Childhood friends & how their life went?

[SecondCor521]

In terms of worldly success, most are about as successful as I expected them to be. A few exceeded what one would have thought their expected paths as of HS graduation, a few have underperformed, so to speak.

In terms of personalities, most are about the same, but I think on average we're all a bit nicer to each other than we were in HS.

I think most of my classmates were surprised that my ex and I married (she was the pretty cheerleader type and I was the dorky nerdy 4.0 GPA type), and then probably also somewhat surprised that we divorced later. I was surprised by both of those events, anyway, and I was there :-)

2Cor521

[Urchina]

I went to my 10th reunion several years ago and was stunned at how NICE everyone turned out. The jerks apparently didn't show up, but the rest of us turned out real well, for the most part. People were so friendly that DH and I ended up visiting with different people for pretty much the entire night -- DH is friendly but not an extrovert, so the fact that he was drawn out and into new groups of people is a testament to just how damn friendly everyone was.

I was apparently wildly popular in high school, which is news to me.

There were a couple of surprises -- a childhood friend (we'd been friends since 3rd grade) started making overtly racist comments -- I'd never heard anything of the sort from her before and after some probing realized that she really did feel that way. That was disappointing and sad for me.

The other surprising (and somewhat sad thing) is that the guy we all had crushes on in high school (good-looking, smart, funny, kind, with a million-dollar smile and a fantastic lineup of hot chicks for dates) had lost his shine. He's a dentist, married to the last of his highschool sweethearts (who was kind of witchy in highschool) and just seems to have lost his zest for life. I'm sorry for that -- he was fine back in the day.

The best surprise were the folks who flew under the radar in high school -- they were the ones with interesting stories, exploring life, and making plans. Since high school wasn't the best part of their life, they were free to move on. I'm looking forward to our 20th to see where all those folks have been up to.

[bssc]

Let's see of my immediate friends from HS (Seoul American (a DOD school))
A computer programmer
A computer programmer who FIRE'd from the Air Force and is a missionary
A director at Lockheed Martin (although she lost her husband to a brain tumor)
A day care teacher
Someone who FIRE'd on Oracle stock options to found a wargame company but is working again. The only one in Wikipedia that I know of.
An IRS auditor
HS Sweethearts who own a real estate company
A fire captain who will never FIRE (type A)
A doctor
A teacher for the developmentally disabled
A SAHM going back for her masters
A Major in the USMC
A pilot for the USAF
A venture capitalist on Sand Hill Road
A banker in Australia
A lawyer who came out of the closet in multiple ways and is a gay artist

Of the ones whose life didn't go so well
One suicide from depression
One shot in 1988 on the Appalachian Trail since she was a lesbian
Two who came out of the closet and died from AIDS
One who died from cancer this year

I can't really say that there weren't too many surprises

[REWahoo]

Urchina, what you describe is typical for a 20th reunion and beyond but relatively rare for a 10th - at least in my experience. Our 10th had a few surprises (a shy wallflower bloomed into a drop-dead gorgeous woman, the studly quarterback had lost most of his hair) but overall was an unpleasant affair, with lingering cliques and overemphasis on "see what I've accomplished and how successful I am."

Fast forward to our 25th, 35th and 40th reunions and they were great - much as you described. Congratulations on a getting off to a positive early start.

[freebird5825]

I did one of those "go forward and never look back" deals when I went to college. None of my neighborhood friends had any clue or ambition about college.
My all women parochial HS closed 3 years after I graduated, We did manage a 10 yr reunion, which was fun.
Myself and 2 other friends planned a 25 year reunion, finding only 46 of 99 through Classmates.com and word of mouth. The planning started in early 2001 with a scheduled date for early Oct 2001.
We did not let 9/11 stop us.
We held the reunion, as planned, at a hotel 20 miles north of Ground Zero in NYC, barely 2 weeks later. Most of the graduating class of our Bicentennial Class of 1976, had friends and relatives who survived and some who did not survive. It is very hard to describe the event, but we all came out of the reunion with a positive sense, even in those terrible days. We were together.

[Sarah in SC]

Freebird, my school closed as well, the year I graduated. We are in the throes of planning our sort-of 20th reunion, open to anyone who ever attended the school. My class of 1988 was 40 people, the largest. Our last reunion was 5 years ago, about 150 former students of all ages showed, and it was lots of fun. We expect this one to have an even better turnout, due to Facebook and the ease of online contacts.

I think our class turned out about as expected for spoiled rotten beach bum private school kids. No real stars that I can think of, and only a handful of felonies.

[harley]

I went to 5 high schools in 4 years, and don't have any idea how most of them turned out. The only school I was interested enough in to go to a reunion for isn't the one I graduated from, so I don't get the invitations.

I've googled a number of people, but only found a few. One guy I used to hang out with a lot when we both got to college became a sportscaster, and now is a Nascar announcer. My best friend (and his kid sister) from the high school period I still have Christmas card contact with. That's about it.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bssc One shot in 1988 on the Appalachian Trail since she was a lesbian

I was hiking the trail near Sky Meadows a hundred miles or so away when Rebecca Wight was killed. I heard about it a few days later when I ran into a hiker coming south from PA. It was pretty heinous. Ever since then I've run into a lot of people carrying guns when they hike, especially women. Almost never happened before. A dark day. That Carr guy was a major nutcase. Life without parole was appropriate for him.

[Rustic23]

I only attended one HS reunion. It would have been about the 30th. It was held at the old HS and was a picnic. We stayed about 30 min. Then I told DW 'Let's get out of here, I don't know anybody this old!'

[Gumby]

I have not seen or heard from anyone from my high school graduating class since the day I graduated some 32 years ago (I went to my senior year in a completely different state from my first 3 years). The closest I can come is my classmates from the Naval Academy. One of them became the first admiral from my class a few years back. Given the things we used to do when we were ensigns living together in Florida, I was mildly amused.

[bssc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harley I was hiking the trail near Sky Meadows a hundred miles or so away when Rebecca Wight was killed. I heard about it a few days later when I ran into a hiker coming south from PA. It was pretty heinous. Ever since then I've run into a lot of people carrying guns when they hike, especially women. Almost never happened before. A dark day. That Carr guy was a major nutcase. Life without parole was appropriate for him.

That was her, she was nice.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khan I have recently made contact with some of the non-evil ones via facebook. Was not surprised to find a few of the bullies were in prison or dead.

Khan, do you have alibis for any of these deaths, or would any of these statements be admissible in court against you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 I only attended one HS reunion. It would have been about the 30th. It was held at the old HS and was a picnic. We stayed about 30 min. Then I told DW 'Let's get out of here, I don't know anybody this old!'

Now I'm not feeling so bad that our 30th didn't happen last year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby Given the things we used to do when we were ensigns living together in Florida, I was mildly amused.

Has our statute of limitations expired yet?

I've been back to USNA twice-- 1982 homecoming and 2006 summer-- and both times I was surprised at how quickly old resentments & nightmares boiled up. But it was very therapeutic to see how some of our classmates were running the show. (For better and for worse.) I never did get a chance to check the overhead of Bancroft Hall room 3208 for the sixpacks that I'd placed there all those years ago in case of a hydration emergency.

I attended one impromptu tailgater reunion in ~1995 (when Navy flew out to play in San Diego) and I won't be repeating that mistake. Spouse and I volunteered to help the Class of '50 with their 55th in Honolulu. We learned that when it's our turn for our 55th, we'll be leaving town.

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Khan, do you have alibis for any of these deaths, or would any of these statements be admissible in court against you?

I have alibis and w*rk records.

Quote:

Now I'm not feeling so bad that our 30th didn't happen last year. Has our statute of limitations expired yet?

Went to 10th, didn't go to 20th or 30th, seems wasn't a 40th.

Quote:

I've been back to USNA twice-- 1982 homecoming and 2006 summer-- and both times I was surprised at how quickly old resentments & nightmares boiled up. But it was very therapeutic to see how some of our classmates were running the show. (For better and for worse.) I never did get a chance to check the overhead of Bancroft Hall room 3208 for the sixpacks that I'd placed there all those years ago in case of a hydration emergency. I attended one impromptu tailgater reunion in ~1995 (when Navy flew out to play in San Diego) and I won't be repeating that mistake. Spouse and I volunteered to help the Class of '50 with their 55th in Honolulu. We learned that when it's our turn for our 55th, we'll be leaving town.

Haven't been to any college reunions ('72)

[Goonie]

I skipped the 5 and 10 year reunions.....figured everyone was going to about the same as when we were in school. I hit the 15 year, but only planned on staying long enough to have dinner and then bug out. I was among the first to arrive, and had such a good time, I was among the last dozen or so to leave at about 1 a.m. after the owner of the hall told us we had to leave because he wanted to go home to bed....everyone was supposed to be gone by midnight!

I went to the 20th with hopes of having another great time. BORING!!! My date and I stayed long enough to eat. They had a really lousy DJ, the banquet hall they had rented was a dump, there were far less 'nice' people and a whole lot more drunken @$$holes than the last reunion, and the food was awful! We visited for a little while, ate a little bit of the food, and then left that fiasco, and went out for a nice evening, and had a great late evening dinner! Total time at the reunion was about an hour....which was at least 45 minutes too long!

Skipped the 25th and 30th, as did everyone else that I've talked to. But several of us are planning to give it another shot for the 35th next year. I plan on going if for no other reason than bragging rights for my FIRE escape!

[eridanus]

I've only kept in touch with one person from HS and he's getting married this year. He was voted "Most Likely to Succeed," and he is. We're actually in a friendly competition to see who can ER first.

I know that at least one classmate died in Iraq.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goonie I plan on going if for no other reason than bragging rights for my FIRE escape!

But won't that make you the bore of the party, replacing those other boring folks from last time?

[CyclingInvestor]

My 10th reunion was more fun than I thought it would be. The cliques had mostly dissolved (I was in the nerds), and everyone was pleasant. I was surprised that many of the girls looked better than they had in high school. My 25th was similar.

Thanks to the efforts of one of the few extroverts I knew in HS, about a dozen of us still get together about once a year. Since we grew up in a college town, everyone I knew had at least a BS. Most are programmers. One retired for a while, then went back to work parttime. All are nice people. About 1/3 married, 1/3 divorced, 1/3 never married.

[Rambler]

Found out from classmates.com that we'll be having our 30th in june. If they held a 10th or 20th, I didn't know about it. In fact, I have not spoken to any of them since leaving the parking lot after graduation ceremony. That said, I got curious just a few weeks back and looked for a couple of my best friends from HS on facebook...found one of them. We traded one email pleasantry and have not been in contact since. A girl I know from 8th grade thru HS and was a buddy of mine looked me up just 3 days later on facebook...also traded email pleasantries once.

The kicker for me though was my best friend from that era, although from church rather than HS. He was always an all-round good kid, looked up to by the boys and loved by the girls. I tried to look him up several years back, and found out that just a few weeks prior he had been convicted on drug trafficking charges (apparently was in possession of several thousand Ecstacy pills that he was selling at rave parties). He had been the subject of a months long investigation and tried to run when the cops finally had him (stupid). When they checked inside his car, they found 3 AK-47s, so that added weapons charges. They sent him to prison for 3 years or so on the state drug charges and then he had to answer to the feds on the weapons charges. Last I was able to track down about him was that he was out and had some kind of dating service... I did try to contact him a few times some time ago, but he never replied. Haven't spoken with him in at least 25 years.

I have no college friends, one friend from work (my former CFO - who semi retired at 58), and one friend from church that I either visit or have regular contact with. I am "friendly" with everyone, but these are the only ones that I consider "my friends".

R

[Goonie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet But won't that make you the bore of the party, replacing those other boring folks from last time?

Darn straight! It's finally my turn to get even with the snobby braggarts....MOST of whom are still WORKING!!!

Besides, I don't plan to attend any further class reunions after that one. The 'kids' that I liked or hung out with, either don't go to the reunions, or else I see them or hear from them regularly anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rambler I have no college friends, one friend from work (my former CFO - who semi retired at 58), and one friend from church that I either visit or have regular contact with. I am "friendly" with everyone, but these are the only ones that I consider "my friends".

I'm pretty much the same way. I'm good friends with one of the guys that I used to work with, that retired several years before me....we have coffee 2 or 3 times a week. There was another former fellow employee (one of my old bosses) that I was good friends with, but he passed away about 2 years ago. And there are a few friends from church (some all the way back to when we were little kids in Sunday School) that they and I keep in touch fairly regularly.

Other than them, and maybe 2 or 3 others, like you stated, "I am "friendly" with everyone, but these are the only ones that I consider "my friends"."

[Sarah in SC]

Y'all are sure making me nervous about ensuring that our reunion doesn't suck! We are having the band vs DJ debate right now. My big worry is that a band will be too loud to allow for conversation, and that no one is really there to hear a band, they are there to talk. A good DJ would seem like they'd be able to emcee a bit better, and allow for the inevitable announcements needed to herd various classes over to the picture area, prizes, etc.
Any opinions or advice for me as our little committee gears up? I promise the food won't suck--we have a great caterer lined up, the same as the last one and we got rave reviews.

One thing I really like about our format is that we have a free happy hour on Friday night, a $100 a couple dinner on Saturday (free to former admin, teacher, staff members) and then a family friendly picnic on Sunday. This allows for folks to get together for the whole weekend, and incorporate their kids into the reunion as well. It worked out great 5 years ago.