The high school reunion season hits its stride

Lisa Ferguson

Wednesday, July 19, 2000 | 9:31 a.m.

Few events stir emotions like high school reunions.

Some people can't wait for their class to gather to celebrate the year they graduated. They long to trade memories and share details about their current lives with pals from their glory days.

Then there are others who vehemently vow not to attend their reunions: They may hold a longtime grudge against a former classmate. Maybe they didn't know many of their classmates or weren't involved in activities during high school. The reasons for boycotting reunions are endless.

Love 'em or hate 'em, welcome to the midst of what's considered "reunion season" (which lasts roughly from May through October).

Last weekend about 500 people congregated at the MGM Grand hotel-casino to attend a giant high school reunion hosted by the website Classmates.com.

The site, which boasts a database of more than 7 million alumni from 30,000 high schools, held the gathering at Studio 54 for its subscribers (who pay $30 per year to access the database) and registrants (who do not pay but do provide minimal information to view their school's alumni list) of all ages and graduation dates. Like many others on the Internet, the site allows former classmates from points around the globe to touch base with old high school classmates.

The reunion was a first for the company that has been operating since 1994, according to Michael Siemion, vice president of sales and marketing/public relations for Classmates.com.

"We want to bring this concept of (Classmates.com) even more out of cyberspace and bring it into the real world," Siemion explained prior to the reunion. "We want to create opportunities for friends, for acquaintances, for old high-school sweethearts perhaps to get together and to see each other in person."

While he expected "people from all over the place" to attend the event, they weren't necessarily those who went to and graduated from the same school in the same year.

"It's kind of a half-breed in a way," he says. "It's a reunion, it's a party, it's a get-together. It's a celebration of what (Classmates.com) is all about." He says that future reunions hosted by the website may be used as a gathering point for schools to hold specific class reunions.

"It's been our experience that people really don't get interested in the whole reunion concept until they're out (of school) about 15 years," Siemion says.

He speculates that baby boomers may have something to do with a current trend toward reuniting. Also, there is "a need for a lot of people to reach back to simpler times, and what simpler time was there than the time you went to high school?" he says. "And I think because of that there is a fascination with trying to rekindle some of those relationships, those friendships that occurred back in your high school days."

Fascination or fantasy fulfillment? It may be a little of both.

Where are they now?

Karen Autry owns Class*E*Reunions, a local reunion planning company hired by alumni to orchestrate reunions for classes at several local high schools. She averages between 15 to 20 celebrations during reunion season and is also in the midst of planning the 25th reunion of her own class in Michigan, slated for November.

But before any partying can take place, it's her job to research and find former classmates (she can usually track down between 50 and 75 percent of the members from a graduating class), create and mail invitations and other literature about the reunion, handle reservations for the venue, catering, decorations and entertainment, among other tasks.

Autry attends all of the reunions she plans and has observed that "a lot of times, at the 10-year (reunion), people feel they still have something to prove. 'See how successful I am.' They tend to stretch the truth a little bit.

"The 20-year is a little different. People are more secure with themselves, with their careers and their lives. They don't feel they have to prove themselves anymore. The men have gone bald and gained weight; the women have gained some weight or whatever and ... they're more comfortable with themselves.

At later reunions, she says, "people are just so glad" to see each other. "When you start approaching the 30-, 35- and 40-year reunions, a lot of the classmates have passed away, and so a lot of times they're just thrilled to see the ones (who) are still alive."

Autry is planning a reunion for the Class of 1980 from Bonanza High School. Classmate Jan Beal (nee Turner) helped spearhead arrangements to get the reunion rolling.

She had a hand in planning the class' 10th reunion in 1990 and turned to Class*E*Reunions for the 20th reunion because, she says, the working mother of three couldn't have done the job by herself.

Much like the class' last reunion, this year's gathering will be a three-day event. It's reflective of a trend that's seen reunions expand from the old-fashioned Saturday night dinner-dance to include, say, a cocktail reception Friday night and a family-type outing (where alumni can show off the children they've bragged about) on Sunday afternoon.

The Class of '80s party will be held Sept. 15-17, with events scheduled to include cocktails at Angel Park Golf Course, dinner at the Orleans hotel-casino and a family picnic.

Beal, who during high school worked on the school yearbook and was on the drill team, expects about 200 members of the class to attend the reunion. "We're all in our own lives, we all have our own little things we're doing," she says. "We have grandkids now at our class reunion. We have people who have kids going to the same high school we did."

But when things really get interesting, according to Edith Wagner, editor in chief of Reunions Magazine, is around the time of the 25-year reunion. That is "when people are really starting to experience their success."

With earlier reunions, people attend "because they want to see what the cheerleaders and the football (players from high school) look like." she says. "The revelations are usually in how well the nerds have done.

"The thing I hear quite often is people meeting people whom they didn't know in high school, and becoming friends with people who 20 years before they had no idea existed and yet they were at the same school. But as you get older, you have more in common with these people."

The big events

Denise Bridges (nee Pilon) is still in touch with quite a few of the people she graduated with from Basic High School in 1975. She owns El Torito Cafe in Henderson, and says many of her patrons are old schoolmates (or their relatives).

She and two other classmates are planning that class' 25-year reunion for Aug. 18-19. It will include a gathering at the bar at Bridges' restuarant, possibly followed by a golf outing the following morning, bowling later that afternoon and a reception that night at the Desert Willow Golf Course in Henderson.

"This is going to be a very casual reunion. We're not putting a whole lot of money into it because it's the 25th," she says, explaining that through her contacts in the event planning industry, she's struck several good deals on services for the reunion.

Bridges, who was a member of Basic's drill team, is bent on making sure people aren't "stressed" at this reunion as they were at the 10- and 20-year gatherings. "There were girls who didn't come because they didn't have anything to wear. I was like, 'This is ridiculous.' "

This year, she says, "I don't care what you wear. If you want to come in a pair of jean shorts that have (fraying) on them, I don't care."

A slightly more formal affair is in the works for when members of Las Vegas High School's Class of 1960 gather in October.

Dennis Hubbard is a member of a committee planning the class' 40th reunion, which will begin with a meeting -- for pictures and a bit of nostalgia -- on the steps of the historic high school in downtown Las Vegas (the building is now home to the Las Vegas Academy school).

That will be followed the next evening by a "gala" dinner-dance at the Las Vegas Country Club. Hubbard expects that between 150 and 200 members of the class (which originally numbered around 350 students) will attend. "We've lost quite a few people already, unfortunately," he laments.

A self-described "nonconformist" during his high school days, Hubbard is a 58-year-old sales manager at Johnnie Walker Recreational Vehicles. He's helped plan and attended all three of the class' previous reunions.

"They've all been fun," he says. "You look at milestones along your life. I think (the reunions) all get to be a little more special (because) you're here (and) around to be involved in them."

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