Attending School Reunions

Discussion in 'Holidays & Traditions' started by Amy Read, Jan 9, 2016.

  1. Amy Read

    Amy Read Veteran Member
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    My High School days and my College days are full or memories that I will cherish in my lifetime. I had made good friends whom up to now I am still keeping in touch and communicating even we had our own lives since we graduated in school and thanks to Facebook because it brings the connection from all of us. This year 2016 our High School batch is planning for a reunion and I will make it sure that I will attend because I really miss my old friends and I want to make updates about their life now and I want to see them after those long years that we had not seen each other. How about you are you attending school reunions?
     
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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I only went to my first one because I had moved away from Pittsburgh. The first one I wasn't too far away, Chicago but as the years passed I got further and further away. I have two friends that I stay in touch with on Facebook and that's about it.
     
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  3. Bonnie Thomas

    Bonnie Thomas Veteran Member
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    Same as Chrissy .... moved far away from the area where I went to school. Just wasn't easy to attend reunions.
    Was in touch with about 8 -10 friends from school for years ... just a few now.
     
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  4. Will Lawrence

    Will Lawrence Veteran Member
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    Spring of 2014, we had a 50th get-together/reunion for our high school class. Had one of the larger classes to graduate from that school. 22 of us in the class. IIRC, there were 12 who showed up for the reunion. I spent a little while and left. Most were folks who never had the opportunity to leave our small community. Therefore, they have been neighbors their entire lives and that's what all the discussion was about. And... fittingly enough for those of our class... it was held in a bar. I don't drink, and a lot of them should have quit years ago. There is an all-school reunion every three years. Only been to one of those and didn't see anyone I really need to see again.
    Last Spring we went to my wife's 50th high school reunion. Her graduating class had almost 300 in it. Had some great conversations with lots of people that evening. Enjoyable. Yet, we've never seen any of them again since.
    We all just develop our own lives of family and friends. "Routine", I guess they call it. Probably when they talk about us old folks who don't like change and are "stuck in a rut". The main thing I gained from attending both my own 50th and my wife's 50th.... it sure makes me aware of how lucky I am to have had this lady share my life all these years. Seeing, today, some of the options of yesterday............... No thanks!!!!
     
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  5. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    My husband's elementary classmates had contacted him thru social media for the intention of holding a class reunion this October of 2016. Most of those connected to him now are living abroad, one in UK, 2 in the US and 1 in Canada. The 4 are spearheading the re-connection by searching for their classmates. My husband is not excited albeit he is against the idea although for the sake of his friends in that school, he relented. I don't know that good that reunion will bring since they have been estranged for almost 50 years. Do they still know each other?
     
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  6. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Went to my high school 20 Year reunion (1988), but no reunions since. I lived half way across the U.S. from where I went to high school. Was able to go to the 20 Year one because a friend was visiting relatives in Ohio and she paid my airfare to go with her and then drove me to my reunion in Indiana.

    For the last two reunions, one a 42 Year one, wife and I had made plans to do something else that was much more interesting/exciting.

    My BIL told me that he hasn't gone to any of his reunions. He said, "I want to remember my classmates the way they looked when we graduated, not how they look now." I have to agree, because some photos of my 42 Year were put on Facebook and I was pretty amazed at all the gray hair I seen and how some of my classmates got pretty heavy in weight. I put on weight as well, but much less than some of them did. Actually, a classmate and his wife are so "gray", they look like my parents.

    There hasn't been a reunion for my wife's class since the "mini" 35 Year one that some classmates put together just prior to our wedding. One of the organizer's of her class reunions, got sick and that ended any future reunions. She still keeps in contact with a very close classmate who was her Maid of Honor at our wedding.
     
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  7. Mari North

    Mari North Veteran Member
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    I'm not really a reunion-type of person. My last two reunions were held right here in my own town although this isn't where we went to school... there are just some excellent gathering places. Nope, didn't go then either even though in theory I could have walked.

    I really had to think about this last one a few months ago... I graduated in '75 (this was high school reunion I'm talking about) so this was a "big one." I knew that we've been losing some classmates and it struck me that there'd be a lot more in the next 10 years. :(

    I'm not sure why I couldn't bring myself to go. When I see a classmate (rarely) I'm always told that they knew me because I look exactly the same as in high school.. hehe a bit of blarney, methinks, but... and I've gotten a lot more fit, so there's not a physical reason. My hair is still golden brown/dark blonde and long like in school... so... I really don't know why it was something I didn't consider.

    But I *am* connected with my three very best school friends on Facebook, so that's good.

    As an interesting side note, we also have a Facebook site for our class, and after the reunion, people were saying that they're sorry they went because they couldn't believe that the very same cliques still exist after all those decades. Maybe that's why I didn't want to go... intuition kicking into high gear? :confused:
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I had hoped to make it to our 50th class reunion this summer but I wasn't able to. I have not attended any class reunions, and I don't know if we'll have another. One thing that has always seemed odd to me, although I believe it's common, is that these class reunions aren't held at the school. I'd think there'd be a lot more interest in a class reunion if it were held in the school building. Ours wasn't even held in the same city as the high school and, in fact, it wasn't even in the same state, as they held it in Marinette Wisconsin, a little less than thirty miles away from Stephenson, Michigan, where I attended high school. Given that reunions are usually held in the summer, I'd think it would have been possible to have access to the school building, yet I don't think any of our class reunions were held at SHS. Of course, the main part of the school I attended, which was a three-story wooden structure, has been dismantled and replaced by a brick building, so the only part of the school I attended that is still there is what was then the extension, containing the gymnasium, offices, and only a few classrooms. Biology was the only class that I attended in the new extension.

    Still, I'd think attending a reunion would be more interesting if it was held at the school or at least the same city, allowing people to reminisce about other things that were involved in their high school experience, such as the restaurant downtown, where a good part of the student body bought their lunches, as opposed to the cafeteria. I haven't been home (Wallace) in about fifteen years, and I didn't visit Stephenson when I was there.
     
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  9. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    I attended the 20th (great time!), the 40th (meh.....) and the 50th (really enjoyed it). My graduating class was 625 strong and over a hundred attended the 50th, which was pretty good for a 50th.

    At the rate people are dying off, though, the next one could probably be held in someone's walk-in closet.

    There are four people I stay in close contact with and a few more I hear from occasionally when they bring the grandkids down to Disney.
     
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  10. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    A bunch of my old school friends get together once a month for lunch. Some don't live near enough to get here every month. Some have died. I guess some are just not interested. But there are usually around 15 of us.
     
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  11. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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  12. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    Attended my 25th, ten my wife's 25th. No others were ever planned. Had only one really close friend. He was at our 25th but committed suicide a few years later.
     
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  13. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Went to my 10th and that was enough for me.
     
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  14. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I would feel really awkward. Once you get past the... this is who I married, these are my kids and I worked at whatever career, what would you talk about?
     
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  15. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    A friend of mine sent a link to an online group that had a bunch of reunion photos. I was aghast at all the "old people" in attendance so it's a good thing I didn't go. :D (They were probably talking about grand kids, various ailments and lying about their investments.)
     
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