50th High School Reunion – We Should Go!

Continued from: 50^th High School Reunion – Should We Go?

The day of the reunion, my wife and I both had mixed emotions about what the evening would hold.  I told her I felt a bit weird knowing what our engagement was that night.  She said she felt the same way.  Just before leaving, I suggested to my wife we should get a photo of ourselves on this momentous occasion.

When we arrived at the check in table, just as I feared, we had name tags with our senior picture on it.

I immediately saw my wife’s recognizing her senior photo but then I didn’t see my tag next to hers.  My first thought was the snafu did not get fixed but then I realized mine must be sorted by the corresponding first letter of my last name.  And sure enough, I found it there as I let out a groan when I saw my senior photo.  Wow did I have a lot of hair back then!

As we made our way into the ballroom, we were both amazed by the number of attendees.  We graduated with a class of over 600 and later I figured there must have been close to 120 people there.  My next thought as I scanned some of their faces was wow, some of these people look really old!  Walking over to the bar to obtain the requisite adult beverage for such an occasion, we ran into my wife’s old boyfriend and his wife.  After a brief conversation, he invited us to join them at one of the dining tables which we did.  Knowing we had secured a spot for the dinner, we both wandered around looking for old friends, me in particular seeking out my two friends I knew.

The photo on the name tag was prominent but the typed name was not in a large enough font for us senior citizens to easily read.  I think this was the only time the women attending would consider it acceptable for an elderly gentleman to lean in close and stare at her left breast to be able to read the printed name on the name tag.  It was also interesting after having read the name to see how many people still looked like their younger self.

As we made the rounds, I was quite surprised by how many fellow students, upon reading my name, recognized me saying they recalled me (some of them I too recognized, but others I did not which then prompted a discussion about how we might have known each other).  We then had a very nice discussion about what each of us had been doing over the previous half century.  Some I learned who had since moved out of town had traveled many hours to attend.  When I was asked how far I had traveled, I got a smile when I said 10 minutes.

On this stroll around the room, I also came across the poster with the names listed of “in memory” which held almost 100 names.  I quickly scanned how many names I recognized and to see if it held the name of my few other friends.  Thankfully it did not.

When we went back to our table to place our dinner order, we thumbed through the trinkets in front of each place setting which even included a copy of the original graduation program from 1974.

As we awaited the arrival of our dinner, we had a nice conversation with our table mates.  As my wife took out her phone and was showing photos of our kids and grandchildren, I looked around and realized that at most of the other tables, the same thing was going on—showing off children and grandchildren photos.  As it took a while to serve such a large group, people began walking around again greeting each other.

Several more people stopped by our table, introducing themselves and surprising me by remembering me.  It made me feel good when those whose name I recognized but who I barely knew in high school said how glad they were to see me.  It made me feel very welcome there.

At the table next to me, I recognized someone I used to work with who I didn’t know at the time in high school but got to know at work and stood up to speak to him.  Just before our dinner arrived, I decided to make one more round as I had not run across the two individuals I really knew well.  Sadly, I never did find them.

Before dinner was complete, they called out the numbers for the door prizes.  Although we didn’t win anything, the funniest one introduced was a vintage bottle of bourbon that had been purchased in 1974 with a fake ID.  While it wasn’t a real item, it brought a great laugh.

The last item on the agenda was to get a group photo of graduates.  Initially, my wife didn’t want to be included but a dear old friend of hers convinced her otherwise and she motioned me to join her.  That’s my wife over on the far left next to her dear friend from the ROTC days.

With the group photo complete, we said our goodbyes and left.  As we drove home at an hour much later than what we would normally have stayed out, we discussed how the evening had gone.  For me, it turned out much better than I ever imagined as with such a small group of friends, I feared I might just be like a wallflower.  In fact, my wife even commented that she thought I had done really well talking to so many people.  My wife said she thoroughly enjoyed getting to talk to many of her old friends too.  Overall, our consensus was we were both glad we went.  Now whether we will make the 55^th reunion, only time will tell.