So, me and T and a pile of our class mates from the old drop out factory had our 20 year reunion this weekend. It was an excellent night in Richmond — for most of us, anyway. I didn’t see it, but rumor has it that there was a fight requiring the ejection of a couple of attendees. I was sort of hoping to hear a story of an old grudge being settled — something that had festered for the past two decades. But, no such luck. It was apparently just a case of drunken domestic violence. A guy who had been drinking way too much over the past couple of days reportedly had his wife in a headlock on the dance floor. That’s no fun for anybody.
While that might fit the stereotypes of a Richmond reunion, not too much else did. A buddy of mine laughed about how a gay man, a Muslim woman, and an Asian woman were sharing a hotel room. They attended and were central players at the reunion. Someone’s spouse (not an RHS graduate) commented on the diversity of the group – in particular, the socioeconomic range was wide. And that was probably one of the more valuable lessons from my days in high school. Everybody from Richmond went to the same high school. This isn’t too say that we were one happy melting pot. But the exposure to people from a wide range of incomes and ethnicities is a helpful thing.
Diversity in apparent ages was an amusing thing to observe. Despite having graduated at the same time, people were all over the map in terms of how much they looked like they had aged. (Of course, *I* looked youthful and still like a young man!)
For my part, I apparently spend a lot of time online. (This probably is no surprise to anyone reading hear.) It gave me a great leg up at the reunion. With a lot of people, it just felt like I was continuing a conversation we had been having for a long time — as opposed to what it felt like at the 10 year reunion where we all might as well have been dropped from outer space to see each other again: “Hi, how are you? Are you married? Have kids? What do you do for a living? Cool. See you in 10 years.” With the “ambient intimacy” created by Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of the Internet, with a lot of folks, it was asking about a recent vacation I knew about or for more details about the little things that we’d casually been talking about online. Obviously I think there is real value to the social media and it’s not *just* learning what folks had for breakfast.
Anyway, maybe I’ll have more musings later. For now, it’s back to work and back to reality.
Agreed. In a few cases, I did end up continuing conversations I had been having online.
The apparent age gap is indeed widening. Next reunion, our kids will still be in grade school, but some of the attendees will be grandparents.
Sounds like my 20 yr. two years ago. I recall recognizing a few folks not because they looked like they did in h.s. but because they looked like their PARENTS did when we were in high school!
T-on the kids thing, luckily our folks broke that ground for us. Most of their friends were great-grandparents before I even sired the first grandchild;-) I also notice a huge socio-economic gap at my kids’ elementary school; where the “haves” are all in their late-30 to late-40’s and the have nots could almost be our kids.
Facebook wasn’t around two years ago, so my 20 yr. was still the reconnecting time-but now have the conversations on Facebook that will continue at the 25th in…yikes…three years!
Got my 20th reunion coming up in a couple weeks. Re: the Facebook thing…I’ve been friended on there by a few people who were in my HS class but I can’t remember anything about them for the life of me. It would almost be embarassing running into them at the reunion, being FB “friends” with them but not actually remembering them!
“The apparent age gap is indeed widening. Next reunion, our kids will still be in grade school, but some of the attendees will be grandparents.” quoted on July 20th by T in regards to parental status of reunion attendees..
NEXT reunion..? I was made a GRANDMA July 8th, 10 days before THIS reunion by my 21 yr old son…So that puts me in the running for GREAT Grandma at next 20 yr reunion!
I’m with Glenn. I went to my 25 year reunion five years ago. It was one of the most uncomportable situations I have ever been in. It was like being at a party where you don’t know anybody. But it was worse…because people knew me.
With a few exceptions, I couldn’t remember people’s names even the few occasions when someone looked familiar. And I certainly couldn’t remember anything that happened to them or us in high school. Even people I palled around in law school I can’t remember. The only people i really remember were those on the baseball team and my class only contributed a few members to the varsity.
Sorry…meant palled around in “high school” not “law school.”
For me, the Facebook phenomenon made the reunion more useful and enjoyable. At the 10 year, I mainly hung out with “T” and a few of our closer friends. That was enjoyable, but mostly something we could have pulled together outside of a reunion.
Since people have been joining Facebook in droves over the past year or two, and since I’m admittedly overactive online, it was much more fun getting reacquainted in person since people felt like they knew me (and I felt like I knew them) and it was much less like a gathering of strangers.
And the funny thing is that “Grandma” Krista was one of the youngest looking people there.
It was fun listening to the comments by T & Emma when they came home. They both said that the reunion “exceeded” their expectations. They were expecting to have a good time and it turned out even better. I really enjoyed the hour after they got home. So many of his friends used to hang out at our house and I was glad to learn about their lives.
Of course Krista looks younger. She doesn’t have a three year old at home!
It was definitely a good time. From here, I would assume they’ll be at five year intervals. We’re one reunion away from back injuries on the dance floor, I think.
I don’t know – from what I heard about the domestic disturbance on the dance floor, it could’ve resulted in back injuries. Maybe we’re already there!
If nothing else-there are plenty of pics that can be sent to kids’ FB friends of “old” people “trying” to dance!