Didn't go to my 20 or 30 and definitely won't go to my 40 in a few years.

Went to my 10th, but haven't gone to any of the others.

By this time, people still alive have often scattered to the four winds, so there is no reunion to go to this year (that I can find).

I really haven't looked back.

I hated high school. I was an unpopular nerd with only a few, equally-nerdy friends, and one of the happiest days of my life up to that time was my graduation in a hot auditorium with another 600+ budding baby boomers, rejoicing in my escape from Hell at long last. 20 years later, though, having a professional career and contact lenses, I was no longer quite so ashamed of my very existence and had become curious about how the other nerds and my various nemeses had turned out. Et voilá! The mean girl who'd won a beauty contest and wouldn't let anyone forget it had become fat, inexplicably appearing in an Elvis-ish and very unflattering jumpsuit. The former football gods were balding and paunchy and the class pass-around looked like an aging bordello madam. The nerds, however, looked pretty good and had real jobs. So all in all it was a pretty satisfying evening. But I haven't been to another one and never will.

And it’s been over 50 years. I don’t feel deprived.

I was a terrified little kid because of what was going on at home, and I tried to keep to myself at school. Shame is a nasty emotion that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

... and loved them! It was unexpected... didn't care for HS and had more fun in college. But, the reunions are fun. Everyone behaves, even those who didn't back then... everyone was interesting, friendly and acted more like adults than they did in high school!

I was an awkward but generally well-liked kid in high school. Average to good student. I’m sure few expected much.

Biggest surprise? I expected the girls to be unrecognizable. Wrong. It was the guys. Most had gained weight and lost hair. Girls were easy. The homecoming greeted me with “I bet you’ll never guess who I am.”’ I said emphatically, “You’re Judy (X).” She was flattered but I knew her — not because she’d aged gracefully — but because she had the same bouffant hairdo that wore the crown.

In the end, I went because I helped organize the reunion (thought it was the job of senior class officers, but they’d done nothing ever to organize).

Also, the kid no one expected much of earned a masters and physically I looked the same ((everybody said so).

Vengeance? Maybe. Gratifying? Absolutely!

It was genuinely fun experience.

So anyone I care to be friends with, I’ll see pretty regular.
I did go to 45th as some of those friends did. Was ok, really depressing list of who died already. 50th was last year, stayed home.

But I just missed my 50th which I regret not attending. It's probably the last one our class will have.

my class are raving trumpsters and racists/bigots.

Most of them were strangers to me then, so they're even bigger strangers now.

My mother was thrilled to attend her 50th reunion long ago, but she went to a one-room schoolhouse during the Great Depression and she knew all of her classmates well.

Unlike me, from a class of over 600 kids. I can reach out to any individuals who I cared about, on my own.

I avoided the 20th, 30th, 40th, 45th (??!) and 50th. My best friend since 5th grade went to most of them, and even he’d had enough after the 50th three years ago.

So, nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope.

I went to the 25th grade school reunion, the the 50th for that & HS.
Interestingly, I left HS a year early for college, so I didn't graduate with that class or the one before that.
But, I did go to HS with those guys for 3 years. And, they combined the all-boys & all-girls school, so there were a couple hundred, plus spouses, that showed up.

Had my 40th two years ago but my son’s wedding was the same weekend so I couldn’t go. Might consider going to my 50th if I am still alive.

It's been 52 years since high school, and my classmates still seem to have a reunion every three or four years. I was an awkward teen, and an introvert. High school sucked. I dropped out as soon as I could and I have no interest in hanging out with a bunch of people who still think those were the best years of their lives. Shudder. I get the photo posts after each reunion and thank my stars that I wasn't tempted to travel all the way across the country for drinks and karaoke with a bunch of people I hardly knew even when we were schoolmates, let alone after we've all ossified for fifty years.

I've never been back.

Wolf

so full of exciting things to come?

The first one was my 25 year reunion and I happened to be on leave from the AF while between assignments in Germany and England. I wasn't a standout student nor one of the popular student. I did meet some of the kids I hung out with and we got caught up with what we've been doing.

The second reunion was for the 50 year reunion and I still recognized a number of people. It was interesting learning what they've done and where they've been in their lives.

Reunions can be good or bad depending upon how you viewed high school.The sad part of reunions is see a the display of those who have passed away.

One thing I did notice was the people in the cliques at the reunions were the same ones in high school.

Where I live, we have some classes that hold reunions and there is an All-class reunion during the 4th of July where graduates from any year can attend. I doubt I'll attend any more reunions.

for the pleasure of going up to the guy who turned me down for the "girls ask guys" dance, calling him by name (having instantly recognized him) and shaking his hand, seeing the delight and confusion in his eyes before he looked at my name tag, and then watching his mouth literally drop open when he realized the hot woman he was salivating over was that same girl!

Having been bullied the entire time I was in HS, it was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.

I've never been back.

They wouldn’t know me if I showed up.

Hell, they didn’t know me when I was there!

Last edited Wed Jun 4, 2025, 01:45 AM - Edit history (1)

Anyway, the 10th was boring, but I still lived there at the time. I flew out for the 25th and 50th and they were terrific. The 60th is this September, but I am really reluctant to fly now that trump/muskrat have wrecked the FAA, and, well, neither of us wants to drive at night any more, and Honolulu has changed past recognition for me as far as navigation goes.

Whether anyone wants to go to their own or not depends on a lot of things. High school wasn’t a lot of fun for me for varied reasons, but on the upside I had quite a lovely boyfriend in my senior year, I had a small group of real friends, and though not socially at ease I was not actively persecuted. ( I mean, PE was a daily torment because of my eyesight and I was chosen last for every team along with the girl who had polio braces and the girl with palsy on half her body, but only one person in class was an asshole, and hell, I survived)

As it happens there were quite a few people I had been friendly with and they remembered me, which led to some very nice conversations at reunions. At the 50th I was talking to a guy whose face I remembered well, but my muscle memory kept telling me he used to be shorter than my 5’4” but now I was looking several inches higher. I finally asked him and he said he had grown 6+ inches after age 21. When I said that was a pretty late growth-spurt he said something I’ll never forget: There were 7 kids at home, and when he joined the military it was the first time in his life he’d ever been able to eat all he wanted.

Which brings up this unfortunate story:

Very long ago my sis and I found out that our mother’s 60th high school reunion was coming up, and without considering who she really was we got excited and urged her to go. Mom had not one cherished memory of her school years, unless it was the time she won a statewide singing competition and got a scholarship as a soloist. She did remember being actively persecuted — like the tack that got stuck hard in her kneecap because in parochial school they all had to kneel on their chairs for prayers at the beginning of the school day, and some jerk sabotaged her chair. At secular high school she felt poor and also nerdy. And so on. College was liberating, but the professors were terrifying, college is where she made real friends, and the life of the mind was everything — she ended up without enough money to graduate, but even so, Holy Grail and all that.

Sis and I really, really should not have urged her to go back to high school for any reason. She carried her issues with her, and I can just see the chip on her shoulder. She did not have fun — and I am pretty sure she wasn’t anybody’s little ray of sunshine either.

So there it is. IF you have some nice memories and are in touch with even a few old pals, go and chances are you’ll have a good time. Use your judgement. IF like my mom, you have metaphorical scars that still bleed at a touch, stay the hell away and don’t put yourself through it.

I imagine it would be different, say, if I had stayed put in one town growing up but I really don't remember those folk.

My husband goes to every reunion. We had very different experiences in high school l.

48 years this summer, haven't seen a point to going yet.

@ my house!

STILL have good friends among us all.

Plus I live thousands of miles away from there.

I was a school year behind him but we went to his Class reunion four times.

We have lived nearly 1,000 miles away from that town for nearly 60 years
and that place and crowd doesn't have much of a draw for us.
We do go as often as we can to visit his brothers and sister whom
live scattered around that area now-a-days.

The Tikkis

I had a terrible time in high school and was easily the least popular person but I went to the reunion and everyone was happy to see me, the kind of happy that people show when they meet someone they thought must've certainly died by now. Since then, I frequently lunch with classmates I never spoke with in high school. It's weird but entertaining.

Glory years don't last forever, you grow up and have much better years.

Had no wish to go back. The people I was friends with are still friends. Didn't have to go to a reunion to see them.