Sunday, July 27, 2008

25th High School Reunion--Bizarro World

I attended mine today. I freely admit that I thoroughly enjoyed myself; I almost didn't go, having had such a horrible time at the 20th. It occurred in three events spread over the weekend, and I chose to attend the family pool party today. It was a wise choice.

High school's over, and has been a long time. We don't have to reminisce anymore, instead we talked about what we're doing now, and took pride in showing off how good-looking and well-behaved our children were :-) I made a pointed effort to just go up to people, introduce myself, and start talking, something that doesn't come naturally to me. And if all else failed, there would always be burgers, drinks, snackies, and a huge pool.

The biggest hit of the party, though, was when our old counselor showed up. You'd have thought the Pope or a rock star had arrived, as popular as he was.

It was a good time. I'm glad I went.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad that a high school reunion worked out for somebody. Your attitude about talking about current events instead of the past is a wonderful idea. We went to my husband's 25th reunion, and it was a disaster. A girl who had been unpopular came back to prove she was no longer an ugly duckling. Her behavior was shocking to say the least. I guess it's hard to leave behind painful experiences.

Darren said...

What I didn't put in the actual post, but was the reason I put Bizarro World in the title, was part of a conversation I was having with a couple of guys. One of them referred to how popular I was in high school. I almost choked on my Sprite--me??? I socialized with the A-list, B-list, and even the C-list kids, but I was not popular. The A-listers wouldn't invite me to their parties unless someone else suggested it, and I wasn't going to be dating any cheerleaders. IN short, I wasn't an A-lister, one of the popular kids. The reason this guy gave for saying that was that he looked in the yearbook the night before and saw my picture "all over the place". Quite the exaggeration in my eyes, but it sure is funny how time changes memory.

Ellen K said...

Our reunions are organized by some outfit that sets up these ridiculous and expensive outings so that only the A list attends regularly. At my 25th, we went with a friend of ours that attended our school and his wife. For fun, she would go up and just start talking at people telling them how good they looked and "remembering" generic high school events. It was so fun to watch.

gbradley said...

My 30th Reunion is this coming Saturday night.
I am really looking forward to it though I really don't think many people will remember me.
I am hoping to see a few people who I have lost touch with.
Gotta go just to see the spectacle.
Any suggestions?

Darren said...

Yes. Make sure there are nametags! For those of us who didn't attend the two earlier events this weekend, there was an awful lot of "Boy you look familiar!" because we didn't have nametags at the pool party.

And if someone could scan the senior yearbook pictures and put them on the nametags, that would be even better!

I'd blame it on my Alzheimers, but I've never really been good at names--and it has been 25 years.

Unknown said...

I went to my 30th some years back. We didn't need name tags. There were only 88 in our class.

Anonymous said...

Reunions have been an interesting experience for me.

When there would have been a five year reunion for my class I was stationed in Korea. While I was home on leave I was in a Wal-Mart and met a buddy from high school. I asked him if there was a five year reunion and he said “No, all of our class leaders are failures. They all went to LSU and flunked out.” Laughed my ass off.

At my ten year reunion I was very apprehensive. I was back in college and I knew most of these people were working, buying houses, starting families, etc. Well I walked in and there was my first girlfriend Dawn, eight and a half months pregnant. I caught up with many of my buddies from school and my saving grace was, “Damned, I didn’t screw up as bad as you! Thanks, I don’t feel so bad now!” I spent most of the night with a woman who was really an acquaintance during HS but I remember when we just got finished graduation Charlotte was the first one to hug me and say “Take care Mike”. We have been close friends via snail mail, email and phone ever since.

Went to my 20 year reunion back in 03 and it was interesting. I walked in and met a few of the “A Listers” in the area and my friends Charlotte and Dawn showed up. Well, there was an open bar…Darren, I know you know where this is heading. I ended up sleeping in my truck! Damned I had a great time and by all accounts I was the life of the party!

Haven’t heard about a 25 year reunion yet but it will be fun.