with old childhood friend, they shared a hotel room. His friend hooked up with one of the class sluts in the hotel room, I shit you not, they had an argument about it while they were fooling around. Ahhhhh, reunions.....so sweet.

Well, what was the retort, r76?

I’m rubber, you’re glue.....

R82 She said something, like, Gay men are diseased and all of you die young because of your lifestyles.

I flatly said that her husband seemed strangely healthy, despite the fact that we sucked each other off more than once in high school.

HA!!! Wish I was there to see her face.

Ironically, I never messed around with the two other male classmates who came out after high school. I did have sex with three straight guys in my class, all of whom now are married and have adult children some of whom have children, including the guy whose wife was cunty to me. I scored a lot with older boys in high school.

There is a thing in my hometown now for several years' worth of classes to have one big shindig. Now THAT might be interesting!

I saw photos a friend took at our 20th and that confirmed I would never attend one. People looked so old and faded and boring compared to the teen versions I remembered. Most people have pretty lame lives. How are these people we went to high school with any different than the people we see at the office day in and day out? So depressing.