Reflecting on 50 years: A reunion filled with memories, laughter and a touch of nostalgia

Recently, I attended my 50th high school class reunion. Wow! How did that happen so fast?

We gathered at a small restaurant and feasted on a buffet of salad, rigatoni and meatballs, pizza, cheese sticks and bread. No dessert, no alcoholic drinks. We just don’t need that stuff after 50 years.

And may I say, we all still looked a lot younger than the photos I’ve seen of other classes celebrating their 50-year reunions. In fact, we really haven’t changed much. One classmate brought our senior photos along and we definitely confirmed that fact. Insert laughing smiley face emoji here.

Our class always got along great in high school. There were only 40 some in our small graduating class. At reunions, it is like we have never been apart. Everyone talks with everyone. We reminisce about the fun things we did in high school, talk about our careers, families, retirements, trips, hobbies, classmates we’ve lost, things we did or should have done, and more. It was a short three hours.

I have wonderful memories of high school and some I would even like to go back and live over again – like pep club. Pep club was the most fun ever. Our team was undefeated in the football season at the beginning of our senior year, that was so exciting.

We went all out during football season doing things like decorating the players’ lockers, decorating the hallways, making signs for the game, gathering in one big group at the games and yelling at the top of our lungs. We were all in on supporting our team.

During my time in football pep club, my mom never knew when she picked me up from a game if we won or lost. I’d be crying either way – sad if we lost, crying for joy if we won.

Another fond memory from high school was our class trip to Cincinnati for a special event, Senior Night at Kings Island. The park was closed to the public that night and filled with nothing but thousands of senior high school students from all over.

At the time, I had never been to a large amusement park, had never ridden on a large roller coaster and I didn’t really want to go. But I didn’t want to get separated from my friends either. 

There I sat, the roller coaster was moving up, it was really high, I was holding my breath because I was kind of scared. We got to the top and whoosh! Down we went, and for those five readers who haven’t been on a roller coaster before, you can’t breathe on the way down. I wanted to take a breath but no. My head started to hurt. 

By the time we got to the end of the roller coaster ride, I didn’t want to go on any more rides. I decided to ditch my friends, because it wasn’t going to be any fun following them around and watching them go on rides. When you’re young, you don’t think about risks. This was not my best and safest idea, but it ended up being one of my best nights ever.

I wandered over to the other side of the park. There was a huge crowd of students there all watching a concert. The park had hired Styx and Sugarloaf to play that night. It was so cool. I had never been to a large concert before either, but I listened to music all the time. I love music.

I danced along by myself to their hits and particularly remember hearing the tunes, “Green Eyed Lady,” and “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” by Sugarloaf which were a hugely popular songs at the time. And enjoyed hearing Styx perform their song “Lady” live. 

At the end of the evening, I found my way back to the school bus and met up with the rest of my classmates for the bumpy four-hour ride home. I told this story at the class reunion because after watching too many crime show episodes over the years, I know that splitting up and going off on my own wasn’t a good idea, but I have no regrets.