Living in the COVID World ... and Beyond #51: Two 50th Reunions

This Spring was the 50th anniversary of my graduation from high school.   This blog is about what it was like to attend not one, but two, high school 50th reunions.

I attended a private boarding school or prep school for grades 9 – 12.  I graduated from that boarding school, named Taft, in June 1974.   I have attended most of the reunions there since graduation, every 5 or 10 years.   Although I have had minimal contact with my classmates outside of reunions, just an occasional email or phone call, I was very much looking forward to seeing them again for our 50th.

The 50th reunion of my Taft class of 1974 was quite wonderful.   I enjoyed seeing and catching up with lots of old friends.    Taft had been a boy’s school when I entered in 9th grade and had “gone co-ed” starting in my 10th grade year.  My experience there was primarily of being with boys.   We lived together, ate together, attended classes together, did homework together, did sports together, and just hung out and played together.  As I said hello and talked with more and more of my friends over the course of the 50th reunion, I noticed how familiar, close, warm, and connected I felt with them.   This was despite how sparse our contact has been over the last 50 years.   As I reflect on it, it reminds me of how I understood the experience of men who served in an army unit together, the “band of brothers” concept.   I had not been in war with my Taft classmates, but we had gone through adolescence together, and in very close quarters.   The depth of closeness that I felt with these old friends surprised me, and I saw others there were having the same reaction with the renewed connections we were all feeling.

I attended the Middletown, New York public school system from kindergarten through 8thgrade.  I left after 8th grade, and other than one person (who has since died), I did not continue my friendships with people there after 8th grade.   I have over the last 5 -10 years decided to search for some of my early childhood friends and have found a small handful that I have now seen and talked with a few times in recent years.   Through one early childhood friend that I had re-connected with, I learned that my Middletown public school was also having its 50threunion.   I debated in my mind whether to attend.   Only one, the person who informed me about the reunion, of that small group that I had re-connected with was going to attend since she still lived in Middletown.  I had trepidation: Would I remember people?   Would they remember me?  Would I feel out-of-place since I did not go through high school there and graduate with them?   I decided to attend.

When I arrived at the Middletown reunion, I did not know anyone there.   Gradually more people arrived, and more early childhood friends arrived: Danny, Ginny, Mary, Ellen, Hector, and finally Gary.   These had been good friends during those early years, and I had not talked with any of them in at least 54 years.   It was great to see them.  We had been in school together and played together.   Again, like at the Taft reunion, I experienced that sense of familiarity, warmth, and closeness.   It brought back memories that I had long forgotten, especially after I followed up with an hourlong phone call with Gary a week after the reunion.   I’m very glad that I put aside my worries and attended the 50th high school reunion of the high school that I never attended.

Have you attended reunions?   What has been your experience?