Here’s something weird about where I went to school. In junior high, there was always a talent show, and there were always two acts, one of boys and one of girls, who would dress up like the Temptations (the boys), or the Supremes (the girls), and their act would be lip-syncing and dancing to one of their hits. What’s more, it was always the most popular members of the class who did so, and no, there were no runner-up groups. It’s like it was chosen by some in-group election. The best-looking athletes were the Temptations, and the prettiest pretty girls were the Supremes. The boys wore the matching fly suits, and the girls the sequined gowns. It was always the ninth graders, too — no underclassmen allowed. It was like you were already popular, then the cream of the popular crowd was skimmed to do these acts, and it went on year after year.
Did I mention the class was 100 percent white? It was.
So you had these two acts, which were sandwiched between the kids who could sing, dance or play an instrument, or do something else. They got the most applause, mainly because it was very popular kids and very popular music and the talent show mostly didn’t traffic in pop music. So you’d dutifully watch someone do a dramatic monologue, or play the violin, and then there they were: The White Temptations, lip-syncing to “I Can’t Get Next to You.” The song came to the climax, and the kid doing the lead vocal snatched the dead mic off the stand and does his little freestyle boogie to girl you’re blowing my mind ’cause I can’t get next to you and the crowd of junior-high kids went wild.
The White Supremes would do their thing a few acts later. The only thing I’ve ever seen to compare to it is the scene in “Mean Girls” when the plastics do “Jingle Bell Rock,” which suggests this is one of those things that happen at certain schools.
I thought about this at my 50-year high school reunion this weekend. I can’t recall who any of the Temptations or Supremes were, but I remember the weirdness of it. The class was still 100 percent white at graduation, although there was one black kid in the previous year’s class, the son of…I believe…an OSU professor. Some goobers from one of the unincorporated townships burned a cross on their lawn. The community outrage was pretty pitched, if only because this grave insult was perpetrated by people who didn’t even live there.
Now, of course, Upper Arlington is quite diverse, with people of color everywhere. One notable resident? Vivek Ramaswamy. I considered going to the July 4 parade, on the chance he might be in it (he’s running for governor) and I could yell something rude, but the entire weekend was very, very hot, and well, the hell with that idea.
The reunion was fun. The food was fine, the crowd was dense, the space air-conditioned, but just barely enough. I saw a lot of people I haven’t seen for a while. I saw my old weed man, who has changed so much it’s still hard to believe. He’s now neighbors with Jorma Kaukonen. I saw a friend I used to smoke weed with, and he told me about being in the Navy, and smoking weed there, and watching planes land on the carrier deck. (“So is this why they keep sliding off the edge?” I asked.) I saw lots and lots of people, and bought a round of drinks for a stranger behind me in the bar line, because most of my enormous high-school class are strangers.
I’m still processing, and it’s still insanely hot They say this was the last reunion. So I’ll have more later. I leave you with this: Me in eighth grade, never to be a White Supreme. Dig my subversive peace-sign button:
Jeff Borden said on July 6, 2025 at 9:03 pm
Always rebellious!
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NancyF said on July 6, 2025 at 9:09 pm
Not to brag or anything, but I was a white girl at a huge public high school in Los Angeles with a mostly Black student body. (Next-largest demographic: Asian American.) One classmate’s father worked for Motown, and thanks to that connection we were treated to free assemblies featuring not homegrown cover bands but — drumroll, please — Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson, and the Four Tops, one guest performance per year. It was utterly fabulous, and we were smart enough to be extremely grateful.
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nancy said on July 6, 2025 at 9:20 pm
Envious!
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Jim G said on July 6, 2025 at 10:23 pm
My 40-year high school reunion was a couple of weeks ago, and based on the photos, I’m glad I skipped it. I didn’t recognize more than a couple of people; I suppose I wasn’t the only one from the nerdy D&D and band crowd who didn’t want to pay to go see what the “popular” kids had gotten up to. Mostly it was more pounds, less hair, of course. The really scary part was one person who was so very desperately trying to look at 58 the way she looked at 18, complete with the ’80s hairdo. Oh, well.
I briefly considered going, but then I realized—I didn’t talk to most of these people when I was in high school; why would I want to do so now?
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Deborah said on July 7, 2025 at 6:19 am
I went to a high school with 3,500 students in North Miami, that was the name of it. During my time there we became integrated with 5 black kids. We did have Cuban fellow students, the best football player was Cuban.
The school doesn’t exist anymore, was torn down a few years ago.
I never went to one reunion, never wanted to, I hated high school.
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Jeff Gill said on July 7, 2025 at 6:51 am
I am sorry I had to miss my 45th two years ago, if only because so many out of my class have died since. 2024 & 2025 have been rough for the ’78ers. 2028 is too far ahead to think about right now… We went to my 20th & a pre-event for the 25th, the latter of which was so inebriated we bailed on the next day’s program, from which reports suggested we made the right choice. So technically I only have attended one class reunion from high school.
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Dexter Friend said on July 7, 2025 at 8:43 am
NancyF: Your story reminds me of Jenny Hutt, daughter of Charles Koppelman (a legendary music producer that published, produced, created, and ran record labels).
For birthdays and events, her dad brought several big-time rockers into their home to perform for the high school kids.
I am still a big Nancy Wilson fan thanks to Spotify and YouTube. In the old barracks at Fort Ord near Monterey, a sergeant with a private room worked the same all-night hours I did. He played records in his room. From my rack in the open barracks, I’d yell “Sarge! Play your Nancy Wilson and turn it up!”. He heard me…soon , she and Cannonball Adderley were helping me drift off into day-sleep.
Jenny Hutt is now a pro-bono attorney working with people of little or no means,
She doesn’t need the money a lawyer could command.
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Icarus said on July 7, 2025 at 8:53 am
In Heaven and at High School reunions, most of the interesting people are missing.*
* Quote modified with respect to Friedrich Nietzsche, I think by Nancy on this blog the last time she had a HS reunion.
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Suzanne said on July 7, 2025 at 9:35 am
I enjoy class reunions. I wasn’t one of the elite kids but after almost 50 years, none of that seems to matter. Or at least not to me. I just start talking to them whether they are interested or not. Gives me the power. It’s also good to see that many of them are just as fat and bald with bad knees as the rest of us.
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ROGirl said on July 7, 2025 at 9:52 am
I remember 2 acts from a variety show in what was referred to as the Little Auditorium at my high school. One was a scene from Edward Albee’s Zoo Story and the other was 3 white girls in sparkly gowns and white gloves lip synching to Stop in the Name of Love.
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Jenine said on July 7, 2025 at 10:21 am
I’m going to my 40th HS reunion in 2 weeks. I wouldn’t except that a dear friend who lives in London now is coming back for it. He goes to all of them that he can. I am worried I won’t remember people. He said that the best conversations he’s had at reunions were with people he didn’t actually know in high school. I’m taking that as inspiration.
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Mark P said on July 7, 2025 at 11:49 am
I attended one event at my 15th class reunion, a foot race, which I handily won. I had no desire to go to my 50th in 2018. My class had just over 100, all boys. At this point a lot of my classmates have died. I would rather remember the rest of them as they were at 18.
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Julie Robinson said on July 7, 2025 at 12:21 pm
We have good organizers, and they made nametags with our high school pictures and names in LARGE PRINT to help us figure out who we were talking with. Also, a video of everyone who died, and I think we were all crying afterwards.
I was not part of the elite, but was in all kinds of activities and made lifelong friends. Memories of any slights have long since passed and today everyone gets along. Well, almost everyone. It seems none of the MAGA people attended, which was all for the best and made for a pleasant weekend. (I noticed most of them were still working; draw whatever conclusion you want.)
We’re doing it again in five years.
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Scout said on July 7, 2025 at 12:22 pm
I somehow stumbled on the Palmyra Class of ’75 page on Facebook and out of curiosity I followed it. They’re planning the 50th reunion (holy shit) for this fall. I wouldn’t have attended anyway, but it is absolutely amazing to me that I recognize zero of my classmates in the pics they’ve been posting to drum up interest. I thought I knew a lot of people but maybe because most of my circle were stoners none of us were in the chess club and intramural volleyball photos. But I thought I’d find us in the theater kids and art room kids photos. Nope. Interesting too there have been no photos of one of my besties who was a cheerleader and definitely in the popular, lots of clubs crowd. Starting to think I only dreamed I went to school there!
The full force of the big ugly bill really hit me yesterday. It’s all tax cuts for billionaires, the fossil fuel industry, & for profit prisons and tax increases & genocide for the rest of us. Then the news of all the lost souls in the TX floods. It’s the first time I have cried since the nightmare began, what, just six months (feels like 6 years) ago. Woke up this morning ready to figure out how to keep fighting. I think I’ll join an Indivisible group near me.
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Dexter Friend said on July 7, 2025 at 1:00 pm
In the Fall of 1959, in our little high school gymnasium, a travelling troupe performed selections from “My Fair Lady”. I was 10 and jaw-drop mesmerized. I just re-watched the movie for like the 100th time last week. By now, I could sing every number by memory, if I had a singing voice that is. I lip-synch when I watch the film.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2025 at 1:51 pm
Did I mention this before? I looked up my old high school boyfriend online and found out he died last year. He went to Annapolis and became a Navy pilot stayed in the Navy until his retirement. The weird thing was that in his obit online he mentioned that in highschool he was made a sweetheart of the club I belonged to, he was a really nice guy. I was surprised that of all his major accomplishment his obit listed that one. It must have meant a lot to him.
I’m reading Not My Type by E. Jean Carrol and am loving it. It’s about her experience suing Trump for defamation after he accused her of lying about his sexual assault of her in a dressing room in Bergdorfs, in NYC. I followed that trial while it was happening, she makes it extremely entertaining. I highly recommend it if you like gossip and snark. I also reread Nora Ephron’s, I Feel Bad About My Neck. I needed something light hearted to read on my flight to NM and it had been quite a while since I had read it the first time. So two hilarious ladies have helped my head space tremendously.
I’m behind on my book a week project to keep me from doom scrolling, trying to get back into it, but there has been so much shit happening it’s hard to keep from constantly checking to see what other horrible stuff is constantly happening.
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LindaG said on July 7, 2025 at 3:11 pm
Class of 1959, 67 graduates. Maybe about half of us survive. I was never a leader nor elected to anything, but somehow I have become the keeper of addresses and the one who notifies of our get-togethers (and deaths). Some of us meet every few months now, usually at the winery north of Fort Wayne. It is always a wonderful time. Last month, only 8 came, but it was a nice, intimate lunch, as we could all participate in the same conversation. Oh, and we do lunch on a weekday now, and no big planning is required. We like the winery because there is a lot of space, and nobody pushes us to leave. If there were ever cliques in our day, that no longer matters. We really enjoy each other.
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Scout said on July 7, 2025 at 3:29 pm
A little levity:
https://theonion.com/catholic-high-school-newsletter-has-updates-on-which-al-1850218796/
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David C said on July 7, 2025 at 4:03 pm
I haven’t gone to any reunions. They lost track of me and I hadn’t received notifications in years. Then for my 40th, my sister ratted me out to a classmate she’s Facebook friends with. I RSVPd no and a month or so later saw on the class Facebook site that it was cancelled for lack of interest. I’m looking forward to an equally good time for my 50th in a couple of years.
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Colleen said on July 7, 2025 at 4:34 pm
My class should be having a 40th this year, but I don’t think anyone is planning one. Or I’m not invited. Either is plausible, but I think the former is most likely.
I just finished Molly Jong-Fast’s memoir about her very bad year, in which she examines her relationship with her mother and tries to come to terms with putting her mother in a nursing home. Not an upper, but a good book nonetheless. I have E.Jean Carroll’s book on my list at the library via Libby. I have heard her give a couple of interviews about it. She’s a hoot.
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Julie Robinson said on July 7, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Looks like I’m #30 in line for E Jean Carroll’s book, and I just finished the one by Molly Jong Fast. Did you read it or listen, Colleen? She self-narrates, and I struggled with her whiny voice. She did truly have a horrible year, though. Erica Jong was quite the narcissist.
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Dorothy said on July 7, 2025 at 7:05 pm
I’m on the wait list for E. Jean Carroll’s book, too. I mean the audio book.
Julie you’re not kidding about Molly Jong-Fast’s voice. It’s too much for me so I would not be able to listen to her. I might get the book out of the library. I have 50+ books on my TBR pile and I’m trying to stop getting so many out of the library and read 2-3 that I own before I borrow again. Says the woman who has two library books sitting on her nightstand in the bedroom.
Our book club’s selection this month is “The Let Them Theory” by Mel Robbins. I’m not going to read anymore of it. I read about 100 pages, where I rolled my eyes repeatedly while reading, then hit a very relevant part in the subsequent 30 or so pages. Then once again I was back to eye rolling and exasperation. The Good Reads reviews mostly line up with my opinions so I’m allowing myself to stop reading it. My husband scanned some of what I read at my request and he said ‘At our age if you don’t already know this stuff, there’s something wrong with you. Maybe young people in their 30’s-mid 40’s might get something out of this but for us? Forget it.” He’s dead right. It’s why I rolled my eyes so much. Every day common sense and having healthy attitudes about how to handle other people has been part of my experience for a long time now. Reading half of that book reinforced my opinion that I really can’t stand self-help books. If they help someone, that’s fine and dandy. But I am not a fan.
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Colleen said on July 7, 2025 at 7:35 pm
I listen to Molly’s podcast, Fast Politics, so I’m used to her voice…but it was an acquired taste.
I’m a reader, when I can actually concentrate and stay awake. I’ve never been an audio book person, perhaps I will be eventually.
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del said on July 7, 2025 at 7:44 pm
I’ve enjoyed my reunions over these past 40+ years, though they sometimes leave me with some melancholy. I was very extroverted in school but also insensitive and boorish at times. I was a kid, after all. I imagine apologizing to teachers I dogged or classmates I may have (inadvertently) hurt. I imagine myself as Morgan Freeman talking to the parole board in The Shawshank Redemption in wanting to go back in time and talk sense into my younger self. Thankfully, we do grow.
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Sherri said on July 7, 2025 at 9:31 pm
I went to my 20th high school reunion, and it was fine. I haven’t been to any since; I haven’t stayed in touch with anybody from high school, and I didn’t hear about subsequent reunions, and probably wouldn’t have traveled 3000 miles to attend them even if I had. Recently I discovered the Facebook group for my high school class and joined that, but there don’t seem to be any plans for a 45th reunion. Maybe I’ll go back for a 50th. My husband’s 50th will be next year, but I don’t think he’s thought about it.
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tajalli said on July 7, 2025 at 9:31 pm
Barkskins (Annie Proulx), The Girl Who Wrote in Silk (Kelli Estes), and The Chinese Groove (Katheryn Ma) have been my most recent books. Ma is seriously funny and Proulx is an excellent historian. Estes did a credible job illuminating the extreme prejudice toward Chinese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest is in the late 1800s.
Although The Let Them Theory is on hold, but I’m not some breakthrough that enhances the quality of my life significantly since I read Dear Abby for a daily dose of common sense. From what I’d gathered from the summary, the author has taken a corner of Cognitive Therapy and zoomed in. I’ll probably skim it to see if anything special pops out.
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Dorothy said on July 8, 2025 at 5:44 am
Colleen I’m the same way – I prefer to read and I have only listened to two audio books so far. It was because of who was narrating them (Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep). I read a review of E. Jean Carroll’s book that said if you can, listen to her read because having her read her own book was a whole new level of enjoyment re her story. So I’m going to make an exception and listen to that book.
I can’t stand earbuds. A friend suggested I try bone conducting earphones. I want to try some at a store first before I buy them. When I’m sewing I can’t have an audio books running on my ipad or laptop because the sewing machine would drown out the reader. This is why my friend told me to try the headphones. We’ll see – I think in general I just love the process of turning pages and being able to re-read something in the moment for reinforcement.
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alex said on July 8, 2025 at 9:11 am
Great suggestion to get the E. Jean audiobook. Now that I have a new car with the latest tech, I can probably stream it during a long road trip. I used to pride myself in how long I could make my old cars last but I didn’t know what I was missing; even with aftermarket electronics they just aren’t as much fun.
Never been to a reunion and never plan to go. I spent much of my high schooling in a dreaded military school, then finished out in a public school where I never really got to know anyone.
Tonight entertaining some surprise out-of-town company so I’m going to test out a new paella pan and see how it does compared to my old one with a warped bottom. And this time I have imported bomba rice (instead of arborio) and authentic Spanish chorizo, so I’m going to make an inauthentic “surf and turf” paella Valenciana. You wouldn’t believe some of the outraged commentary that appears below online recipes where people dare to mix seafood and meat, or sub arborio for bomba. The rice argument I can understand — bomba cooks up crispier. The critics can all go suck my socarrat.
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Dave said on July 8, 2025 at 10:01 am
I’ve gone to several class reunions, my class was small and I went to the same school for twelve years. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m a kindergarten dropout, I don’t exactly know how long I attended kindergarten (three or four months) in what was a brand new school on James Road, a Columbus Public School on the east side of the city between Whitehall and Bexley. We moved in December and there was no kindergarten yet in the rural school. I find it amusing that I’ve met one other kindergarten dropout and she, like I, moved to a district without kindergarten.
But I digress, I’ve enjoyed my class reunions, they’re not huge affairs, my wife graduated from Northland in Columbus and has no interest in attending hers. Over the years I’ve talked to many people I went to school with and those who have spouses who went to other, mostly larger schools, all say pretty much the same thing, the spouse has little interest in reunions. Now there are classmates meeting about once a month for lunch but it’s a 400 mile round trip for me so I haven’t gone.
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Jeff Borden said on July 8, 2025 at 1:17 pm
Has anyone tabulated the cost of that little stunt in L.A.’s MacArthur Park, which was covered by Fox News people embedded with ICE, CBP and National Guard? It looked like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Armored personnel carriers including one with a machine gun turret on the roof. All were dressed in full camo gear with masks, of course. They even had some of the Gestapo on horseback. And all to put on a show for the MAGAts drooling in front of Rupert Murdoch’s sewer channel. Utter bullshit.
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