A High School class reunion...

When my brother passed away back in September, many of our old high school friends attended his services, including the captains of both the cheerleading and pom pom squads, the co-captain of my brother's football team and the captain of the basketball team. We drank and talked about old times, looked at photos of our children (mostly adults now), took pictures, (4 of the 5 original members of the 1973 Al Green Fan Club, Chicago branch, were in attendance!) and allowed ourselves to have a good time because my brother would have wanted nothing less. We're all turning 50 next year and have vowed to get together for a spa weekend or something.
Nothing like seeing old friends. Especially when you fall in step immediately and it seems like no time has passed at all.

When I went to my 20th reunion I realized I had nothing in common with my classmates. Neither back then or now.

I'm looking forward to my 45th college reunion next June. When I attended our 25th, I was amazed that people had matured, but not changed. Their/our characters had firmed without solidifying.

In my life I've had both situational friends and true friends--and many of the truest are women I met in college.

<giving away my age> I passed on my 10 year reunion. I hated high school and don't miss it and don't miss or wonder about very many of my class mates. I also don't like the person that I was at that age and have no desire to run into people who remember me as that person. Which means I probably should go to the next one -- for therapy.

I am so glad that you are having such a great time! My folks have been to every one of their class reunions and always had a ball. I have yet to attend one of mine and I don't know why. I actually have kept in touch with a few friends from way back then and it is very much like you expressed. Picking up like no time had passed hardly at all.

Enjoy!!

Noddy- I will bet that the first thing that you notice is that all the others look much older than you!

FreeDuck, I went to my 10th, it was interesting. I went with a friend I've had since H.S. (we've remained friends throughout) and knowing another good friend would be there, and expected to lurk in the corner with them and make sidelong sarcastic comments. It turned out to be really fun, though.

One of the first people I met was a bare acquaintance from the track team -- she was part of the most popular group, and a striver (being part of the most popular group was VERY IMPORTANT to her) -- who was with another (female) member of our team from another year. This confused me for a minute until decade-old blinders came off and I realized they were together. That was quickly followed by a much rehearsed, "I'm SO coming out at the reunion -- yes we're together!" speech, to which I reacted about as you'd expect -- hey great, congratulations! and unperturbed small talk. She was just glowing with relief and appreciation.

That kind of set the tone for the rest of the night -- everyone there was much more open than I remembered them being in H.S., genuinely interested, wanting to talk.

This year was supposed to be my 25th, but my stupid school never scheduled a reunion and never told us that they weren't doing it. I've asked others in my class and they say the same thing.

Grr from the class of '79, Harborfields HS.

I've never done highschool reunions...those were chaotic days of forced desegregation and school violence. (We lost a few.) Nobody wants to remember those days.

I do college reunions with a large group of friends. We were all involved in a church group then, and although many of us no longer attend that church or any other, we have fond memories of those days. We have great times whenever we get together.

The 10th reunion set the tone. It was the first really big gathering since we'd graduated. Of course, everyone was self-conscious, and at first it was awkward. Then the former joker of the group caught sight of me across the ballroom and yelled, "Hey! You've gained some weight!" Everybody's jaw dropped. I shouted back, "Yeah, and you've lost some hair!" The room erupted in riotous laughter, and everything was cool after that.

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
By BumbleBeeBoogie
(A true story)

A telephone call came from out of the blue---
we're getting together and we need you
to help us organize a reunion of peers
after an amazing span of fifty years.

As I drove to the restaurant in a suburban town
childhood memories, long forgotten, were found.
At our '57 ten-year reunion I'd seen classmates last
and eventually lost track of them and my past.

As I entered the meeting room, I gasped with surprise
at white-haired people with bifocal-covered eyes
and stiff joints and waists no longer thin,
bald pates where thick brown hair had been.

I looked into their faces for signs of their youth
as I struggled with the unwelcome astonishing truth.
What were all these old, OLD people doin'
at my high school class' fiftieth reunion?

Phoenix--

Unfortunately many of my college classmates are in great shape. I look a little younger than many of the women who have relaxed into being matrons, but compared to the Body Fit and Mind Active contingent, I'm dowdy.

BBB's verse reminds me of my mother who looked around the room at my father's 50th high school reunion and announced, "If a terrorist planted a bomb here, Medicare would save a bundle!"

Everyone assured her that she hadn't changed a bit.

Well...there were a lot of old people at the reunion...but I was one of them.

I like to think I looked as good as the best one there...but three of the reuners were women who had been girls while in high school...and had been knock-outs.

Ya know what...they were still knock outs!

Three of 'em.

Nancy, my better half, was the finest woman there...but she is 19 years our junior. (I still can't get over how Carol, Peggy, and Ann looked. Dynamite!)

Some of the guys were in very good shape also...although there was not a lot of hair to go around. (I notice my forehead has been expanding a lot lately!) And my 5 days a week of lugging my golf clubs on my back around a golf course allowed me to be one of the most in shape guys.

The two days...5 different events...were incredible...and I dare say every single one of us loved it to pieces.

It was a delight...and we've decided already that we will meet again in five years.

One great story I wanna share...but I will do it in my next post...to come in just a minute.

Of all the many wonderful things that happened during the two day reunion...I gotta tell you about the one thing that was PRIMO in my mind.

As most of you know...I am a golf NUT! I play 5 days a week...and work as a starter on two different golf courses the other two days of the week.

It hasn't always been that way.

My first round of golf was played while stationed over in England in the Air Force way back in the mid 1950's. I probably played three or four rounds at most. And then I really didn't play again (except for maybe one or two times) until the early 70's...about 35 years ago. And almost immediately at that time...it became an obsession.

Oh...one other very unusual thing I gotta tell ya for this story to make sense.

My high school was very small...our graduating class was about 65 people.

When I was shipped over to England to a SAC base...I found I was at a very small facility in Lincolnshire...about the middle of England. There were about 100 or so people on the base. And lo and behold...on my first trip to the cafeteria...I found that there were two other graduates of my school stationed there...one of the two actually was in my graduating class...and the other guy was a year ahead of us. It was amazing considering the odds...and it is something I have mentioned in discussions often.

Well...apparently Jean...the fellow from my class...and I...played one of those few rounds of golf I played over there together! I certainly don't remember it...but he did.

AND HE ACTUALLY HAD A PICTURE OF ME ADDRESSING A GOLF SHOT ON ONE OF THE ENGLISH GOLF COURSES.

This picture...which he brought for me and which I now have in front of me...actually shows me, if not playing the very first game of golf I ever played...certainly one of the first two, three or four times I ever played.

Can you get over that!

Is that not one of the greatest finds of all times for someone who loves the game as much as I do?

Well...it is.

And I am on cloud-nine over this picture...and cannot wait to share it with my regular golfing buddies.

Very cool!!

Let's get it in the gallery Frank!