Reconnecting With Old Friends

It’s hard to believe (we all keep saying that over and over) but it’s been forty years since I graduated from high school.

Some people hate reunions, some people just don’t care. I love ’em, especially with the great high school classmates I have. We’ve scattered (naturally) but every five years we reconnect.

I’ve been to the 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, and now the 40th. The Long-Suffering Wife has joined me for the 30th, 35th, and 40th. I (we) have yet to not have a fantastic time.

The big event is tomorrow, after a wonderful small-town parade, but tonight we had the “pre-union,” an informal get together of some locals and many of us who are in early from out of town. We figure, as long as we’re in town anyway, why not use the time?

We had the most delightful evening, almost a 50/50 mix of reminiscing about high school days and catching up on whose kids are doing what. These days, we’re also catching up on who has grandkids and who has had which surgeries.

A lot of the facts could be relayed via Facebook or emails, but there’s nothing like doing in in person over a nice dinner and some wine, laughing our butts off most of the time.

We’re obviously much different people than we were in 1974. Almost all of us have married (sometimes more than once), gone to college, had careers, had kids, and been through a thousand experiences that are not shared among the group. But there are also many formative and important experiences from our youths that are shared, all of which gave us the foundation for those later events.

Forget all of the stupid, standard, sitcom clichés. Forget about hooking up or connecting with that old flame. Forget about desperately trying to lose twenty pounds in the last week before the reunion. Forget about getting hair implants or a push-up bra to make yourself look like something you’re not and never were. Forget about going in a drop-top Corvette just to prove you’re still the BMOC.

Go as you are, warts and all. Talk to your old friends, listen to their stories, share your stories. Have fun!

I am.