Well it’s all over but the mopping up; the 20th anniversary reunion of the Riverdale Senior High School Class of 1985 is safely behind me and I can look forward to at least another decade of living for bigger and better things. As I sailed out of the luxurious Airport Hilton back to my car, a loosely organized, marginally interesting, group of mullet-coiffed thoughts crowded for first place on the stage of my instant replay memory machine. More than anything, I realized my dream of some sort of perspective-inducing cinematic high school reunion (ala John Cusack) was ridiculously out of reach. The best and the worst of the night were mere bullet items…
- Let’s get this out of the way right now: almost every one of the girls I thought were hot back in school are still hot.
- A lot of those hot girls STILL have BIG 1980’s style hair. I mean BIIIIG hair. I caught myself staring at a couple of them too long wondering if I was supposed to feel bad for thinking their big hair was hot. This must mean that all the women who still wear their hair in beehives are getting hit on by the men of their generation. I have to add that I found some of the girls who’d moved on into the 2000’s with their hairdo’s were even more attractive.
- We’re all loners to some degree, but I was more of an outsider than I realized. The so-called “popular” kids crowded together at the reunion and many of the rest of us who’d been the “civilians” stayed in our groups, or circulated around the room like me.
- This reunion made me feel very old. When you hit your late 30’s you begin to notice all of the hallmarks of becoming middle-aged and this reunion, more than anything else I’ve encountered, hammered that home to me. More than a few of our classmates looked like they were in their mid to late 40’s already. Thank God that I’m a late-bloomer.
- I should have had more fun in school – I should have made more memories. I should sit down and post the fun ones that I do have to the site.
- I was surprised at how charmed I felt to see Donna McMonigle, one of my classmates since elementary school.
- I was disappointed not to see some of the people I remember the best, who by accident or design did not attend.
A long time ago our class President sealed the vote with a story about a pickle. I wonder if she realized that it would mean that she’d be beholden to organize our reunions after we’d all grown old and fat?
This post is dedicated to Kim Anderson and her team for organizing our reunion. I left with a lot more to think about than I went in with.
