High School Class Reunion - Results

We attended our 45th high school class reunion in late May. A classmate who lives in our hometown always makes the arrangements for our reunions, every five years. He does an excellent job, and we really appreciate it and support him.

Prior to the reunion, Sue and I created a number of things we thought would add to the event. In fact, we did a lot of work and spent quite a bit of money on it. The first thing we did was to create an up-to-date directory of our classmates, which took a couple of months of work. We had the final directory printed at Kinko’s, and it looked nice. There were two people for whom we could not obtain an address, and one person who didn’t want her address included, for personal reasons. We scanned each person’s photo from the school yearbook and printed it with the address and telephone number information.

Sue created two very nice scrapbooks, one of things relating to our senior year, and one of general 1950’s and early 1960’s nostalgia. She also made a really neat shadowbox containing our class rings and several other school items we had saved. I made labels for small Kit-Kat candy bars, with images relating to our school and class, and wrapped 120 of them for the reunion. I also created seven CD’s of musical memories from the 50’s and 60’s, including some movie and TV show theme songs. I also made peel-and-stick “name tags” with each person’s senior photo on them (no names needed). Sue displayed her school letter jacket (basketball) on a hanger at the reunion, along with the other items, and I played the music on the sound system. We think those things added to the fun.

The person who arranges the reunion is an excellent photographer and had recently purchased a very nice digital SLR camera, which he uses for wedding photos and other purposes. Sue is also an excellent photographer, but prefers a simple point-and-shoot camera. They both took a number of photos, including individual ones of each classmate who attended. After the reunion, the classmate photographer suggested it would be nice to have the photos put on a disc, with a musical background, for a slide show, but he didn’t have the experience or software to do it. I volunteered to give it a try. He copied all his digital photos of the event to a CD and sent it home with us.

There were 47 class members when we graduated, and 5 have died (the latest death occurred within a couple of weeks following the reunion). Twenty-two members attended the reunion, which was a good turnout. The class directory got several people communicating in advance, especially through email, and sparked some interest in attending the event. The dinner was held at a most impressive location, at a very reasonable cost. The food was excellent, and it appeared that everyone had a great time.

One class member operates two disc jockey schools in Oklahoma and Texas, and he volunteered to copy the 7-disc music set for anyone who wants it. Another classmate volunteered to copy the slide show I had volunteered to create. When we returned home, we immediately had some major work done on our house, but I finally got busy on the slide show. Having never done one, I had a lot to learn. I decided that a five-minute show of photos, with music background and titles, was a little short. So, we added scans of pages from the scrapbooks, and I added some old TV commercials I had purchased on a CD many years ago. The final program was 995MB in size, running 31 minutes, with titles and music, on a DVD. I eventually completed it and have just mailed it to the fellow who will make copies for others. I hope it works for everyone; it should run on any DVD player. I am now sending a letter or email to everyone who attended, telling them of the availability of the DVD and the music CD’s. That wraps up our responsibilities for the reunion.

We had a great time and are looking forward to our 50th.