20 Year Class Reunion

This past week was my 20 Year Class Reunion in Gillette, Wyoming. Our graduating class was 398 people which should make for a pretty large reunion. I had been looking forward to this for a couple of years because I didn't go to the 10 year reunion. There are actually some people that I wouldn't mind seeing again.

But before I can give the reunion details, I need to set the stage as to what my high school experience was like so you can understand how I fit into the Class of '89. Also, let me apologize that for some readers the names of these people won't mean a thing to you. However to those family members that read this they will likely remember a couple of these people. I will also use first names only to protect the innocent.

First of all, I was the only active Mormon male in my class. There were two active Mormon females (April and Corie). Now that I think about it, if there were one of me and two of them then it should have worked out pretty nicely for me. It didn't. I don't think either of them wanted anything to do with me. This should give you the first hint about my high school career.

Anyway the Mormon thing was what made me different amongst my classmates. It wasn't overt. I don't think people referred to me as the "Mormon Boy", but people did know I was Mormon even though their only point of reference on being a Mormon was that I didn't drink or have sex. Other than that I was pretty much just the same as everyone else.

The second thing was my friends. I had two best friends (Matt and Steve) that I spent a large majority of my time with. We stayed at each others houses, our parents knew each other, and we had a major commonality: a love for sports, mainly basketball. We spent a lot of time at the rec center or at Steve's driveway shooting hoops. I'm convinced that our passion for sports was what kept us out of trouble.

One time I came home at 4:00 a.m. on a Friday night/Saturday morning. Curfew was at midnight and I'm pretty sure I had some creative answers for my parents as to why I was home so late. The real reason: we were playing "p-i-g" on a nerf hoop in the basement of Steve's house. We were so competitive that we kept playing because nobody wanted to be the last person to lose. That story sums up my high school years in a nutshell.

If I had to classify friends it would go like this:

First tier: Friends that I spent a majority of my time with, spent time at their house, and knew their parents.

Second tier: Friends that I played sports with or talked with on a regular basis, however it was likely that I had never been to their house or met their parents

Third tier: Friends/acquaintances that I sat next to in a class or would occasionally talk to.

Fourth tier: People I knew but never really talked to. In some cases their reputation was all I knew about them.

Fifth tier: Mortal enemies. I can't say I had any of these, but it's possible that others could have felt that way about me.

I would say that I knew who or of about 90% of our senior class.

The third thing would be my status on the social ladder of Campbell County High School in 1989. Here's my take on the social scene:

A-List- Probably an athlete or cheerleader. Or someone who was the life of the party on weekends.

B-List- Marginal athlete, not thought of in negative terms, friendly with others, but not a big part of the party scene or had anything that stood out talent wise. Could also be a smarter kid who acted normal. A large majority of kids fall into this category.

C-List- Kids who people knew, but didn't know much about them. Probably had a smallish circle of friends. Might be a little bit nerdish or quiet. Could be the drama/choir kid or smarter kid who was a little awkward socially.

D-List- Full blown nerds who didn't dare talk to anybody else. Limited social skills. Probably a loner.

F-List- Dropped out in 10th grade, smoked weed, and pretty much destroyed their future.

I considered my self maybe a lower lever B-Lister. I had some 2nd tier friends that were A-List, but I mostly hung with B-List and some C-List. I never considered myself popular, but I never considered myself a pariah either.

Now that we have all the high school stereotypes out of the way, let's get to the actual reunion.

My class reunion caused me a little anxiety because I didn't know what the perception of me would be.
Was I kind of a nerdy kid that people weren't that excited to see?
Would they even recognize me (80 pound difference between senior year and now)?
Was I even going to be remembered by most of my classmates because I wasn't an A-List socializer?
Did others want to see me as bad as I wanted to see them?
Was the Mormon thing going to be a big deal or would it even come up?
Or was this going to be a big beer-fest with drunken shenanigans going on?

The trip to Gillette is a long one. About 9 hours on the road. I don't mind taking a road trip, but it's a little different when you're 15 minutes in and Aubree is asking when we'll be there. And then asking us every 5 minutes for the rest of the trip.

The reunion was split over two days. Friday night was the Icebreaker at a pizza place. Saturday morning was golf, lunch that day was a BBQ in which the whole family was invited, and the evening was "Cocktails at 6:00 p.m. and Dinner at 7:00 p.m."

Since Friday night was not a family affair Becky chose to stay with the girls and go swimming at the pool at the hotel. That was fine with me since I didn't anticipate she would have a fun time.

I arrived at the pizza place at 7:00 p.m. and checked in. They gave me a name badge which is the saving grace for these types of things. If I had to remember names and faces from 20 years ago I would be toast. The first person I bumped into was Chuck (2nd tier friend, B-lister) who played on the tennis team with me. He married a girl that was on the team and they have 3 kids with his oldest being 14. My oldest is 4 so I might have gotten started a little later than most of my classmates.

Chuck looked exactly like he did 20 years ago. Same hair, same weight, same everything. If this was how the night was going to unfold then it was going to be a long night. We had a nice chat and it was off to get some pizza. I bump into some other classmates and say "Hi" while I'm loading up on food. They call me by name which tells me the name tags are working.

I grab my food and go sit by Matt (1st tier friend, B-lister). Since Matt was one of my best friends in high school he was easily recognizable. Plus I had visited him last year when we stopped in Gillette on our way to Mt. Rushmore. Matt is grey in the sideburns, but still tall and skinny. He was probably about 5'10" when we graduated and he's probably 6'3" now. He had a little growth spurt. He was also one that got cut his senior year from making varsity basketball, but ended up playing four years of college basketball at Black Hills State.

Just like all of us, Matt is more mature now. But we could sit and talk for hours about some of the old memories we had together. Across from us is Shane (2nd/3rd tier friend, B-lister). Shane was a tough guy in high school. The type of guy who would come up and slug you in the arm for no apparent reason. At which time you would laugh it off as you held back tears. Shane was a little more doughier than high school (weren't we all, except Chuck) and was very mellow. I almost thought I was talking to a different person. After a few minutes someone comes up to Matt and says "Let me buy you a drink." I tell Matt I'm going to go see who else is here.

As I walk outside I hear two people yell "Scott!". I feel like the most popular guy at the party. One of them was Damon (3rd tier friend, A-lister). Damon was a good guy in junior high that eventually found trouble the latter part of high school. We had a class together our junior year in which we spent most of the time talking instead of paying attention. Damon was probably considered an A-list on the social scene because he was a nice guy and a lot of fun. But maybe more so for being the "life of the party".

When we were in high school he once told me, "Scott, I really respect you. You seem to have it together." I've always appreciated the comment because a part of me always thought that Damon was being painted with a certain brush that he wish he could have gotten away from. But, he had a certain reputation and not much had changed 20 years later. More on that in a minute.

While chatting with Damon he tells me, "Say "hi" to your Dad for me." I wasn't aware that Damon knew my dad, but I guess he did. The best thing I've always liked about Damon is that he was genuine and he still is.

After that I go visit with Quent (2nd tier friend, A-lister), Bryan (2nd tier friend, A-lister), and Joe R. (3rd tier friend, A-lister). Quent and Bryan were a unique combination. They were both hoopster cowboys. I played a lot of basketball with these guys, but they both grew up on a ranch and were cowboys at heart. Quent went to college on a rodeo scholarship.

Joe R. was a mere acquaintance, but my best memory of him was snorting a packet of sugar during lunch in 9th grade. He was struggling so bad that I think he went home sick. I was sure to remind Joe R. of this memory to which we had a good laugh. He remembered it well.

As I'm talking with these guys other people say "hi". Most of them 3rd tier type friends. A few people ask me what I was doing for work. I told them that I was a city manager. I was absolutely shocked how many people said, "Oh, just like your dad." I didn't realize that high school kids were tuned into local government, but a good share of them remembered that.

After being there a couple of hours it was time to go. I grab a piece of pizza and start heading out. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the first to leave. I have a couple people say, "Where are you going? The party is just getting started." I make up some excuse, but I was leaving because "the party was just getting started."

As I was driving back to the hotel I realized that I had a great time. At no time did I feel awkward or out of place. It was fun to reminisce with people and catch up with what they are up to now. It was going to be a good reunion.

The next morning was golf. Matt was in charge of the tournament and we had a handful of people that signed up. Damon was one of those signed up. Word on the street was that he was probably drunkest of anybody when they closed down the pizza place at midnight. That was followed by a large of group of classmates heading to a local bar and closing it down at 2:00 a.m. Our best guess is that Damon wouldn't make it for golf.

Alas, just before tee off Damon pulls up ready to go. He tells us he has no recollection of last night other than photographic evidence of him passing out next to a toilet seat. He then smacks his tee shot right down the middle of the fairway. Not bad. After the first three holes we end up driving back past the clubhouse to get a bottle water. Damon and his playing partner are picking up a Bloody Mary. It's 8:30 a.m.

The golf was rough, but the social part was fun. Matt and I shared a cart and had a great time catching up. I figured the golf was going to be the best part of the reunion. I was wrong.

The lunch time barbecue turned out to be better. It was nice to have the girls along. They stayed long enough to get some food and play before they took off. I couldn't blame them. I've told Becky all along that she didn't have to come to the reunion mainly because I needed an out for her 20 year reunion.

The barbecue worked better for sitting and chatting. They had a beer wagon there, but most people weren't drinking because they had their families there. I sat next to Scott (4th tier friend) who I sat next to at graduation. I probably said 5 words to Scott in my whole life until this particular lunch. We pretty much ran in different social circles. My guess is he was a C-lister, but now that it's 20 years later those things don't seem to matter anymore.

After lunch I went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening event. The girls were going to a babysitter and Becky and I were heading to the Clarion Hotel for cocktails and dinner. Cocktails started at 6:00 p.m. so we graciously showed up 6:45 p.m. We get there to talk to some people, one of which was Carma (3rd tier friend, C-lister).

Carma was LDS, but was always thought of as being a little weird. Her and I always got along because of the Mormon thing, but we really didn't hang out. In fact I think she pretty much disappeared off the radar by her senior year. Carma is married and lives in Price, Utah. She has four kids and is getting back active in the church. Her and I (and Becky) might of been the only ones that didn't drink that night.

Dinner was OK, but since I'm on this new diet (eat less, exercise more) I couldn't fully enjoy it. After dinner was going to be dancing and karaoke. I could tell this was going to be a swell evening. One of my disappointments of the evening was that there really wasn't any type of a program. Maybe I've been in Utah or at LDS functions too much, but I really would have liked it if they would have passed the microphone around and let everyone introduce themselves. They didn't even give out awards like "Most Kids" or "Furthest Traveled", not that I was going to win either of those.

At our dinner table was a mixed bag. We had Jay (4th tier friend, B-lister), and some guy who I can't remember his name and I didn't remember from high school. I asked him who he hung out with and then he listed 4 names of other people I didn't know. Maybe I didn't know as many people as I thought. We also had Tori (3rd tier friend, A-lister) and Tiffany (4th tier friend, A-lister). Tori and Tiffany were sans spouses, but the rest had their spouses en tow.

We did have nice conversation. Tori remembers me as "being nice to everybody" in high school. I think she had too much to drink by then. I don't think Tiffany even knew who I was. Once the dancing and karaoke gets started it's time to go. Let me say this: I don't have a problem if other people choose to drink. I recognize that people can choose what they want to do. In fact I'm sure that a lot of people at reunions drink more than what they normally do because they want to let loose for a weekend. But I have to say that once it gets late into the night it's nearly impossible to hold a conversation. Therefore it means it is time for me to skedaddle.

We get back to the hotel and I'm laying in bed and the phone rings in our hotel. It's about 10:45 p.m. and we're wondering who it can be. It turns out being Joe D. (2nd tier friend, B-lister). Joe is near 7 feet tall and was the starting center on our basketball team (duh). Joe is a good guy and he had showed up to the party late and wanted me to come back over. I decide that I would probably regret it if I didn't head back so I get my clothes back on and head over.

Joe isn't much of a drinker so we had opportunity to sit and chat. Most others were pretty wasted. The karaoke was a mess. The dancing was just as bad. I hung around for another hour before saying goodbye again. It just isn't my scene. Becky was just grateful that she didn't have to go back. For someone who grew up in Utah, I'm pretty sure this was the most alcohol she's ever been around with the exception of our Mexican cruise. She felt a little out of place.

So the night ended and it was off to church the next day. It's been a long while since I had been to church in Gillette, but was able to see some people I knew. They had just created a 4th Ward and built a new chapel over by Godfather's Pizza. Just a sampling of people I talked to: Bill Rice, Brett Wolz and Ian Scott. I saw Brian Worthen and Nathan McCleland. According to their program Darrel DeJong was the Elders Quorum President and Harvey Jackson Sr. was the Ward Mission Leader.

I had to chuckle when the high council representative was Jason Jensen. I remembered him as a 10-year old. I guess we all grow up.

So, the trip back was pretty uneventful. And overall I was really glad I went. There were some rumblings of a 25 year reunion. We'll have to wait and see if that will happen for us or not.

Long live the Camels!