When I got the save-the-date card for my 50th high school reunion, I was shocked! Hey, 50th reunions are for old people! Then I realized I must be one!
So I volunteered to be our Class of 1975 reunion secretary and sent out emails asking for life updates and attendance plans. As I sifted through the replies, I began getting information about classmates who had passed away. A girl I had dated died of cancer. Another I had a crush on had died the year before. I received a heart-breaking email from the widow of a wrestling team buddy saying he had passed. All told, I found out a dozen classmates had passed on.
Those sad responses convinced me that I must go to the reunion to reconnect with people with whom I had spent four important years.
When my wife and I arrived in my hometown for the reunion, we went for a long walk around the school grounds. Memories came flooding back. The next evening, we dined with our 50th reunion group. I was pleased that 36 classmates of the 100 (about) in our graduating class attended. Everyone looked great! Granted, now in our late 60s, our definition of “looking great” is far more forgiving than it used to be!
During dinner, we didn’t compare accomplishments, cars or careers—we honored the past as we reminisced about our classmates who are no longer with us. We remembered a classmate I had known since we went to preschool together. After I shared precious memories of her, others who were close to her shared theirs. We remembered another friend—a funny, well-liked, brilliant and athletic student who became a leading brain surgeon at Johns Hopkins. His widow joined us; we all cried with her. And so it went through the list, with shared recollections triggering tears and eliciting laughs. I was pleasantly surprised that as we all told our stories, old friends recalled things that I had forgotten and I was able to jog their memories, as well.
As we talked, my classmates transformed in my mind’s eye to how they looked in our school days. Grey hair turned brown again and bald heads regrew shoulder-length locks. Guys shuffling painfully to their tables were once again fleet-footed soccer jocks and track stars. Grandmothers with etched laugh lines and crow’s feet transformed into gorgeous young girls again.
Saying goodbye at the end of the reunion was bittersweet. I hugged it out with everyone.
I had viewed reunion group photos of the older classes above us, hanging in the hallways. Seeing fewer people in each five-year grouping, I realize that at our next reunion, I may not be seeing some of these dear friends again.
So I’m glad I went back for the Big Five-O and I’m going to attend all of my class reunions for as long as I am able, God willing.
ROB MELDRUM was born and raised in Hudson, Ohio, and graduated from Middlebury College in Vt. summa cum laude, with high honors for his senior thesis. After a 20-year career with AT&T, he started a telecomm software company and is a patent-holder. He and his wife, Kelly, moved from Seattle to Maui in 2019. In retirement Rob enjoys playing guitar, writing songs, playing pickleball and baking sourdough bread.
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