Jake’s 50th high school reunion

I drove
2,573 miles
Didn’t want to deal with planes or airports
Cheapest gas was 3.19 in Chattanooga and Valdosta
Most expensive was 3.84 in Northville, Mich.

 

Some of my snarkier classmates want to make a big deal out of it being 42 years since we graduated. Talked this over with a friend from high school. Would I go? Would she go? She loves reunions and never misses one if she can help it. I've never been.

It's not that I hate my former classmates or had a bad time in high school. In fact, with a few exceptions, I liked my teachers and classmates and overall had a pretty good time in high school. Once I started doing things that interested me after various milestones in my life, it just felt like that time was over and it was time to move on to the next thing and learn about it and experience...that thing. It may sound cold to some people, but I just haven't felt a pull to revisit past parts of my life. It seems like the friends I keep move forward with me. It's not a function of being judgmental, at least I don't want it to come off that way. Maybe it's the Taoist attitude of the same river twice.

Years ago, I was doing a purge of stuff in my garage and asked a friend who likes to make collages and altered books if she'd like my yearbooks. She was appalled.
"Your yearbooks? YOUR yearbooks? You'll regret that."
I was surprised by her response. "I thought you hated high school."
She said she did, but she still kept her yearbooks. Hmmm.

 

I went to my 30th several years ago and said never again. There's only a handful of former classmates I'd want to see, but that whole-town thing was sucktastic.

 

I feel much the same way.

I didn't hate high school but I certainly didn't love it either. I had plenty of friends. It was OK.

I haven't been to a reunion and have no intention of going in the future. There are very few people from my class I'd have any interest in talking to. I've seen photos from past reunions and there was virtually no one there I cared about.

The one thing that could have pulled me in before was simply curiosity. What is Mike doing now? How does Liz look after all these years? Thanks to Facebook I have the answers. Mike's a serial entrepreneur who started doing Crossfit when his wife left him. Liz is still a smoke show. There, I'm good.

This may be partly genetic. I remember my dad's 20th reunion when I was a kid. His best friend from childhood came to our house so they could drive over together. Halfway to the reunion they realized they were the only people in their class they wanted to talk to so they skipped the reunion and went out to dinner instead.

 

I was conflicted. On one hand, being treated like dirt because I experienced puberty years after my peers - much of my physical growth occurred during my college years - was something to forget. Worse, my band director being murdered three months before graduation made me want to take the first exit door and never come back. Additionally, I'm not on Facebook, which my best friend from high school consistently has reminded me keeps me out of the loop. OTOH, next to none of them were the first bit interested in keeping me in any loop back in the day. And I'm not interested enough to let Zuckerberg and Co. make money off me to sign up.

But the band was a major reason I did like my time in high school. The band director was not someone I would soon forget, and that would have been the case if he had lived. It was also the first time I had been at a school for three consecutive years since my first elementary school.

 

Now when it comes to Michigan State I haven’t kept in touch with any of my friends from that time

 

I only have been to my 15th which was kinda fun. I got to meet the lucky dweeb my crush married. I moved to a new state for a job the same weekend as my 20th. Don't think they planned a 25th.

 

I had no emotional stake in either, but my friend and I went to our 10th and 20th.

I drunkenly hooked up with one of my old classmates at the 10th. She ended up driving us home at the crack of dawn after a lot of hijinks. That incident made me the subject of much derision for a few years afterward.

The 20th was much less eventful, since I had a wife and toddler to get home to. Went with the same friend. The woman I hooked up with at the 10th didn’t show up.

My 30th is in less than two years. Have to call my friend and see what kind of trouble we can get into for that one.

 

I've seen photos of my school's reunions that I didn't attend. Our class was pretty diverse, but only the white folks come to the reunions. I'm wondering if whoever planned the reunions only reached out to certain people. I could see some of the people in the pictures doing that.

 

I went to the 5th. Haven't been back since. 40 is in 3 years. Maybe, but doubtful.

 

Found out one of my buddies I saw at my high school reunion is no longer with us. Mark Grech worked in movies and TV after getting his start on Michigan Replay in the days of Bo Schembechler. He was a staunch union man, came back to Michigan every summer and truly enjoyed his life, which is why it is so sad to see him go so suddenly, without warning. He was as full of life as anyone at the reunion, but as the great Tom Cochrane says: “You never can tell when you might check out.” I’m sure Mark, a devoted Michigan State alum, was pissed MSU lost yesterday. He posted on my Facebook page Tuesday and he died Wednesday. Mark, you were a good man and you will be missed

 

My condolences for your loss.