Live long enough and one day you are sure to be invited to a school reunion.
Today it was my turn. The phone caller spoke in triumph of having finally found me (but I was never lost) after grilling a large number of friends and finally relatives about my whereabouts, life story, happenings and contact details (several needed, please). I was eventually to find that even before I was finally run to ground (that is how it sounded), the multiple columns of the Excel spreadsheet were already completed and circulated.
Why is it though that at this juncture I feel obliged to say that I have nothing to hide and my school years were successful in all aspects that the school bothered to measure?
Frankly, I would have preferred to see a notification in the Public Notices of a major newspaper instead. That way those who really feel a need to do such things can go about their business while I quietly go about mine.
If I am going to spend four days somewhere it wouldn't be in the city I left, or at the secondary school, or with men I can scarcely remember and haven't seen since. However, all female friends and family females are buzzing with excitement - on my behalf! They have spent hours on the phone and over tea already.
Come on, how many would recommend attending a secondary school reunion? What funny or odd experiences?
2foot6 said
02:50 PM Feb 28, 2014
I went to a school reunion ONCE,that was enough.Most of the people there I really didn't like at school and didn,t like them at the reunion,the rest were in gaol. The western suburbs of Melbourne wasn't a good place to be in the fifties and sixties....as I remember it.......Cheers Peter
woosy said
02:56 PM Feb 28, 2014
O'K I keep on thinking about the time I went to a birthday reunion for my brothers 60th people we
had grown up with had grown old where as I had not or my brother wish i had not gone like to remember
how we where memories in the corner of my heart will never be the same
Rip and Rosie said
03:05 PM Feb 28, 2014
I went to mine.
Got to see a lot of people from school, friends, acquaintances and "others".
Met up with the old boyfriend, the one I "loaned to a girl friend" for a dance I wasn't going to, and she never gave him back ...lol. Seems she married him, good luck to her, in hindsight he was no catch really!
The clever kids who had such potential, but didn't get too far, like the one who got into politics and got dumped even before pre-selection.
The ones who had not much chance in life but who had a fighting spirit and did very well, like the migrant kids especially one or 2 of the girls.
I went, it was good, but wasn't earth shattering.
johnq said
03:25 PM Feb 28, 2014
I had as reasonable a life as most kids did back then. Nothing easy, heaps of hot & hard farm work and school was the easy bit. No-one ever told us anything and independence was making every mistake yourself. Not something I would be seeking to re-visit. I am not sure I am even curious to know what common lives (me too) all have led, which confuses and exasperates the women around me.
I don't remember my school days as the best days of my life.
What I do miss is youth. But we all do and we don't think about it but get on with life. Nothing will bring that back, or the loved ones who are gone.
Gerty Dancer said
03:43 PM Feb 28, 2014
Johnq, I recently had a similar e-mail... forwarded from a relative. I was a recipient of ongoing bullying from the person who was now organising this reunion, so no way would I consider going to it. However it might have been nice to catch up with some of the kids I was friends with.
johnq said
04:32 PM Feb 28, 2014
Gerty Dancer wrote:
Johnq, I recently had a similar e-mail... forwarded from a relative. I was a recipient of ongoing bullying from the person who was now organising this reunion, so no way would I consider going to it. However it might have been nice to catch up with some of the kids I was friends with.
Very sorry to hear that. I was fortunate to be very fit from farm work. While I was never belligerent and shrugged my shoulders at most things, I had floored seniors who tried the bastardisation game. We were lucky enough not to have mongrels in our year and a good few of us had very little tolerance for bullying and the like when our hardworking parents were supporting us in school. Farms were doing it hard in drought. We did heaps of sport to keep our minds off what was happening back on the farm while we were absent.
Cloak said
05:34 PM Feb 28, 2014
I went to one when I was about 40 something and didn't recognise any of the fat old blokes and shielas with their hordes of filthy snot nose thumb suckers.
The only person I recognised was Mrs Krantz the bully teacher that used to belt me.
Nahh, nothing good ever comes out of a school reunion.
Pejay said
05:38 PM Feb 28, 2014
My school days were also not the best days of my life, and I went to a 10 year reunion - quite some time ago now, and so help me most of the girls had several kids each and looked the worst for wear!! Have I been to another - no way!!
However, have to let you know this - I have been trying for years to track down an English girl I went to High School with (both of us were loners) and she returned with her parents to England. Well after all these years I managed to 'find' her only last month, and it was wonderful to receive a reply to my letter. So after all this time, something good has come from my school days.
Baz421 said
07:59 PM Feb 28, 2014
I had a ball was 43 years. Recognised many faces, BUT even recognised voices across the room before I saw the person.
I think it's what you make it,,, as it was at school,, barring extraordinary circumstances, you are in control, are you not?
Anyway nothing ventured nothing gained,, my glass is 1/2 full.
NeilandRaine said
08:20 PM Feb 28, 2014
Maybe it was because Launceston isn't all that big and we all socialised out of school, had our gangs (nothing like today) and that type of thing. My High School had a 50 year reunion and had its own Facebook group for it. Just through that group I have reunited with many old friends from my school days, people I grew up with. A long time ago when I turned 17 I joined the RAAF and left town and never saw a lot of school friends again. These days I get a chuffed when I come into contact with someone I knew in my first life. Don't forget others will see you how you see them.
The Phantom said
08:47 PM Feb 28, 2014
25 years ago I went to a 25th year Reunion (since leaving school). It was a hoot. Everyone looked the same as I remembered them until we sat down for dinner and were given the menu, about 70% pulled out their specs to read it. One lady told me she only came to it to see how I had turned out. I'm still not sure if I disappointed her or not.
In October we are doing it again for the 50th Year Reunion. I have requested the menu be printed in Size 48 Arial Font.
The Phantom
hako said
09:12 PM Feb 28, 2014
I went to one organised after 45 years - in 2000 for when I went to Canterbury Primary School in 1955. Our teacher was still kicking around as we were his first teaching experience. I found it a great experience despite the fact that I was never 'popular' or a stellar student. From our class of 43 students only 1 had died (car accident). The thing that surprised me was that virtually all the kids I went to school with for all those years were exactly the same as 45 years ago. The quiet ones were still quiet and the smart alecs, bullies and nice ones were the same....time had no effect! So really it was like going back all those years....nothing had changed. I found I was still not 'popular' but neither were my mates.
Our teacher is still going well and most of the students keep in (ir)regular contact with him. There are plans afoot to hold another reunion this year as we all turn 70 and our teacher will be in his early 90's.
Trouble it is in Sydney and that is a pain.
Bottom line is that if it makes you feel good then do it. Nothing wrong with memories.
Regards
Bunkerbob said
10:33 PM Feb 28, 2014
I was invited to a school reunion for a class that I was in in 1969 or 1970. The teachers back then were nothing but child beating bastards and 1 of the teachers apparently showed up.
If I had of also showed up I would have smacked that P---k from the reunion to hell. Absolute a-holes who should have been charged with child assault.
I couldn't be stuffed meeting fat, balding, over bearing, lonely, people who I had been forced to spend a very short part of my life with.
Bob
johnq said
11:06 PM Feb 28, 2014
For some reason I would be happier and more likely to attend a reunion at one of the primary schools I went to. A couple of those were damned tough State schools too with ferocious teachers. My parents moved from farms to business and back a couple of times which put me into different schools. Maybe we are a lot more confused when we are in our secondary school years, or perhaps the schooling becomes more tedious. Later education after secondary school was refreshingly different.
bill12 said
06:44 AM Mar 1, 2014
I went to mine, and was pleasantly suprised that I was one of the few who had done what he had told his friends in adult life. A lot were dead and in dead end jobs and relationships.I was happy to say that I had followed my dreams and Got my charter boat and was living on a tropical isle.I must admit that I didn,t recognize a lot of my school chums, and it was sad to see where life had taken them. Wasn't a life changing event, though. Bill
the rocket said
08:49 AM Mar 1, 2014
went to mine. the girls in my class were still lovely as they always were and had a great catchup. One woman from another class spoke "not so nicely" and I realized "a bitch never changes" just gets wrinkled and ignored. Most of The people you went to school with were not friends but people you had no choice but to associate with for a long time. If you were not friends back then, no reunion will change that so no need to attend and if you were friends back then - well you would have remained in touch - again no need for a reunion.
kandagal said
10:32 AM Mar 1, 2014
I went to a 50 year reunion for those in my class in the last year of primary school. It was great. But then maybe we are different because even after all this time (now 60years) I still keep in touch with 9 people from that primary school. We are all still best friends. At the reunion I read a poem I had written especially for the occasion.
Cloak said
02:37 PM Mar 1, 2014
Apart from that reunion bad experience the only person I've met from primary school was a girl I used to play footy with in grade 2.
I bumped into her in town once. Unfortunately for her she had an inoperable brain tumor in her basal ganglia and was suffering from gigantism.
Hands like tennis racquets and a really big forehead and deep voice.
Nope nothing good about school days at all.
valnrob said
04:21 PM Mar 1, 2014
I was a foundation pupil at High School in Napier NZ. There had been a couple of reunions that I never made it to, so when I got an invite to a pre-Christmas Luncheon I decided why not. I lost contact with most people I attended HSchool with until 4 yrs ago and caught up with 4 people on fbook. Hurriedly booked ticketx to NZ and went to lunch a bit nervous, Wondering what everyone would be like after approx 52 yrs. To my surprise they were all lovely, We all chatted and enjoyed each others company, male and female. I wasnt the most popular girl at school but it's amazing what other people thought about our school days. I now keep in touch with quite a few old mates. I enjoyed that Reunion
Cheers Val.
GaryKelly said
05:13 PM Mar 1, 2014
Interesting thread. In my case, I hated school, and made a conscious effort not to look back the day I walked out of school for the last time.
johnq said
07:17 PM Mar 1, 2014
My mind isn't made up either way - to go or not. Maybe I have lived in too many places since, but I do not have any nostalgia for secondary school.
Left to my own devices a secondary school reunion would never have entered my mind. Mates are the same.
Live long enough and one day you are sure to be invited to a school reunion.
Today it was my turn. The phone caller spoke in triumph of having finally found me (but I was never lost) after grilling a large number of friends and finally relatives about my whereabouts, life story, happenings and contact details (several needed, please). I was eventually to find that even before I was finally run to ground (that is how it sounded), the multiple columns of the Excel spreadsheet were already completed and circulated.
Why is it though that at this juncture I feel obliged to say that I have nothing to hide and my school years were successful in all aspects that the school bothered to measure?
Frankly, I would have preferred to see a notification in the Public Notices of a major newspaper instead. That way those who really feel a need to do such things can go about their business while I quietly go about mine.
If I am going to spend four days somewhere it wouldn't be in the city I left, or at the secondary school, or with men I can scarcely remember and haven't seen since. However, all female friends and family females are buzzing with excitement - on my behalf! They have spent hours on the phone and over tea already.
Come on, how many would recommend attending a secondary school reunion? What funny or odd experiences?
I went to a school reunion ONCE,that was enough.Most of the people there I really didn't like at school and didn,t like them at the reunion,the rest were in gaol.
The western suburbs of Melbourne wasn't a good place to be in the fifties and sixties....as I remember it.......Cheers Peter
O'K I keep on thinking about the time I went to a birthday reunion for my brothers 60th people we
had grown up with had grown old where as I had not or my brother wish i had not gone like to remember
how we where memories in the corner of my heart will never be the same
Got to see a lot of people from school, friends, acquaintances and "others".
Met up with the old boyfriend, the one I "loaned to a girl friend" for a dance I wasn't going to, and she never gave him back ...lol. Seems she married him, good luck to her, in hindsight he was no catch really!
The clever kids who had such potential, but didn't get too far, like the one who got into politics and got dumped even before pre-selection.
The ones who had not much chance in life but who had a fighting spirit and did very well, like the migrant kids especially one or 2 of the girls.
I went, it was good, but wasn't earth shattering.
I don't remember my school days as the best days of my life.
What I do miss is youth. But we all do and we don't think about it but get on with life. Nothing will bring that back, or the loved ones who are gone.
Johnq, I recently had a similar e-mail... forwarded from a relative. I was a recipient of ongoing bullying from the person who was now organising this reunion, so no way would I consider going to it. However it might have been nice to catch up with some of the kids I was friends with.
Very sorry to hear that. I was fortunate to be very fit from farm work. While I was never belligerent and shrugged my shoulders at most things, I had floored seniors who tried the bastardisation game. We were lucky enough not to have mongrels in our year and a good few of us had very little tolerance for bullying and the like when our hardworking parents were supporting us in school. Farms were doing it hard in drought. We did heaps of sport to keep our minds off what was happening back on the farm while we were absent.
The only person I recognised was Mrs Krantz the bully teacher that used to belt me.
Nahh, nothing good ever comes out of a school reunion.
However, have to let you know this - I have been trying for years to track down an English girl I went to High School with (both of us were loners) and she returned with her parents to England. Well after all these years I managed to 'find' her only last month, and it was wonderful to receive a reply to my letter. So after all this time, something good has come from my school days.
I had a ball was 43 years. Recognised many faces, BUT even recognised voices across the room before I saw the person.
I think it's what you make it,,, as it was at school,, barring extraordinary circumstances, you are in control, are you not?
Anyway nothing ventured nothing gained,, my glass is 1/2 full.
25 years ago I went to a 25th year Reunion (since leaving school). It was a hoot. Everyone looked the same as I remembered them until we sat down for dinner and were given the menu, about 70% pulled out their specs to read it. One lady told me she only came to it to see how I had turned out. I'm still not sure if I disappointed her or not.
In October we are doing it again for the 50th Year Reunion. I have requested the menu be printed in Size 48 Arial Font.
The Phantom
Our teacher is still going well and most of the students keep in (ir)regular contact with him. There are plans afoot to hold another reunion this year as we all turn 70 and our teacher will be in his early 90's.
Trouble it is in Sydney and that is a pain.
Bottom line is that if it makes you feel good then do it. Nothing wrong with memories.
Regards
If I had of also showed up I would have smacked that P---k from the reunion to hell. Absolute a-holes who should have been charged with child assault.
I couldn't be stuffed meeting fat, balding, over bearing, lonely, people who I had been forced to spend a very short part of my life with.
Bob
went to mine. the girls in my class were still lovely as they always were and had a great catchup. One woman from another class spoke "not so nicely" and I realized "a bitch never changes" just gets wrinkled and ignored. Most of The people you went to school with were not friends but people you had no choice but to associate with for a long time. If you were not friends back then, no reunion will change that so no need to attend and if you were friends back then - well you would have remained in touch - again no need for a reunion.
I bumped into her in town once. Unfortunately for her she had an inoperable brain tumor in her basal ganglia and was suffering from gigantism.
Hands like tennis racquets and a really big forehead and deep voice.
Nope nothing good about school days at all.
Cheers Val.
Left to my own devices a secondary school reunion would never have entered my mind. Mates are the same.
I am thankful for the frank replies.