"You Haven't Changed A Bit!!"
Nov. 14th, 2004 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanWell, that's that for another 10 years.
School reunion/"cocktail" party - over. Curiosity - satisfied. Number of people I'll stay in touch with - 1. Number of people I had stayed in touch with - 1. Surprised? - Not at all.
I'm sure the last 20 years have wrought some major changes in everyone's lives... personalities change, values & morals change, directions, priorities etc etc... But it was funny how putting a bunch of men together in a room & plying them with alcohol & nostalgia brought back the pecking order of 20 years ago. If you were uncool or unpopular - the same people who didn't want to know you then, don't want to know you now... Sure, some of them would make an effort in conversation for a short while - having seen your sticky paper nametag, they start with the obligatory "Where have all the years gone... erm... Justin!! Mate!!", but as soon as memory kicks in, the shutters would come down on the conversation & both of you start looking for someone - anyone - else to walk up to and say "Where have all the years gone... erm... (insert name from tag here)... Mate!!
It felt like I was in one of those '7 up' films, where you check in on people's lives after a nominal interval & see how much, or how little, they've changed. One thing it did for me was to reinforce the notion that those 6 years you spend in your teens at high school are the ones that shape you for the rest of your life - no matter what else happens after.
Maybe I'll skip the next 2 & go to the 50th. It'll be nearer the end of the movie then, the cast will be smaller (I'm not good in crowds) & I'll see whether my theory hangs together after a much longer time.
Stuart & I wound up leaving there about 11.30pm, wandered through a couple of city yuppie bars not owned by old Cranbrookians & parted company on William St - him for Lane Cove & bed, me for Club 77, then a walk back to my car in Rose Bay & eventually home about 6am this morning. Not nearly as hung-over as I though I would be.
The debate over the pros & cons of attending the 30th reunion starts now...
School reunion/"cocktail" party - over. Curiosity - satisfied. Number of people I'll stay in touch with - 1. Number of people I had stayed in touch with - 1. Surprised? - Not at all.
I'm sure the last 20 years have wrought some major changes in everyone's lives... personalities change, values & morals change, directions, priorities etc etc... But it was funny how putting a bunch of men together in a room & plying them with alcohol & nostalgia brought back the pecking order of 20 years ago. If you were uncool or unpopular - the same people who didn't want to know you then, don't want to know you now... Sure, some of them would make an effort in conversation for a short while - having seen your sticky paper nametag, they start with the obligatory "Where have all the years gone... erm... Justin!! Mate!!", but as soon as memory kicks in, the shutters would come down on the conversation & both of you start looking for someone - anyone - else to walk up to and say "Where have all the years gone... erm... (insert name from tag here)... Mate!!
It felt like I was in one of those '7 up' films, where you check in on people's lives after a nominal interval & see how much, or how little, they've changed. One thing it did for me was to reinforce the notion that those 6 years you spend in your teens at high school are the ones that shape you for the rest of your life - no matter what else happens after.
Maybe I'll skip the next 2 & go to the 50th. It'll be nearer the end of the movie then, the cast will be smaller (I'm not good in crowds) & I'll see whether my theory hangs together after a much longer time.
Stuart & I wound up leaving there about 11.30pm, wandered through a couple of city yuppie bars not owned by old Cranbrookians & parted company on William St - him for Lane Cove & bed, me for Club 77, then a walk back to my car in Rose Bay & eventually home about 6am this morning. Not nearly as hung-over as I though I would be.
The debate over the pros & cons of attending the 30th reunion starts now...
