It didn’t take long last night before it felt like it couldn’t possibly be thirty-five years since we graduated from high school. No. Nope. No way. Nuh-uh. Thirty-five years, really? Thirty-five years…huh.
There were not an enormous number of name tags at the Registration Table. In 1989 The Post Crescent declared that 380 students were graduating from Appleton West High School on June 8th. For some reason, I always thought there were 444 kids in our senior class and the way I remember it is because that’s the number of days the US hostages in Iran were held in captivity. Yeah, that happened when I was in 5th grade, but the correlation is unbreakable for me. Yet I’ve heard rumors that our class size was closer to 477-478. I understand that class size doesn’t equal graduation size. Then there’s this nebulous piece of data that had something to do with kids getting caught cheating on the Physics final and they were prohibited from “walking” during the commencement ceremony? Trust me, I was never in any sort of Physics class whether it be high school, college or graduate school. That’s something that could likely be mis-memoried. Hey, I like the sound and definition of that new word I think I just created. I know the correct grammatical term is mis-remembered, but mis-memoried seems more emotional to me, and if the displayed poem and Talisman articles out for display last night are any indication at all, yes, I go with the emotional!
I remember writing the “censorship” article. The Valentine’s Day article though? Not one thin string of memory can reconnect me to writing that. Last night I literally cringed when as reading the article and kept referring to female students as “chicks”.
MY UNDERGRAD MAJOR WAS WOMEN’S STUDIES FOR CHRIST’S SAKE.
AT AN EAST COAST LIBERAL ARTS UNIVERSITY.
Just goes to show that a person can have her consciousness raised and become much more aware and sensitive that how we refer to each other can be deeply telling about our own crap at the time. Read the article and you’ll totally understand what I’m talking about.
I haven’t gone to all of our reunions. I missed twenty-five and thirty. I was at number 20 though because that’s when the people I was closest to in high school were invited over to my parents’ house where while we were in high school, we either a) spent a lot of time in my parents’ basement or pool, or b) didn’t spend a lot of time there but the time that was spent was memorable in some way, or c) you were at my graduation party on June 24, 1989 and if you were, the first thing that comes to mind is Wowzers.
There
are SO many classmates that I would love to see again. Some of them had
nametags at the ready last night. Others didn’t or haven’t at the reunions I attended.
I’m not going to name them here, but God-damn Matt Thompson, Adam Hardt, Robb
Bosser, John Falcus, and Pat Van Derhei you need to get yourselves to our next
one. We’re not going to live forever, you know. It’d be nice to see you again before
I die.
Our Reunion Committee kicks ass. At each reunion there is something created in memory of those from the class of 1989 that we have already lost due to tragedy, accident or illness. I was shocked to find two names of boys I knew from junior high added to the memorial. I went to junior high at Wilson with them both. It’s hard tracking down anyone who knows the details, but really that information is to satisfy my own curiosity. It doesn’t change the fact that 35 years ago, they too walked across the stage assembled in our high school gym. 380 teenagers slammed into the gym, let’s average two guests for every graduate, that’s another 760 bodies, plus the representatives from the Appleton Area School District, staff/faculty/administrators from our own high school, I figure that’s roughly 1,200 people in that gym on a cloudy and damp early June evening. Wearing polyester robes over the clothes we were already wearing. It’s a gift from God, a mitzvah if you will, no one went down that Thursday night.
I wrote a poem dedicated to our 35th class reunion and it was on full display last night. I brought markers so everyone in attendance could sign it or write something on it. At first a fellow alum and I stood there, saying, “What do you write on this sort of thing?” Then she said, “Is it like a yearbook where you write ‘Stay cool and have an awesome summer!’” My mind went racing with the number of variations on that theme I’ve written in yearbooks since 1984.
I
talked to and hugged a lot of people last night. It felt amazing. I
spent more time with other people than the people I arrived with! All of the
high school pettiness evaporated years ago, but it’s good to be reminded that high
school is not the way life will always be. I know there were official group
pictures taken by Brian Blazer (WTF Blazer? You don’t even say “Hi!” to me??)
I’m over it, I really am 😊And I look
forward to seeing those in the near future.
I bought an official copy of our class graduation picture snapped in the pouring rain at the Banta Bowl and I am already circling people’s heads and adding their names.
At
the time of high school graduation, I would be in the camp that wanted to
selectively remember classmates and experiences. Then I started working as a
School-Based Mental Health Counselor through the PATH Program of the United Way-Fox
Cities and I was so excited for my first day at West that I walked into the
Student Services Office and boldly said, “Hi I’m Kris Porath, your new PATH
counselor!” Then I erupted in laughter and said, “Ok, no, I’m Kristine Sack and
I’m your new PATH counselor, but the last time I stood in this office, which
was across the hall by the way, my name was Kris Porath, class of 1989.” The
three secretaries/administrative assistants looked at me as if I had two heads.
I mumbled that I needed access to a certain room number and could one of them
please let me in. How returning to that specific place, all those years later,
brought me right back to the way I identified myself then is surely something
Freud would have me on the couch for years analyzing.
So, thirty-five years have come and gone. What an exquisite life it’s been. Wouldn’t you agree?