Reunions

[Grauntie Mag]

Here's the thing. I had a call from an old school friend last night. We have met up just a few times after she contacted me a few years ago. We still get on really well and I like her very much. She rang to ask if I would be interested in going to a class reunion someone else is organising and like an idiot I said yes. As the conversation went on and she reeled off some names of possible attendees. I have met with a few of these people after the popularity of Friends Reunited and for the most part we have nothing in common now. I think it might be hard work and I may have to back track.
I' m sure many of you here have been to school reunions. Did you enjoy meeting with people you hadn't seen for years, and if you have been to a reunion, would you go to another?

[Gemini]

GM, I have never been to one. I think I would go if I knew one was being organised for my grammar school, just to see how everyone ended up. Especially as one of my best friends is a school friend, so we would go together

You may enjoy it a lot more than you expect GM!
Having said that, it is certainly not something you have to go to, or should force yourself to!
If you decide not to go you have two options. Be upfront and admit you feel you have nothing in common any more and don't really want to meet any of them again. Or, the good old White Lie! You are double booked that night, or something like that.
If you go though, you may enjoy it

[Oma]

I went to my school reunion about 10 yrs ago The people i didnt like at school i didnt like as adults and the rest were trying to out beat each other bragging what they had done .We were strangers and to be honest a lot i didnt remember them , I only went as i was still in touch with a few and they cajoled me into going , about 6 of us left early and went for a drink together and all said the same we wouldnt go again .

[Daisy]

I've never been to one, and I have no connections at all with anyone from the grammar school. Someone from primary school contacted me on Friends United many years ago and we emailed each other a few times, but that was about all.

A friend of mine went to a school reunion (different school) with the friends she had been and still is close to since they were 11. My friend commented that nobody would remember either of them - and she was right!! Fortunately, they both saw the funny side of it. :

[Elisi]

I've only one connection left with my school and she goes to some reunions, but I've always used the excuse of being too far away. Ditto people I knew 40-50 years ago, I don't meet up with them unless they have stayed special friends which 7 of them have.

I flew to OZ to stay with one dear friend, but I won't go to Kent to meet up with school mates. Well, having said that, I have my old school on Facebook, and lots of people I knew there are on the Page so we have certainly chatted.

My best friend at grammar school was Susan, and I tracked her down through the lady who runs the Facebook Clarks College Page. We were so close then, and lost touch, but when we found each other again, there was absolutely nothing in common and after 8 months of emails and a few texts we stopped all communication last Christmas. No idea why!

OH did a reunion with his old grammar school, now defunct, in Tottenham, and was very ambivalent about it and is not attending any more. Luck of the draw as to if it works or not!

[grannyjules]

I've been to one, but wouldn't go again. I'm not good at "Small Talk", and as you say you're all strangers now with nothing much in common.
I often used to see old school "friends" in passing, in one of my old jobs. Passing the time of day, have you got kids, are you working, that was about it and all I wanted.
So Reunions aren't for me.
If you go I hope you enjoy it..

[MillieB]

I actually organised a reunion of the girls that I shared accommodation with when at training college. It was fifty years since the college had opened and it came up on friends reunited that one of the girls was going. I applied too late for a ticket so managed to contact eight of the ten of us. They came to my house as I stayed in this city and was central. They came from Scotland and the south coast.
It was successful, although I was busy with the buffet and couldn't hear everything. What struck me was that voices and mannerisms stayed the same, just a few more wrinkles! We had spent a year living together and then I had lived with some of them in'digs' and a shared flat.
We lost touch as we moved , married and some had divorced and remarried. Then there were no mobiles or Facebook.We had a mini meet up the following year but it has fizzled out .
I have kept in touch with a school friend who emigrated to Sydney. We have been out twice to stay with her and they are over to stay at the end of the month. We revert to being eighteen when we get together.

[Nanto2girls]

I have never been to school reunion,don't think it would be my cup of tea.I know some have been to them and enjoyed them.

[Shemadee]

When I worked at the surgery colleagues would often come across old school mates and stop for a chat and catch up. As we have moved around quite a bit and Bexhill is pretty much a retirement area where all the young move away to find work, it is unlikely that anyone would organize a reunion. My brothers still live in the area and rarely see anyone from school. My sister in law is friends with one girl and occasionally mentions another girl that she has spoken to. When I joined friends reunited I had an e-mail from a girl I knew and we were in touch for a couple of months. Other than that I got enquiries about my brothers from friends of theirs! Not sure that I would recognise anyone from school now - perhaps I would go along as a fly on the wall just to see who is there!!

[Grauntie Mag]

That would be just the thing to do Shemadee. How do I become a fly?

[Guest]

I went to a school reunion in 2002 which was the 40th year after we were all 16. Some left to go to work and others stayed on to sixth form. Like Oma, the girls I found congenial still were, and the pains in the backside hadn't changed. However, there was one girl of whom I was in awe. She was very beautiful and always immaculately turned out. She had a boyfriend who had a Jaguar and who used to collect her from the bottom of the hill that our school was set on. I never really spoke to her as she was so starry.

At the reunion we fell into conversation and she told us that her father was a drunken bully and her mother had mental health problems. She used to run the entire household, wash and press the uniforms for herself and her two younger brothers, do the breakfast and packed lunches all the while avoiding the drunken behaviour of her father. She left at 16, married the boyfriend, became an accountant and had four children. And was an instant soul mate. We hit it off straight away. I was in my home town last week for the funeral of our former history teacher in the cathedral and again ten of us had a bittersweet day, with so many memories. Our former Latin teacher and and biology teacher were there too. We are going to meet up again in October and attempt to gather together as many as possible. It's the nice ones that have remained in touch.

[Shemadee]

That would be just the thing to do Shemadee. How do I become a fly?

If I work that one out, you will be first to know! Would be great though, wouldn't it?

[Daisy]

Not sure that I would recognise anyone from school now - perhaps I would go along as a fly on the wall just to see who is there!!

Shem - you're probably right! A few years ago I was photographing a wedding - lovely bride and groom. In the course of pre-wedding conversations with the B & G it came out that the Groom and I came from the same town. I thought no more about it, then at the reception I was having a chat with the BG's father and conversationally I mentioned that I also came from their home town. He said he'd just retired and moved away, I asked what he had done as a job, and he said he was a teacher, and named the school. I said that I was an old girl of that school, and he said his wife was too!!! We had been in the same class, and I had spent the day photographing her without recognising her - and she certainly didn't recognise me!

[Grauntie Mag]

Can you make me an invisibility cloak Shem?
Isn't it strange how people can change so much? One of the girls I met again through FR was great fun and very pretty at school. When she came towards me I didn't recognise her. Nothing about her was familiar.

[Daisy]

GM - people do change, and I suppose our perceptions change too. When the BG's father told me his wife's maiden name I could picture her instantly as she was then - but could see no similarity in her as a 60-something!