I just got back from my 50th high school reunion. This is the first reunion of my high school class of over 600 I attended. Perhaps about seventy showed up. It was not as emotionally draining I thought it might be.
I attended high school in Peoria, Illinois. Those of us who graduated high school in 1968 were in eighth grade with John Kennedy was assassinated. In 1968, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed. In fact, Kennedy was on his death bed as we graduated.
One can make a good case that 1968 was the most consequential year after the end of the WW II: the Tet Offensive began the year leading Cronkite to say that we have lost Vietnam; Johnson’s decision not to seek re-election; the assassinations; the Cultural Revolution; the crushing by the Soviet Union of the attempt to reform Communism in Czechoslovakia; France is shut down for almost a month threatening the collapse of the Fifth Republic; the police riot at the Chicago Democratic Convention; the election of Nixon. (I don’t know what happened in Africa and South America.) I talked to one of the classmates about this who indicated no knowledge of all these events and asked whether I was a history major. (I’m not; I’m a linguist.)
I attended a very good public high school. My spouse graduated from a German Gymnasium. I have read that that is the equivalent of two years of American college. I was able to take all of the advanced placement courses at my high school. This meant that I really only took courses with a group of perhaps 30-35 others, so I didn’t remember a lot of the people. (Several said they remembered me as one of “the smart ones.”) My education compares favorably with my spouse’s. I took advanced placement tests in my senior year and was given credit for my English and science/math requirements. One of the discussions I had with many at the reunion was how good our education was.
Given the fact that my high school served the richest section of Peoria (I asked the vice-principle who was giving us a tour how many of the students today get free and reduced lunches: 30%), it is not surprising that I know of only one of my classmates who died in Vietnam. I learned that he left at the end of the junior year and enlisted. Several at the reunion were in the military, but I never asked them what they did. A number of the males remembered when the lottery was and what their number was. There was an academic hall of fame that was only partially visible. It is interesting that in the last decade all of those honored had family names that suggested their family is from south Asia. A lot of engineers at Caterpillar are from south Asia.
After I graduated, I went to Northwestern where there was a lot of marijuana. When I came home that fall I told that to my sister, who was a year behind me. She told my there was a lot of marijuana in our high school. I asked several people whether this was true. They remembered alcohol, but no marijuana.
Over sixty of my classmates have died. One was my best male friend in high school, who died last year, and another was my debate partner. I didn’t know how to ask about how many died in the 80s from AIDs.
Of course, those who go to events like this are self-selecting. There was no one who had a cane or a walker. Almost everyone had gray hair or next to none. A lot of us have shrunk a little and have become a little wider. Most of those that I talked to still lived in the Peoria area (I live in Kansas City); however, I was surprised at the number who live in the Dallas area. Almost everyone I talked to was retired or only working part time.
I’m very political (I hang out here) and was interested in my classmates’ political views. I have a bumper sticker on my car that says: Voting is like driving. Choose R to go backwards. Chose D to go forwards. The other says: I didn’t vote for Trump. (I didn’t wear my “It’s Mueller time” button.)
Two of my classmates saw the voting one, smiled, but did not engage me in any discussion about it. My response today when people greet me with “how are you doing” is “Other than the fact that Donald Trump is President, things are going well.” When I gave that response, several classmates said “no politics.” Several of my classmates involved in alternative energy projects, teaching, or in NGOs agreed with me. One of my classmates has become an Israeli citizen. When I said I thought Netanyahu was Trump on steroids, the response was “I like that.” I asked a person whose views agree with mine how many he thought voted for Clinton. He said perhaps 30%. I turned to someone next to him and asked who he voted for: “Trump because I couldn’t stand Clinton.” I responded, “So you preferred the pussy-grabber.” He was offended and the discussion ended. I had no discussion about Kavanaugh.
Peoria, when I was growing up, was very conservative, so I am not surprised how very few wanted to talk about politics. No one shared talk about children or grandchildren. I would love to have known how many still have a parent still alive. Several said they did. The safe discussions were about where one lived and what one did before retirement. One of the interesting things was taking pictures of people by the grade school they came from. (I attended two different grade schools that fed into the high school.) Those who I had the best memory of were those with whom I had gone to grade school.
You can only attend one 50th high school reunion. My spouse did not grow up in the US. I thought it would be interesting for her to see my high school. She has lived long enough in the States that she knew what to expect. I don’t regret going. I wish I had learned more about my classmates experiences and how the national events influenced their lives.
Have you been to your 50th reunion? Do you plan to go?