I don’t really have an ax to grind, nobody really treated me poorly, just for the most part I didn’t have a lot in common with those folks. I imagine they have very fulfilling lives, or maybe they don’t. I just don’t care.
I don’t use Facebook but my wife does, and she finds that occasionally some random person she hasn’t spoken with since she was a kid has looked her up, sent her a “Hey what’s up?” message. These weird her out, and they would me too, what could they possibly have to say after all this time?
I think for a lot of people on the more popular side of the spectrum, there were plenty of people they casually hung out with but didn’t necessarily keep in touch with going forward. I suspect those of us on the nerdier end tended towards fewer but closer friends. But that’s just my guess.
OK, that made me laugh. That’s cool that you get pleasure from such things. I guess my wife and I lean more toward the “just leave me alone” end of the spectrum.
I guess if you don’t find getting notes out of the blue from someone you haven’t spoken with in decades kind of weird, then we probably lack a common perspective to discuss such things meaningfully. I’ll just say, I find it weird.
So how would you expect someone you haven’t talked to in decades to approach you? Facebook seems pretty benign. I’d prefer that to a knock on the door or even a phone call. Or do you think that after a certain amount of time has passed we should no longer try to reconnect with past friends?
I skipped my ten-year reunion for the same reasons everyone above has mentioned – I already see the people from high school that I want to. Some of those people are weekly, some are every now and then, and some are like once every few years. But I’ve maintained the relationships I want to maintain. The only reason to go would be to see people I don’t actually want to see that badly.
My graduating class was only like thirty people, though.
Went to my 10 since I was still within a few hours of where I grew up. It was fun, but the better part is when the small group of my friends bounced to the nearby diner.
Won’t be going to my 20th (which is next month) because I live quite a bit farther away now. And I keep up with the handful of people that I still want to.
I did my 10th reunion, it was held about five minutes from the house we owned at the time. It was fun, I still recognized people and remembered their names. Even my wife had a good time as she had met several of my high school friends.
By the 20th though I had no desire to do the reunion thing. I did go to the Friday night get together, and that was enough for me. Of course we had little kids then and the idea of spending money to see strangers lost out over the desire to just spend money to get out by ourselves. :)
My 40th (egad) is coming up next year.
Haven’t been to one yet, and probably won’t go to this one either. Every time they have one, I do get a letter in the mail. I don’t know how they know my address, as I’m unlisted, but since I’m still living in the town right across the river, I suppose someone got it from my sister, who does go to hers, and also lives near me. And I think it’s cool that someone bothered to try and find me, since I was very uninvolved in school activities. And I always feel slightly guilty for not going, as I had no real problems with anyone from school, and someone actually hand-writes my name and address on the envelope, and puts a stamp on it, and the cost is quite reasonable.
It wouldn’t kill me to go; I just have no desire to. As Mr. dive and Armando point out, I’m already still acquainted with the people I care about from that era. Also, I much prefer running into them by accident at the gas station or grocery store, or wherever, and catching up that way. It just seems much cooler to have a chance meeting, rather than a formal event. I genuinely enjoy spontaneous and accidental meet-ups.
Mine was around 500+ freshmen, a little under 400 graduating seniors. We had—still have, last I checked—around a 25% drop-out rate. I suppose it’s a testament to HS cliquishness and academic streaming that all those kids just disappeared from school, and I couldn’t name more than two or three of them.
For the teachers, it must have been like watching a slow-moving zombie outbreak, where the children of ignorant rednecks gradually wandered off to meet their doom of remaining ignorant rednecks. But I didn’t notice, which I still find kind of baffling.
I went to my 5th, which was a hoot—holding my tray full of food at the end of the buffet, and looking around for people to sit with was a hell of a flashback—but none since. Weddings and funerals have served as reunions with the people I want to see.
So no pressure. I kind of just gave my personal piece there but here are some interesting things I found out. We have one classmate who is working on biodegradable plastic by growing… I think they said algae or something. It was very loud, hard to hear anything. I have another classmate who is a Liaison for Veteran’s Affair, been on C-Span several times, apparently. He was a terrible student but obviously a great speaker now. A tone of parents, lots of talks about kids, and a huge number that didn’t go the college route or didn’t finish. One of our more prominent musicians, never even took music in High School . He learned to read music in college and went on to be a professional… it’s just human stories, some great, some not so great, but… you just never know what is possible. I love the stories, but I hated the crowd.
Humans of New York, local style… except in the open bar where the rowdy group migrated. heh.
So I finally got a new microwave. The one we had occasionally made a strange buzzing noise. It used to belong to my parents so it was at least 10 years old. As well, it killed my WiFi when it was on. So yeah, definite shielding issues.
Got this one
It’s quiet with a bunch of new and useful features. And best of all, no WiFi interference.
Hell, I’m still rockin’ a 1988 Amana 700 watt. Damn thing never dies, and I wish it would, because I seriously don’t think they make a low-watt microwave like that anymore, because none of the microwave food package instructions even go that low.
Hmm. Just checked the tag. Found the mfg date of June 1988, but no wattage. Maybe it was 800.
All I know is I have to take typical microwave instructions and multiply the time by 1.5 for things to come out right.
I paid over $200 for this thing!
Meanwhile my girlfriend’s mother just bought a cheap $99 one that is like 1100 watts or some damn thing, AND has a carousel to boot.
DIE, ancient microwave oven, DIE!
