High School
Looking back from 40 Years Ago
I have been helping a few of my classmates prepare for my 40th High School reunion this fall. (Sept 2026) I have created some registrations forms, done some digital sleuthing to try to located classmates and scanned in a 7th grade Jr. High year book and our Senior year book photos. So many faces are familiar and so many I can’t even recall. High School is this thing that none of us choose to go into per se but is part of the growing up process that your just sort of propelled into. Depending on when you move into an area, you go to elementary school with a small class, then you go to a middle school and then finally are all put into an even bigger class in High School. My class was around 250. Among all of those classmates and across the four grades - we all gather each day of the week for school : classes, teachers, lunches, PE and sports and extra curricular activities.
Everyone had their groups - either from friendships, or based on a common class or activity. I was in band and marching band for the first 3 years. I had friends from Jr. High that did not persist into High School (Billy Bjorkland) and others that did (David Jones, Blake Casselman). In the 80s there were the jocks, the cheerleaders, the band nerds, the smart nerds, the cowboys, the rockers, the tough guys etc etc. We all intermixed in between classes and at lunch and at sporting events and dances - we were all just trying to stumble our way through our high school teenage years. For sure some knew where they were headed and had everything together. Others maybe were just “Working for the Weekend” and some (like me) were kinda lost and unsure for much of it. Looking back on the faculty photos - 40 years later I realize that while at the time we saw them as the adults to be tolerated, ignored or adored they were all just trying to live their own middle aged lives - to have a career - to make a living.
None of us are defined by High School - we are all who we are today based on the choices we have made since; the events that have unfolded in our lives, who we’ve loved and where we’ve lived. And yet 40 years ago we spent every school day for year(s) together - and while we didn’t know everyone at the same level of detail - it’s always good to get back together and to remember those days and to try to find the familiar in the faces 40 years later.
Cool that you’re helping organize it. That picture literally could’ve been me, ha! BIG HAIR days.
You and I must be similar age. We also had our 40th. I didn’t go, but did meet up with several high school friends (some were in adjacent classes) for a sort of off-shoot of it, and it was a blast. It’s kind of amazing how people keep in touch after all this time.
I was kind of a “floater” (chameleon, if you will) who was in choir/band, drama, participated with the “brains” at the Knowledge Bowl, went to the band shows for the “rockers”, befriended cheerleaders, Christian kid, cheered for the jocks at football games, even sat around with stoners (but didn’t partake) and loners. So formative, and helped me see the world for what it is: a melting pot. Thanks for dredging up good old memories! High school can be brutal for some, but it’s a good precursor to life as an adult.