2017 is the 50th anniversary of my graduation from high school. It’s not that I wasn't aware of it but I just don’t care, particularly, about seeing most of the people who I was in high school with. I didn’t like many of them (I’m sure the feelings were mutual) and if I decide to go, I’m going to have a tough time putting up a front. That's if I remember who they are :)

My school has one of the oldest names in the Salt Lake Valley, although the school is long gone, replaced with a new version of it, farther south. I think I can count on one hand the number of people from school that I’ve seen since then, even though I’m finding out that a good portion of us all still live in the area.

The people who are organizing it (and please please please don't ask me to help) have a Facebook page and I was contacted a few weeks ago by a woman (girl?) that I vaguely remember to tell me about the reunion. Last night, one of them put out a list of those who have died in the last 50 years, which not surprisingly, has a quite a few names on it.

On this list of deceased class members, which includes a boy who graduated with us, and within 9 months, was dead in Vietnam and a woman died in fall 2016, so it covers lots of time. I saw the name of a girl that I actually knew better in 8th and 9th grade, at the school that fed into my high school. She was a cute redhead, funny ( I got in trouble, along with her and a couple of others in 9th grade for laughing over something she said in class). She died in 2007.

I was a “good mormon boy” and even though I liked her, I would have NEVER asked her out even when we got to high school since she was a Catholic, and from what she said, she spent almost as much time as we did going to church, what with Mass early on Saturday and Sunday. Sort of makes me wonder what might have happened if I’d have dared asked her out in high school, although she likely wouldn’t have dated me either, and here were are 50 years later, wondering what happened. Anyone else run into situations like this?

All of my high school class mates are dead or in prison.
And my high school is no longer a high school.
It is now salt lake community college.

I went to my 50th reunion of the same high school that is now a community college. I left Utah when I turned 21 although my parents lived there forever.

I've only gone to a couple of reunions and the 50th was interesting. Two of my best friends and a cousin had died, and I never did have a boyfriend from that school. Another close friend apparently lost her mind while her husband was in a temple presidency.

I'm glad I went. I feel good about my life and who I became.

Howdy Mike and Dave, Boner the old fart here. I reconnected with my best friend from elementary, junior, and senior high a few years ago. After lots of laughing, cussing, and catching up he asked me if I wanted the scoop on what some of our classmates were up to. Sure, why not?

It was pretty hard to hear about the deaths, tragedies, and illness that happened over a 40-plus year gap. Friends from elementary school, dead. Cancer, etc. much rarer were the stories of a couple of classmates making it big and living in Malibu.

The most difficult was hearing about a kid who was Mr. Cool in junior high. He never hung around the likes of me, but did offer to give me some weed once to induct me into the surfer group. (He probably just wanted to see an uptight introvert dude stoned). But, I said no.

His death bothered me the most because it represented youth dying, the stupid, silly, funny, cool, naughty, adolescent in my class was now gone. RIP, Reggie!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2017 01:32AM by BYU Boner.

I too went to Granite High in SLC. I just talked to my brother a couple of weeks ago and he said the planning commission had approved bringing it down. One wonders what they will do with the mighty seal in the front lobby.

My mom attended Granite High. Class of 1956 :)
Fortunately, after I attended Mill Creek Elementary is a kid, we got out of Utah for California.
Which of case gave me the wonderful opportunity to be the odd mormon kid in a high school full of heathens and gentiles.

For which I am eternally grateful.

My 40th is coming up next year. I went to the 30th, but don't know if I'll go to the 40th. Too many friends gone, and sadly many of the folks left are the ones I wouldn't really want to spend much time with (with a couple of exceptions).

My 50th high school graduation is also this year - Granite High School in Salt Lake County. It was closed a few years ago. When I attended the 40th year reunion, I nostalgically walked through the main building's empty halls for the last time.

We also had a classmate who was killed in Viet Nam shortly after graduation (from friendly fire), and there are others who are passing away as time goes by.

I wasn't popular and didn't get to know a lot of the students in my class (500+), but I'm going. In fact, I missed almost all of my junior year recovering after a motorcycle crash in the summer of '65 (thus missing out on a number of classes and meeting other students). If I don't remember someone at the reunion, I'll still have a conversation with them and then I'll get to know someone new.

There are people who I didn't like in high school, and those who didn't like me. But 50 years is too long to hold a grudge. Go and enjoy some old-time stories.


(Edited to add: Actually, memikeyounot, I think we're talking about the same school... are we? I see that there's a Granite Peaks High School at 3900 So., while Granite was on 3300).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2017 05:34AM by ragnar.

Hey, Ragnar. I went to Jordan High School, a little farther south on State Street, although I remember going to Granite lots of times to watch our "Beetdiggers" play basketball there. We also were there for debate meets.

The last reunion I went to was in 1992, so 25 years and the old school had already been closed. The new Jordan was finished and ready to open in the fall. I remember very little about that night. The old building of course was torn down to be replaced with the new one.

The site now houses Jordan Commons, with some nice movie theaters and meh! restaurants and the front of the new building that faces State Street looks like the old high school. My primary care doctor is in the tower building behind it (although I got a letter from his office to say he’s moving to West Jordan on May 1). They had a sale of bricks from the building in the mid 90's, and I paid $20.00 for one. (My son was in the garage one day and the box I had it in fell and the brick was broke)

I have vowed NEVER to buy a car from the Larry H. Miller group in Salt Lake Valley since he said in his book that he bought the school to year it down, because Jordan ALWAYS beat his West High Teams. (I'm mostly being facetious, but since I buy so few cars, that probably won’t be hard to do.

And yes, there are still lots of people who are totally active in the church but to each his own. There was a set of twins, from a family of 9 kids, one went to Southern Brasil and one went to Northern Brasil, while I went to Central Brasil. One of them was a mission president about 10 years ago and came home, died of cancer within about a year of his return. The other brother is going now, I think.

Granite High "Farmers" and the Jordan High "Beetdiggers"

We certainly had some strange/different school identifying names. I was told that the schools were originally formed when the surrounding areas were still rural (and the students really were farmers and beetdiggers).

One day we had a "dress-up" day on which we were supposed to dress up as farmers. Many students came with coveralls and straw hats, etc. My older brother either didn't know (or didn't care) about the dress-up day, and just went to school the way he always dressed: worn Levis and a plaid, long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

He won the award that day as the most authentically dressed farmer. They should have made him the school mascot or something.

I remember the Farmers and Beetdiggers. I was a Cub From that other high school on State street.

Mine, too! Palmdale High School, Palmdale, CA. Stupidest school song ever, but burnt into my memory:

From the desert let us sing,
'Til echoing, the hills will ring!
With praise for all the world to hear
About our Alma Mater dear.

We're the future of our land.
Honesty must be our stand!
Our hearts will never say good-bye,
We'll always love you... *sniffs*

PALM! DALE! HIIIIIIIGH!! *cheers and much waving of arms*

Went to the 40th in 2007. What a waste. Many classmates already dead or missing, and I didn't recognize anyone except our only Japanese-American classmate, and only because she was the only Japanese-American there. Worse yet, nobody recognized me. It was as if I'd slipped through high school quite unnoticed. On the bright side, I went to it because that high school saved my life, and I thought I owed a return to it.

It is also MY 50th class reunion this year. I went to a small town high school in southern Idaho. Our class had 84 graduates. We've lost about 15 or so IIRC.

I'm really looking forward to this reunion. When I went to the one in 2007, I quietly told a few of my non-mormon classmates that I had left the mormon church. It took about 10 minutes for THAT bit of news to make the rounds. Suddenly, people who I had barely known or spoken to in school came over and wanted to talk to me and get the details. Later, I was talking to a group of 4-5 of the non-mormon gals from high school and I told them that it was interesting to me that I really did not know which church any of them went to back in high school. "but you all knew who we mormon students were, right?" Of course, they said, because you all acted like you were better than everybody else. Wow.

Man, y'all are so old. I don't have my 50th for another few years.

There were just a handful of mormons in my high school. I was a geek but of course, all the geeky kids are now rich professionals. Except me. I was sent to college to get married and pop out kids. I have more of a professional career now but only because I dumped mormonism and went back and finished school in my late 40s.

But the funny thing is that the cool geeky kid--the one who was class and school president and would organize debates and anti-war rallies, etc. converted to Mormonism after high school when he knocked up a mormon girl. Went on to have a ton of kids and grandkids, be a bishop, etc., and is now the farthest thing from cool that you could find. A real bore. But he is usually in on planning the reunions and we have plenty of flowing booze at them. But I must admit I don't think he's real judgmental. I think he just likes them because he always wins the awards for who has the most kids and grandkids. I only personally attended the 30th and looked at him and that line of the country song "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers" flowed through my mind because I had a real crush on him back in the day. Yuck.

NormaRae, you should get onto the "Awards Committee" and make up a few awards, such as, "The oldest university graduate." Be sure the awards are ones that you and your friends will win.

Celebrate the classmates who are single!

For the first few reunions, my high school classmates all came alone. It was dorky to bring your spouse and cling to him/her for security, like a teddy-bear. It was even worse to show off your much younger 21-year-old spouse, as one classmate (who was the star of a now-cancelled TV series). But a pushy Mormon put herself in charge of the reunions, and she brings her husband and her parents! She organizes a "program" in which she performs, with her sister and brother. It becomes a Mormonfest.

Spouses should be banned from reunions, because they create unfamiliar faces! I could remember almost everyone, but their spouses were strangers, and made the rest of us feel awkward. It also made us feel left out, because we were single. They had dancing, of course, for all the couples. We should have been warned to bring dates!

I have very happy memories of high school, because my abusive brother was away on his mission, and because I spent a year of it in Europe. One of my old high school boyfriends always said that he wanted to marry a rich girl. He said money was the most important thing in life. He married the richest Mormon girl at BYU, and we teased him to death about it. He went to Harvard, and then made a lot of money of his own. He is now a "Seventies" which are General Authorities in Salt Lake. It seems that the wealthiest men ended up in the highest church positions (mission presidents, temple presidents, etc.) They were too arrogant and conceited to tolerate as boyfriends, though--and no fun at all!

That really made me laugh and think about how reunions change through the years. I'm sure it's especially a unique situation in Utah where the majority of students were mormon.

I would have been totally embarrassed to go to my 10th and be married, have 2 kids and no degree myself (well, an AA from Ricks--which would be embarrassing to explain it was a little church college in Idaho). And hubby was still working on his Bachelor's at BYU. The only thing that might have been impressive was that hubby could speak fluent Japanese. Most of the kids who I was in honors classes with had degrees up their arms. One was already through medical school. I can think of one who had her PhD within 10 years. Also the kids who were jocks, cheerleaders, etc., were still really clicky. Funny that in Utah you're the odd man out if you're NOT married.

But by 30th reunion, many of us had been married and divorced or all kinds of situations, many varied life experiences and lots of us had been through teenagers. That kind of equals everybody out. I really did enjoy it. By that time I was divorced, could wear a trendy (bare shoulders) dress, enjoy the libations, talk about my work, and dance with guys who never would have remembered me from school. I even enjoyed catching up with the mormon guy and his wife and was extremely happy that it was him winning the most progeny award and not me.

I'm still a few years away from my 50th but I did attend my 10th, 20th, and 40th.

I attended a Catholic high school in Colorado Springs, one of maybe three non-Catholics in my class of only 97. To my knowledge, our class has lost eight classmates. The first was killed when someone T-boned his jeep, just 2 weeks after graduation.

I don't know at this point whether or not I will attend my 50th, primarily because I am now in a wheelchair, following a stroke. I was still fully able-bodied at the last reunion I attended ;(

Rural Georgia high school. 47 in class. Tragedy after tragedy. Sobering and life stages for all of us by suppository at my reunion. Yet, even with all the pain and drama, the salient story I took away was the majority of us learned from mistakes. Drove home actually glad to hear of eventual positive outcomes...

Gatorman
Wish I had went to high school with my man Boner

My graduating class didn't hold a 50th reunion last year. Not sure why. Nobody wanting to tackle the not enviable task of organizing it I'm guessing. The few of my classmates I was close to I'm still in contact with. It would have been nice to see a few of the girls I was friends with. They were all slim (I wasn't) and beautiful 50 years ago and most of them are fat now and it doesn't matter and we can laugh about it.

I went to my 50th a couple of years ago--did NOT have a good time. The people I had liked best in my class were either dead or lived so far away that they were not there. The ones who were there were, so help me, EXACTLY like they were in high school. It was creepy. The girls (women) were all in their little cliques, talking about other women, picking apart their hairstyles or clothes or husbands/boyfriends or figures, and the guys were all bald or gray and wrinkled and knocking back the booze like there was no tomorrow, and talking about which girls they had nailed in H.S. (or had wanted to). A couple of them mentioned to me with leering grins that they remembered me because I had "matured quicker than most of the girls." It was totally disgusting and I left very early. It was a 2-night deal--the first night (when I went) was a "drinks and appetizers and get-together" and the second night was the dinner/dance at the local Country Club. I skipped on the dinner dance because the Friday night shindig was so disgustingly awful. :( It was like high school all over again. I hated it. Would it have been different if I weren't single? Maybe, but maybe not. I never fit in with the cliques anyway. One nice thing did happen that night--it was a conversation with a guy who I had gone to school with through grade school and high school. His wife couldn't come (they live out on the East Coast, where he is a doctor), but he was glad to see me and told me he always remembered me because of how smart I was and how he admired my contributions when I got called on in class--that he had always thought I was smart and funny and a great writer and speaker and very pretty to boot, and if I wanted to go to the dinner dance with him, he would be glad to have me along. But his wife wasn't there, and I was afraid if I went to the dinner dance with him, I would and up making a fool of myself, so I kissed his cheek, thanked him, told him how super it was to see him, and got the puck out of there and skipped night #2. I wondered afterward if I had made the right decision about but, and yeah, I did. It was better that way.

It's funny you made a thread on this because the first thing that came to mind about attending my reunion are who died and who is in prison.

A number of us have connected on FB, and it has been fun catching up on children and grandchildren and such.

The two voted "Most Likely to Succeed" are both deceased now.One of them was my college roommate at UCLA. She was brilliant, multilingual and talented, but died of dementia.

We lost three guys in Vietnam. I went to Kindergarten with one of them, knew another in high school.

We have a FB page, and even though I wasn't able to attend the reunion, it is fun being re-connected with people I knew way back when.

You and graduated from this same high school the same year. I agree with your comments - although, for me, it would be fun to attend if only to meet people like you and compare notes. I think we would become friends and it would be a hoot. I live out of state, though, and it would be a long way to come for a fifty year reunion - ugh...

My 40th is coming up this year. It's on the other side of the country.

I've been only to my tenth high school reunion, not 20th, or 30th (or 35th.)

The one boy who really liked me my senior year in high school and wanted to spend time with me after our 10th reunion, but I said "no" because I was married at that time (he was newly divorced.)

He died when he was 38 before our 20th reunion. I wish now I'd taken him up on his offer back when. He was really a very nice, gentle person. I divorced not long after that first reunion. Oh if hindsight were 20/20 vision.

I'm debating whether to go, because of the cost. There's so few people I know from my graduating class. I was in a different high school every year of high school.

My gradeschool chums are having their 40th this summer too, which I'm invited to. At least there I know many more of my classmates.

Decisions, decisions.

I was surprised at how unhappy so many of the "elite/popular" from my high school class were at the reunion. The head cheerleader was twice divorced and raising her grandchildren alone. One of the most elite was still agonizing over her academic failure in college. She flunked out of Northwestern law school and still, after 30 plus years, hadn't come to terms with that. The basketball/football captain and handsomest guy in school went through a horrible marriage/divorce and then died two weeks after the reunion from a very long battle with cancer.

The happiest people seemed to be the ordinary kids that just slogged through high school unnoticed and unappreciated and went on to have families and jobs of an ordinary nature. They were still happily married. They had average kids and they were really quite content with their lives. It seems that good looks, brains, and popularity in high school don't necessarily translate into a happy life in later life. Or so it seems to me.

I went to our 20th reunion, because I keep in touch with my high school friends, regularly, and because I don't hold out any reunion-fantasies. I was in town, visiting my parents, and having a beach vacation with my children, and my classmates chased me down and made me go. My divorce was barely final, and I didn't feel like socializing. I hadn't packed anything fancy to wear to the hotel dance--my classmates were all wealthy, but I was a penniless and jobless single mom at that point. I borrowed some of my mother's designer clothes, and went. It was one of the most interesting evenings, to reconnect with people, and see what had become of them! Most of their stories were positive.

I went alone, so I could leave when I wanted to, which was a wise decision. When I entered the lobby, I ran into a star basketball player, that all of us had a crush on. He was as good looking and charming as ever, and when and he asked me to go up to his hotel room with him, I felt a boost to my failing self-eteem. Of course, I turned him down, and went into the main room to mingle with the others. Within an hour, the basketball player was seen going up the stairs with the former head cheerleader.

Sorry to say, some of my married girl friends went to the reunion to try to hook up with old boyfriends, who were also married. I was secretly happy when they failed. I didn't go to the rest of the reunion, which lasted the entire weekend. The last night, our group of neighborhood friends got together for a "girl's night," and they were more miserable than I was. I would not have traded lives with any of them. I felt sorry for them, but I appreciated my own life more than before.

Go to your reunions! There's always something to learn!

Not only did I go to my 50th Grant High School Reunion in Portland, OR (1959) but we had a 50th Sabin Grade School Reunion (1955) there also. Who does that? We did! We had a little booklet called: The Sabin Say-So which we all contributed to. One of the questions was the same for our high school reunion: what do you want on your tombstone? I got a real shock when I said almost the same thing on both. I laughed myself to death. I can completely forgotten what I said in 8th grade and 12th grade 50 years later. Apparently, nothing changed! I also answered one of the other questions almost the same.

It was really strange for me to see all the people as I had left the area years before. Many, were still in the area. Lived in the same homes, even.

I hardly recognized anyone so we all wore our grade school or high school (four years later) photos! Wow. What a change! Some people didn't seem to age much, still recognizable and others? Not a clue! Some of us could not recognize some of our class photos either!

That was 2005, and 2009. I am still in contact with a couple of girls I want to grade school and high school with, all these years later!

I just wrote a long story about my own redheaded vixen that I ignored in high school because I was a good mormon boy. If any of you diligently search my name on another place you might find the story in my recent post history