Some of you know that Andy and I attended his 20th high school reunion over the weekend.  It has been in the plans for MONTHS.  And I’ve actually followed along in the planning on their Class of ’93 Facebook page since Andy himself is not on Facebook…nor ever will be.  And I’ve got to say…they hit it out of the ballpark!  It was such a successful event.

Do you attend your high school reunions?

I think Andy and I both have attended all of the reunions that have been held for our classes.  I find them amusing.  I find it even more amusing to hear other people explain why or why not they attend their own.  I think the reunions boil down to this:

• 5 year reunion = Just an extension of college.  One more reason to throw everyone together with a keg.  Not everyone is married.  Very few have children.  Important to go to see who finished college, what jobs are had by everyone and who is dating who.
• 10 year reunion = More people married.  More having kids.  But not everyone.  Some have moved away.  Usually another party-type atmosphere.
• 15 year reunion = Kids seem more important.  Most people have them and want to show them off.  Usually a family picnic or attendance at a high school football game is involved.  More low-key event.  Some unattached folks head to the bars.  Married folks follow, but head home early because they are exhausted by having young children.  Can’t keep up with the partying anymore.
• 20 year reunion = Sick of our kids.  Fed up with lack of sleep, changing dirty diapers for years, doing homework again, sitting at their sports practices and games, etc.  Basically – READY TO LET LOOSE AND PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so who knows if the above is really the case, but these folks were definitely ready to party!  They planned such a fun ENTIRE weekend with activities for everyone to enjoy.

What type of activities are held at a 20th high school reunion?

Friday there was golfing for the guys during the day.  That evening there were two options.  Some people went to the high school’s football game.  Some skipped the game (us) and headed straight to the sports-bar-type pizza joint for a “family friendly” evening.  Most left the football game at half time (it was a blow-out unfortunately) and headed to find the rest of us.  So there were a TON of people in a reserved room – kids included.  Great attendance.  It was fun to see everyone with their kids for a part of the weekend.

What really happened for us?  Well, that evening all started at 8:00 PM EST.  So we actually stopped on the drive there at 6:00 at a Dairy Queen and fed the kids ice cream for dinner.  For real.  That kept them happy for the last 2 hours of the drive until we arrived at the pizza place.  Then we ordered them pizza at 8:00 and pumped them with lemonade and suckers as well.  I entertained them with a bag full of new Halloween coloring pads, stickers, crayons, etc. while Andy chatted it up with his classmates for a few hours.

Saturday morning a group of Andy’s classmates went for a bike ride on the trail around town.  He enjoyed that.  Then after we were all cleaned up and ready to go for the day we dumped our kids with his parents.  WOO-HOO!!  Saturday afternoon at 2:00 there was a tour of his high school that lasted about an hour.  We thought that was cool because Andy had not stepped foot in his high school since graduating.  I obviously had no reference to those days, but everyone was in awe over the changes.

Andy went to a Catholic high school so we went to a Saturday evening mass that was designated for his class and all sat in the first five pews of the church.

Then the real party began that evening around 7:00.  One of his classmates lives on thousands of acres on a very nice farm.  He has a “man-cave barn” and offered up the space to the class.  Seriously, this was not a BARN in any way, this was a PARTY ROOM.  It was the perfect venue.  A large open barn-like/garage-like building with a huge covered patio off of the garage-opening, full kitchen, bar tables and chairs, TV, reception table and chairs, high school paraphernalia everywhere (door prizes!), yearbooks everywhere, a band on a big-rig blasting music…it was great!  His class provided all of the food and snacks and water/tea/lemonade.  Then everyone did BYOB and there wasn’t one complaint.  It significantly kept the cost down and kept people responsible.

Andy and one of the party planners who didn’t mind being pictured on the blog!!

People talked and caught up all night long.  People danced.  People ate and drank and drank and drank.  People laughed.  People whispered, “Who’s that??”  Followed by “OH!” or “Really?!?!?!”  People scrambled to look up someone in the yearbook.  People said, “Can you believe XYZ about so-and-so?!?!?!”  People missed those that couldn’t or wouldn’t attend.  People had designated drivers.  People were dropped off BY THEIR PARENTS and took cabs home.  People stayed the night.  Most importantly…people partied until 4 AM or later (that’s when the last photos were posted!) and made so many more great memories with their classmates.  (Andy and I crashed at 1 AM.)

As an outsider, I never really felt like an outsider.  His class is so friendly and FUN.  People nay-say about social media and Facebook in particular all. the. time.  However, this time it was BECAUSE OF social media and Facebook that I believe this was such a success.  They found each other online, planned together and kept in touch all weekend sharing memories and photos, etc. on social media.  And conversations seemed a bit deeper because people somewhat stayed caught-up via social media as well.

FYI – Logistically speaking for any of you planning a reunion…his reunion was $20/person for the Saturday night party.  That was the main RSVP.  All other activities were listed on the “formal” invitation, but had an “informal” RSVP on Facebook (like the school tour and church attendance) just to see if there was enough interest for those activities.  We all paid our own bills at the pizza place Friday!  So it was really nice for people to pick and choose what they wanted to attend all weekend.

Have you attended high school reunions?

How were they?

What were the activities/plans/venues??