50th High School Reunion – Should We Go?

If you have previously read my post about How We Met, you already know that even though my wife and I went to the same high school, we did not know each other.  We both graduated in May of 1974 from Overton High School and so, by the math, 2024 would mark our 50^th high school reunion.  And while my wife is a lifelong Memphian, and I only moved here in 1970, our paths to high school were actually very similar.

For grades one through eight, my future wife went to a private Catholic school that only went through the eighth grade.  Many of her friends she had known her whole life went off to other private schools to complete their secondary education, first being the ninth grade in what was then known as junior high school, and then high school for grades tenth, eleventh and twelfth.  Thus, she started ninth grade at a junior high school not knowing anyone.  Being the extrovert that she was, she was motivated to make new friends.  In high school, this continued, and she prided herself in not only making many new friends, but learning who everyone was in school even though she might never had met them.

My family moved to Memphis in July of 1970 so that fall, I too started at the very same junior high school, having left all of my school friends back in Arkansas.  Thus, in the fall of 1971, we both came into the same high school in the tenth grade without the friends we had known for years.  However, with me being an introvert, I only cultivated a small group of friends while there—less than ten.  Working parttime at a local department store after school and weekends for most of my high school years further prevented me from making any further friends outside of school activities.

While our experiences during high school were different, this background played heavy in our decision about whether we should attend the 50^th reunion in 2024.

My wife happened to be on a Facebook group of our high school graduating class.  So, in the spring when she saw there would be a 50^th reunion, she mentioned it to me.  As the time got closer to the date, photos began to be added from high school as well as previous reunions.  In the photo below with their ROTC award, that’s my wife on the far right and one of her dear friends in the middle.

Another photo that was added to the Facebook group was from a reunion picknick in 1984.

While not the primary focus of the photo, visible in the top center of the photo is my young wife (in green) along with our first two children who would have been almost 3 and almost 2.  I don’t know where I was at the time, but my wife did not remember me being there.  We both recalled attending a previous reunion many years ago, a nighttime Mississippi River cruise, but we could not recall what year it was (we later learned it was the same 10^th reunion in 1984).

After 50 years, I had kept up with zero of my small group of friends so I doubted if I would know anyone there at the 50^th reunion.  In fact, I could not even recall who I might have talked to at the 10^threunion other than my wife.  But knowing that my wife could possibly see many of her old friends for the first time in 50 years, I offered to go with her if she wanted to go.  She said she would think about it.

She wavered back and forth about going but when she was contacted by her former high school boyfriend to find out if she was going, they both agreed to go.

My wife filled out the registration form for both of us and I submitted it to one of the organizers.  A week before the reunion, my wife was in the Facebook group reading off the list of confirmed attendees.  As she read off the listing, I was actually amazed at how many of the names I recognized and even more surprised that two of my tiny group of friends were also attending.  At least I would know two other people there.

The listing was in alphabetical order with all females sorted by their maiden name.  Thus, it was no surprise to me when she read her name early in the listing.  But when she got to the letter in the alphabet where she should have read my name, it was missing.  The next morning, I contacted the person to whom I had e-mailed the form to explain my missing name from the roster.  She recognized her mistake, apologized for it, and said she would fix it.

But I still wondered if it could be fixed in time.  I figured there would be name tags for the alumni that might possibly include our senior picture from the Annual and I did not know how long that process might take.  I shuddered to think what my old photo looked like.

     To be continued…