My ten year high school reunion is tonight. I'm not going.

Care to try to talk me into it?

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

Answers

Mine should be this year, but I'm pretty sure we're not having one. At least, I haven't gotten my invite.

I actually went to our five-year, because it was at Buffalo Billiards in D.C. ... two hours of free pool and an open bar for, like, $30. And I'll probably go to the 10-year out of sheer, morbid curiousity, even though I already stay in touch with everyone I wanted to stay in touch with.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

Tell us why you're NOT going and I'll tell you why you should.

I can't wait for ours. Mostly because I just want to see what happened to everyone.

And laugh at all the girls who already have several kids.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

Oh my god, Al, go. Why not? I have that morid curiosity - I was annoyed that my high school didn't have a five-year. My ten-year isn't until 2004, but I will be there with bells on.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

And laugh at all the girls who already have several kids.

Hannah, I want to say something else, but decorum prevents me. Let's just say I want to see who is something that has an AAAAAAAAAAA in it. Because I'm a mean, petty girl. I also want to see how many Young Life-rs had children out of wedlock. Again, because I'm a mean, petty girl.

Really, though, I want to know what people are up to. The only person from high school I've kept close contact with is Hannah, and I've talked with a few others on a marginal level. I mean, I get a thrill out of google-ing someone - I can't imagine how much fun it would be to catch up with them. Plus, I think it would be neat to show C where I spent several very formative years. He's only been to Texas once, and never to where I lived. I want to show him all that, and the Whataburger. Oh, and Randall's #36.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

I don't think my high school even knew where I was for my five-year. A lot of my (Connecticut) high school friends' families have since moved out of the area, so I'm not sure how many people I would have seen. Ten-year? I doubt it.

And I don't plan on going to a college reunion until 2009 at the earliest.

Y'all may want to check out Whatever Happened to the Class of '68? Michael Medved (before he got religion and turned so deeply conservative) and a high school classmate who was also an author went to their ten-year reunion and interviewed many of their classmates. Some had married, some had divorced, one or two had gone to Vietnam, one had gone crazy, etc. It was an interesting read.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

Randall's #36!

And there are people I was genuinely fond of, but we didn't keep in touch, and I'd like to see them. Besides, maybe one of them has their own company and will make a good contact. You never know.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

I'm going to mine because I have to, because I'm... um... on the steering committee.

But, otherwise, I don't think I'd be going. All the people I would want to see, I still talk to anyway. We are considering doing a faux reunion that same with all the people we really want to see, and ducking out of the other thing early... but we are too afraid it would seem elitist or something.

I know what all my classmates are doing... they are living in the Houston area, married with two or three kids, some of them with divorces under their belts. Everyone remotely interesting left town, and wouldn't attend the reunion anyway.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

I did not go to my ten-year, but I did go to my five-year. The five- year was much like a high school keg party on the bay, and I was fairly certain the ten year would be just as disastrous. My taste and the class budget are worlds apart.

I go to classmates.com to check on the people I might want to have contact with, and I keep close with enough people so that I have the gossip and I don't really need to be thrown into the middle of that crap again.

I've moved on from high school and I don't see much of a reason to go back to those stuck in Springsteen's song.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2001

I didn't go to my five year. Instead I met up with a few friends a month later who had gone, and got all the gossip vicariously from them.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001

I didn't go to my five year. I was like, "I've only had five years away from these people!" I don't keep in touch with anyone I went to high school with. I mean if I see them, I like catching up and gossipping, but I don't pursue them. They all went to college together, still hang together, the vast majority of them married each other -- people, a big group of them all bought houses in the same neighborhood. It's called "getting a life." Some of us have dared!

A part of me wants to go to my tenth reunion next year, but all my reasons are crazy petty. I too want to see who got fat, who had too many kids, who got divorced, who works the night shift at Wal-Mart. But that's negative and unproductive. I would feel much better about going if I cared about the people I would see, and believed they cared about me. If they did I guess I wouldn't have to go to the reunion to see them.

But I'm all about that second-hand gossip session later, like Hannah.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2001