Graduated with 50. Have lunch every Friday with 3 or 4 of them. Keep up with a couple of others. Our 50th is in 2 years, I'll probably go to the all school reunion if I can to see who shows up. I doubt our class will do one on their own.
Wow, an American woman. Excellent post.I have inadvertently started something of a ritual ...
Every month when I go to pain management I then skip on over to the Mall, get my nails done and then have a General Tso chicken with noodles, an egg roll and a Diet Coke. Then it's back to reality, oop there goes Rabbit ...
Anyway, today there were a couple of old guys having Charlie's subs at the table next to me -- talking about work, life, the weather, the state of affairs, how it breaks their hearts young girls don't know their worth and think they have to be half naked to get anyone's attention and then conversely how young boys think they have to let girls mistreat them in order to have a "relationship".
I mean I wasn't TRYING to eavesdrop ... Just me trying to read on Kindle and hearing bit and pieces here and there.
In case that was any of you guys, I just want to say thank you -- thank you for trying, for being concerned, for caring what kind of world y'all leave behind. Because, yes, it won't be our problem when we are napping with the earthworms ... But still ... It's sweet to know y'all actually do care about something besides guns and fishing and FJB and all the other **** we piss and moan and argue about from time to time.
While we were reminiscing, I had this epiphany, Some of us have been together since the first grade so add on 12 years. Our 62nd year reunion. We gasped.
I went to my 45 year college reunion last October. It was a small school, total enrollment then was about 300, so I remembered everyone from my class although most of them I would not have recognized. A couple of them did not remember me. A few, you could still see the 18 year old kid but just with more wrinkles and a few pounds.
What I've always thought was interesting is you can see someone you haven't seen in 45 years and not recognize them at all, but as you talk to them you start seeing the same mannerisms and personality come out, and they become familiar pretty quickly.
What I've always thought was interesting is you can see someone you haven't seen in 45 years and not recognize them at all, but as you talk to them you start seeing the same mannerisms and personality come out, and they become familiar pretty quickly.
I went back for one reunion. Complete waste of my time and money. Interestingly, our class was the largest, by maybe 70%, class at freshman year the school had ever seen. Graduation amount was average for the school. People died, were killed, went to prison, moved away, quit, and failed in droves.
As I understand it now, students who fail to show up all year, never do an assignment, never step foot in the doors, achieve a C average and graduate. Actually show up and fail every test? You may be a low B student. You did show up. Pass tests? Straight A material.
Boy have times changed.
As I understand it now, students who fail to show up all year, never do an assignment, never step foot in the doors, achieve a C average and graduate. Actually show up and fail every test? You may be a low B student. You did show up. Pass tests? Straight A material.
Boy have times changed.
I went to my 50th because it was close,,,
There were two or three people I was truly hoping to meet.
Instead it turned out to be one of the biggest stereotype events ever,,,
I swear it was straight out of a Hollywood movie script.
The drunks were still drunks and the stoners were still stoners,,,
The "elite" still thought they were something special,,,
And the bully's were still arrogant arse-holes.
I did get to reconnect with two running buddies,,,
It was very nice to find out that they had reasonably good lives.
But the best was straight out of a movie script.
I was standing at the urinal and heard a voice behind me asking,,,
Hey "Buster", remember when we used to turn you upside down in these?
Back in school I was 2 years younger than anyone else in my class,,,
I was a 15 year old senior who thought he was 17 years old,,,
I didn't hit my growth spurt until I graduated.
I knew who was standing behind me as I had seen him earlier that evening,,,
He was still the 5' 8" height he was back in school,,,
I however was 6' 2" and 190 lbs of anger,,,
50-plus years of stored up hurt.
But no, we didn't get into a fist fight,,,
Even though I really was hoping for it to happen.
Instead, when I heard him behind me I turned around,,,
And peed on the front of his pants and shoes.
I then zipped up and asked him,,,
"You wanna try that now?"
Because of the way he was in school I expected an immediate reaction,,,
But all he did was curse and back away to the sink to wash off,,,
I swear that was one of the high points of my life.
He left the reunion.
Like I said, I did connect with a former friend,,,
He told me that the guy I peed on never left the town,,,
That he owned a small garage/tire shop and was a very active alumni.
There were two others in the man's room who I didn't recognize,,,
I have no idea if the story spread but I sure hope it did.
That was back in 2018,,,
I had never been back to any reunion/alumni function,,,
And after my behavior at the event I feel no need to ever revisit those years.
I've told that story a few times,,,
People always comment on how it worked out,,,
But I will admit that I went there with a chip on my shoulder.
I truly wanted something like that to happen,,,
So I went with the attitude that this 66 year old alumni was there to cause trouble.
Childish?,,,
Yes, I guess that it was,,,
But when he backed away from me in the men's room,,,
I felt very vindicated and quite a lot of the angst I remember from school did evaporate.
True story,,,
Not even embellished.
Aarond
.
There were two or three people I was truly hoping to meet.
Instead it turned out to be one of the biggest stereotype events ever,,,
I swear it was straight out of a Hollywood movie script.
The drunks were still drunks and the stoners were still stoners,,,
The "elite" still thought they were something special,,,
And the bully's were still arrogant arse-holes.
I did get to reconnect with two running buddies,,,
It was very nice to find out that they had reasonably good lives.
But the best was straight out of a movie script.
I was standing at the urinal and heard a voice behind me asking,,,
Hey "Buster", remember when we used to turn you upside down in these?
Back in school I was 2 years younger than anyone else in my class,,,
I was a 15 year old senior who thought he was 17 years old,,,
I didn't hit my growth spurt until I graduated.
I knew who was standing behind me as I had seen him earlier that evening,,,
He was still the 5' 8" height he was back in school,,,
I however was 6' 2" and 190 lbs of anger,,,
50-plus years of stored up hurt.
But no, we didn't get into a fist fight,,,
Even though I really was hoping for it to happen.
Instead, when I heard him behind me I turned around,,,
And peed on the front of his pants and shoes.
I then zipped up and asked him,,,
"You wanna try that now?"
Because of the way he was in school I expected an immediate reaction,,,
But all he did was curse and back away to the sink to wash off,,,
I swear that was one of the high points of my life.
He left the reunion.
Like I said, I did connect with a former friend,,,
He told me that the guy I peed on never left the town,,,
That he owned a small garage/tire shop and was a very active alumni.
There were two others in the man's room who I didn't recognize,,,
I have no idea if the story spread but I sure hope it did.
That was back in 2018,,,
I had never been back to any reunion/alumni function,,,
And after my behavior at the event I feel no need to ever revisit those years.
I've told that story a few times,,,
People always comment on how it worked out,,,
But I will admit that I went there with a chip on my shoulder.
I truly wanted something like that to happen,,,
So I went with the attitude that this 66 year old alumni was there to cause trouble.
Childish?,,,
Yes, I guess that it was,,,
But when he backed away from me in the men's room,,,
I felt very vindicated and quite a lot of the angst I remember from school did evaporate.
True story,,,
Not even embellished.
Aarond
.
I've never been to a high school reunion for my class of 1973. Pretty big school. IIRC about 5K students, my class about 1-1.2k. I failed every class but one, got a D in that. Showed up. Read a book. Not for class. Didn't do a lick of homework but aced all quizzes & tests.
Got my attitude adjusted and moved to a very small high school in Western Colorado. Only stayed two years but busted my hump got B's & C's sophisticated year, A's & B's junior year, and moved back to Cali, same HS for senior year. Mostly A's.
Still graduated with a 1.78gpa. Almost 50 of my classmates had F averages. Their diploma was as good as mine. Didn't attend graduation. Have no idea what happened to any of my classmates. Looked at an online copy of the yearbook. I'm not in it. Only recognized a few names. Was only one girl I remember, and she was so gorgeous I knew I had no chance. So no point at all.
Not to mention I've been married twice. I'm apparently pretty stubborn. 1st marriage lasted 8 years. The good marriage started about 6 weeks after the first ended. In less than three months we'll have been married 42 years. If we both last that long. She's chronically ill, & depressed. I'm trying to get her health care that will help with the multiple illnesses, and do some stuff, or at least encourage the other to do, stuff that might improve her life & enjoyment thereof...
Got issuse of my own, of course.
Had a couple of guys that bullied me, or at least tried to, at the small HS in Colorado. When I got there, I was 5'6" and about 120lbs. By the time the summer I arrived was over, I was 5'11", still about 120lbs, and clumsy. I was a city kid. That was enough to get some antipathy going. Harry & Chris. Harry did most of the yammering & Chris did most of the fighting. I'd not had to fight since grade school, so was a bit (OK, a lot!) rusty, and the clumsiness made it worse, so got beat up pretty good the first few times, but eventually started getting better at it. Eventually fought Chris to a standstill, so we were both some beat up, around the end of my junior year, and then I went back to Cali for my senior year.
Wandered back through our little town after I graduated USAF Basic Training and my tech school. Ran into Chris at the bank. We wound up standing there talking for at least a couple hours. Had a good time, and enjoyed his company. And he invited me to a party that night with a bunch of folks I'd gone to school with there. Including all the pretty girls, and Harry. I was chatting up one of the girls, and Harry tried to start something. I said, "Shut up, Harry. Nobody cares what you think!" Then went back to the conversation. Harry looked a bit disgruntled. Then he left.
And though I've been back there a couple dozen times since, I've not seen any of them again since.
I'd had a girlfriend there towards the end of my junior year. We were going to get married and be missionaries together. Which was why I went back to Cali. Wanted the machine shop class the bigger HS had. My new stepfather picked me up in Colorado shortly after the summer started, and by the end of the summer my GF ghosted me.
Didn’t quite forget her, but moved on. And 30 years later my middle sister gave her my email address, and she invited me to the reunion. And told me all about her life. I let my wife, the mother of my children, answer her email. Haven't heard a word since. Been ove 50 years or so since that summer, twenty or so since the email. My youngest child is now 27, will be 28 not long after our anniversary.
Hey, that's way better than any mall!
