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General Discussion => The Lounge => Topic started by: MiniDave on September 09, 2017, 03:37:10 PM

Title: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: MiniDave on September 09, 2017, 03:37:10 PM
A milestone to say the least, tonight is mine. It kicked off with a cocktail party last night and this morning we played Pickleball and took another tour of the school. The Shawnee Mission school district is pretty well funded and they've done some significant upgrades, not the least of which was adding an entire new gym and air conditioning the building.

Tonight is the big party at a local country club with dinner, dancing and a lot of reminiscing. As there about 800 students in my graduating class I've spent  a lot of time meeting people I never met when I attended the school. Also, since I wasn't a sports player, actor, musician or one of the "popular" kids I really only knew about 10 kids, so it's been kinda fun getting to know some of my classmates now.

As I went to the party last night, I was in the elevator with several of my classmates, one of whom was a woman....I didn't recognize her nor she me......till I heard her say her name at the desk - she and I dated in 9th grade - although dating then was getting your mom to drop you off at a movie or something. We plan to catch up tonight as it was just too loud at the party last night to have a good conversation.

Another of my classmates has been living in India the last 30 years or so at an ashram in the Himalayas, and teaching TM. This fellow was a sports star, class president, captain of the football team, quarterback and on and on, but he's actually one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and we had a fantastic conversation about his life this morning in between games.

Many of these people I haven't seen since we graduated - 50 years is a long time between hellos, but it's been fun catching up. Many of the women look outstanding still and some of the guys are still in pretty good shape too. We'll see who can bust a move tonight at the dance ( won't be me!)

More as it happens......
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: BruceK on September 09, 2017, 05:23:42 PM
Very cool.  I think since The Who played at your high school, the least Pete Townsend and Roger Daltry could do is to play at your reunion!   4.gif
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: MiniDave on September 09, 2017, 08:05:25 PM
Yeah, you'd think!

The Jesters (a school band) played and they are pretty good, they used to play at school dances and such.....

I did find my old date from back when and we had a terrific evening catching up, along with some folks I didn't know back in the days....some of the women looked terrific, some looked like 100 miles of bad road.....a lot of the guys are bald, some are huge, but the majority look to be in pretty good shape still.

All in all a pretty interesting weekend.....but I doubt I'll do another one, we're gonna start dropping like flies now and I don't want to be the one attending with my walker..... ;D

Over the years we did have some pretty name brand bands play at our school - The Who did play, as did the Moody Blues, the Beau Brummels, Brewer and Shipley, the Fabulous Flippers, the Kingsmen, The Vogues, and several others. It was a good time to be in high school I guess......
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: jeff10049 on September 09, 2017, 08:22:47 PM
Pretty neat Dave,
Got me thinking my 20th just happened last year I've never attended one. Time flys can't imagine 50th but it'll probably seem like next week when it gets here maybe I should go. Like you I only hung out with like 6 people so didn't  really know most of my classmates.
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: 94touring on September 10, 2017, 06:54:25 AM
My 20th is next year.  Big class of 105.  I think maybe 20 showed to the 10 year.
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: MiniDave on September 10, 2017, 07:10:34 AM
Facebook has been the real glue for us, we've found people who had moved far away (like the fellow in India!) and those who have stayed in KC now get together for an occasional impromptu lunch, I've gotten to know some really interesting people with whom my only previous connection was that we went to the same school at the same time - fascinating way to meet people but it's worked out pretty well.

I hope it continues, but I know we're going to start losing more and more people from here on out......the "In Memoriam" part of the event last night was sobering, and as the names and pictures were shown there were constant "ohs" as former friends or classmates appeared on the screen.

Still it was a fun night and worth attending. I know a lot of people like me who weren't popular in school dread events like this thinking they had nothing in common then so why would they want to see them now, but a lot of life has happened since then and who knows - you might meet some really wonderful people! I also ran into a fellow who used to live about a block from me - was the ultimate band geek - he was the one who carried the big stick out ahead of the marching band? Anyway, after digging around I found a picture of him with long hair and a moustache when he was in a rock band in the 70's and we had fun talking about what happened after high school.

If nothing else it was fun meeting and sitting with a hot girl last night!   ;D

(Yes the wife wasn't there, she graduated 4 years after me, and I don't go to hers either)

Edit: one other interesting observation....when I was in school it seemed to me that all the girls were taller and bigger than me, last night I was amazed at how many of them were actually fairly short. They didn't wear high heels in school so I don't know if I grew that much or they shrank! The girl I sat with all evening was the same height as me in 9th grade, now she barely came up to my shoulders, and she was wearing heels! Likewise some of the football and other jocks seemed huge to me back then, and while some are still taller than me most seemed about the same height as me now.
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: gr8kornholio on September 10, 2017, 04:33:57 PM
Yep, my 20 was last year and didn't bother.  Went to the 10 and out of 135 graduates about 20 showed.  I and one other person traveled more than 30 minutes to get there.  I was the same, since I transferred there in 10th grade and came from a small ass town, class of 20, I was technically a year behind so all my friends were actually a year younger than me.

Facebook for my generation almost eliminates the need for reunions.  The people I care about are on mine, except for a few that I can't find and lost touch with.  Maybe one of these later ones I'll give it another try. 
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: MiniDave on September 14, 2017, 12:18:22 PM
Video taken Fri night at the cocktail party - the only reason this might be interesting to anyone here is to play "spot MiniDave"


Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: MiniDave on August 10, 2022, 11:50:09 AM
Well, this year we'll be having a 55th reunion get together, I don't expect near the turnout we had for the 50, where we had kids fly in literally from around the world.

The "In Memoriam" list will be even longer as I know we've lost a good number of our classmates in the intervening 5 years since the Big 50.

I've decided that if I'm still alive I will go to the 60, but that will be the last as, I think being among an ever smaller group of survivors it will be hard for the event to be anything but sad. I might change my mind, assuming I live that long - which is a fairly low per centage bet since no one in my family has ever made it past 80 and I've had two heart attacks already - I'm fairly confident that if I have another it will take me down, but hey you never know!

This one will be at the same country club as the 50 was, it's a beautiful venue. At the 50 they had the current high school band come marching in playing some football-ish school fight song - then they played the school song (remember when they had those? I wonder if they still do? Can you remember yours?)  - I couldn't believe I still knew the words!

Of course they do the class picture too, but even with a magnifying glass I couldn't recognize hardly anyone! I may not bother with this one, tho I expect the number of attendees will be significantly smaller...
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: 94touring on August 10, 2022, 05:41:05 PM
You're going to have to break the mould and go longer than 80!
Title: Re: 50 Year HS Reunion
Post by: BruceK on August 11, 2022, 06:42:48 AM
Quote from: 94touring on August 10, 2022, 05:41:05 PM
You're going to have to break the mould and go longer than 80!

Yeah! I second that.