Another Fine Mess I’ve Gotten Me Into
I graduated high school in 1974. Yeah, OK people, do the math, get the giggles out of your system. This makes 2009 the time for my 35th high school reunion.
I have attended one high school reunion in my life. It was, to say the least, painful. It was the fifth high school reunion, when we were all busy puffing ourselves out, trying to prove to each other that five years out of high school/a year out of college we were all already big successes. I was as bad as the rest of them, trying to prove my worth as much to me as to any of them. When I described my job as a paralegal (something I’d only been doing for perhaps six months)to an old high school acquaitance he commented with something like,”Oh, you’re a secretary.” That stung on several levels, partly because it was somewhat true (during my training period there was a lot of paperwork and go-fer-ing for the Bossman) and partly because it was a comment from someone I had been friends with that was designed to discretely draw blood. At that point I vowed I was never doing another reunion.
Two years ago I joined Classmates.com in an effort to try and track down the idiot kid who hit my car and turned out to have bogus insurance. Classmates.com turns out to be a minimally useful website where you have to pay in order to use most of their offerings. I’d quite forgotten I was even listed there until a friend from high school days tripped over my entry and sent me an email last month asking if I were going to the reunion. I hadn’t planned on it, but my antipathy from thirty years ago had subsided somewhat and I realized I really wouldn’t mind reconnecting with some of my former friends. In order to avoid a lie-by-omission, I also have to confess that it occurred to me that this might be a way to network and maybe scout out some job possibilities. My high school graduating class had over one thousand people in it, and if even only a tenth of them showed up I still had good odds of getting some job leads.
So I signed up for the reunion. And then a week ago I got notice that the reunion was cancelled due to lack of interest. Out of our class of over 1000, only fifteen people had signed up for the reunion. Go figure. Guess I wasn’t the only one who’d had a dismal time at past reunions.
My friend who originally contacted me still wanted to get in touch. She also knew of some other people who’d be in the area for the Thanksgiving holiday who were disappointed by the cancellation. One thing led to another, and we decided we’d host a small “Alternate Reunion” so that we could still catch up with each other. Dinner at a restaurant, with anyone who still wanted to chat invited over to my place for after dinner conversation.
Yesterday I made reservations at a local restaurant for next Saturday evening for fifteen people, figuring that we’d get no more than those originally interested in the reunion. Within hours of setting this up I had eleven responses, half of whom were people who hadn’t signed up for the original reunion. Confirmations are still coming in.
We didn’t restrict the size of this thing because we didn’t think anyone outside the original group of people who said yes to the reunion would be interested. I fear now that I’m going to end up with a bigger crowd than anticipated, with the potential of all of them coming to the condo after dinner. This is way more than I was planning on.
I have not hosted a “party” or “event” for people not immediate family in my entire adult life. I have no idea what to serve after dinner, what anyone drinks, what to do with the cats (who will either freak, escape, or both), what music to play (I’ve a feeling my peculiar collection of CD’s isn’t going to work well and borrowing from The Prof’s heavy metal collection isn’t going to help). Consider me overwhelmed.
And yet, in a very weird, twisted way, I’m looking forward to this.
Turn on a local fm radio channel.
Get an assortment of wine and fizzy drinks.
Medicate the cats?
(just kidding…) 😉
Have FUN.
This is a highly improbable thing to happen to you. And, yeah, I laughed and said, "Good Lord."
No great advice from here. My boss is having a birthday party with cocktails and poker next weekend, though. I can report on what worked and what didn’t if you like.
If I were to host my high school class’ reunion, I would serve Jim Jones Kool Aid.
That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I have a blast throwing parties though I don’t do it as often as I used to.
I’d suggest a couple of differnt white wines and at least one red. Bailey’s and coffee. A tray of fruit and dessert cheeses. You know the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Salamander *laffs*.
On the music front I’d go with go with Yetzirah’s suggestion of a light FM station.
Good luck and have fun!
*giggles madly at SWAM’s second comment*
Sounds exciting to me.
I’d burn a CD to play with all the pop music from the year you graduated.
We don’t drink,,,so can’t help you there. We alway just serve coke, sweet tea and water.
Hope you have alot of fun.
Calvin’s 30th is next weekend. We went to his 10th and 25th. But I only really know one of his school mates and he hasn’t ever come to any of the reunions. I don’t really look forward to it.
I’ve only been to one of mine, 10th year. Don’t know if I’d care to go to the next one. But I would enjoy a small thing like you are planning.
LOL! and some snorting too. 😉 now is your chance to throw that kegger you’ve always wanted to…
I’m of the K.I.S.S. frame of mind, too. I would provide coffee, punch, or perhaps egg nog since it’s the season when it first arrives in the markets, or maybe mulled cider might be really nice. It’s easy, too. You just dump some cider in a crock pot and toss in some cinnamon sticks, a few whole cloves maybe a little whole allspice and turn it on. If people want booze, they can BYOB.
If you really wanted to put a hitch in their get along and set tongues to wagging you could rent a chocolate fountain. You just cut up some fruit and some pound cake, toss out some marshmallows and perhaps some chopped nuts, wooden skewers and let them have at it. If that’s too much trouble a sheet cake is certainly easy. Or have a dessert potluck, that’s incredibly easy. All you need are serving utensils and disposable plates and forks, preferably in school colors, of course. It’s always a good idea to have some savory options that are eaten with bread or crackers, too. It helps absorb the booze and is less likely to cause worshiping of the porcelain god than sweets if there is considerable drinking.
Now, as for the music, I cannot recommend the internet radio station Pandora enough. Just enter a few songs that were big hits from your high school years (a truly golden era for radio music) and you’ve instantly got your favorite radio station, circa 1974. There is an occasional commercial, but they are short and sweet, and people probably won’t even notice.
BTW, my 25th H.S. reunion was canceled due to lack of interest, too. Next year is 30 so I guess we’ll see what happens in about six months.
RYC: Actually I’m reading ‘insomnia’ which at 663 pages in paperback isn’t one of his longer books. Part of the problem is that the binding isn’t in great shape and I’ve been holding it tighter than I should, probably, to keep the thing from flying into pieces. I did finally get some duct tape and fixed it, lol.
I did pick up ‘Under The Dome’ the other day to read the jacket and I had the same kind of deja vu moment but I couldn’t place where I’d remembered the premise from but now that you mention it, I’m thinking it might have been on Outer Limits.
It will be a blast! If you have a Sam’s Club or Costco (or the equivelent of either), go there for your hors doerves (never can decide how to spell the last part of that word!). Get ones that don’t have to be cooked (think tortilla rolls) or can be cooked ahead of time and served room temperature if you are wanting to serve finger foods. You can also buy wines and other alcohols there too so pick out the ones YOU like in any quantity then tell them to bring their own. This sounds like a blast. You will have to tell us all about it.
My 30th is coming up sometime – 1983. I’ve yet to go to one. Never had the interest but for some reason, I feel the same as you…time is a wonderful thing. I KNOW you will enjoy it, just remember to breathe, don’t worry about anything. You are there to get together… 🙂