'83!
Tonight, this Rock Chick will be attending her high school’s 26th Class Reunion. (Strange number to celebrate, I know.)
My 10th reunion was planned by one of those cookie cutter reunion planning groups. Yawn. It sucked big time. Not only did I find everyone’s bragging about careers as boring as hell, it took freaking forever to serve dinner, so mainly we were stuck with the 9 other people at our table for almost the entire evening.
Being the rebel rouser (rauser? I don’t know!) that I am, I decided that the 20th was going to be planned by people from our class. It would be personal and there would be no sit down dinner. There would be a buffet of some sort or they could just eat pretzels, I didn’t care. The point is to mingle, visit, catch up, reminisce and get to know people you didn’t know back then.
It certainly isn’t supposed to be about being stuck at a table all night wondering who the heck I had to Catboot to get a move on that wedding chicken.
So, I along with a few of my former classmates planned the 20th reunion and it rocked! We had everyone donate pictures and we put them up all around the room. We remade the yearbook onto a CD and included pictures of everyone today and stories of their lives after high school as a keepsake. We relived the awesome, the sad, the fashions, the music, the dramas and traumas and laughed at our premonitions of the 20 year old “Most Likely To Succeed” types of awards. (Nobody, by the way voted me “Most Likely To Become A Rock Chick”. They all know I’m really a choir chick and just play along with this rock chick thing to humor me. You know, so I’ll plan more reunions.)
Jami Gertz
The “Most Likely To Succeed” award went to my former classmate and actress, Jami Gertz, who had just portrayed the role of Muffy Tepperman in the TV series, Square Pegs at that time. Is she the most successful? I don’t know. I think back as teens there was a strong association with fame equaling success. I think Jami has been extremely successful in a tremendously competitive industry, so I think we were right about her.
The 20th reunion was so much fun that since then, my former classmates have honorarily dubbed me with several titles including “Miss Class of 1983” and “Reunion Chick” (yep, still no “Rock Chick”. It’s ok, I can wait.). While I am honored and adore living up to those titles, adult life got in the way of my ability to pull off a 25th reunion. In true “better late than never” style, we are having a 26th and this rock chick will be there with bells on.
I’m one of those “I loved high school” people, so much so that my hubby, JW, has accused me of making him nauseous during my reunion planning. JW is actually a former classmate of mine, too, but if you listen to him, high school was a terrible place and he is never what anyone would call “excited” to relive those times.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my high school days lately with the death of Michael Jackson. He was “it” my Senior Year of high school and I remember at Prom when the DJ fired up “Billie Jean” and the excitement the song produced in the crowd even months after it’s release. Quite a “thriller” if I do say so myself. By the time “Beat It” started, we were all on the dance floor. In fact, the Michael Jackson songs are the only songs that I can remember the DJ even played that night. I’m hoping that when the DJ plays it tonight we can all still capture a bit of the magic that was not only high school, but the magic that was MJ at that time, too.
MJ
MJ was kind of like high school, actually. The awesome, the sad, the fashion, the music. and the dramas and traumas. A lot of memories, but the strongest for me regarding both are the awesome and the music.
I’m thrilled about that. How do you feel about class reunions?
If you like this post, you may also enjoy Teen Age Crush and High School Never Ends
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Fab entry, as always! You’re right – our 20th was much better than the 10th. You did an amazing job. But I also remember my mom telling me that at the 10-year, it’s a lot about impressing people, but the subsequent ones … well, people tend to let go of the B.S. I was an “I HATED high school” person – so it’s weird that we get along so well now. Or maybe not … Can’t wait to see you and most of the others tonight!
I agree. At the 10th, everything was about the work or the cars everyone drove. At the 20th, people seemed relieved to have a night out and mingled a lot more!
Did you have fun last night?
Of course! It was great. Thanks for organizing!!!