Mind Games and 30th Reunions

August 26, 2010

I’m teetering on the edge of my 30th high-school reunion and it’s starting to mess with my mind. I can only imagine what the dream detritus will be, after it’s all over.

For now, though, I’m having fun on Facebook reconnecting with former classmates, reminding ourselves why we enjoyed each other’s company or, in other instances, wondering why it took so long to cross paths with each other in the first place.

Got a funny phone call this summer from three former classmates who were having their own mini reunion along the shores of some lake in Michigan. In that loud, funny, speaker-phone call, we laughed about some of our dusty times together. In particular, we recalled the time as seniors when we put bandanas over our faces, hopped in a car and raced through the drivers’-ed course, upsetting the delicate balance of the freshmen drivers, whose sweaty palms glistened and gripped even more as we weaved between them.

I expect that this phone call was just a sample of what’s to come in a month—heaps of funny, fuzzy flashbacks shared against a backdrop of lukewarm buffet-line food and keg beer. And, while the numbers may be off a bit, I’m also predicting that those who attend our 30th will mostly be glad to be alive and upright. It won’t be like a 10th-year reunion, when people are still too young to appreciate time with each other without giving in to the temptation of showing off their swag. Granted, at our 30th, there will be plenty of swag, but it’ll be in the way we walk, not in the way we talk.

No, I think we’ll just be glad to be together, sharing stories and reconnecting. How many of those stories are actually true or accurate, I cannot say. But they’ll be fun to tell, anyway.