Who Are These Old People?

This was the weekend of the 50th reunion of my 8th grade class! It started with a tour of the school on Friday afternoon. As I walked up to the building I saw a group of OLD people standing near the door, walked up and saw a bunch of strangers, then started to recognize many of these former classmates, and soon was talking as though it was---gasp---50 years ago! The hallways and exterior of the school look exactly the same, though the nailed down desks have been removed, our "8B" room is now a science lab and our "8A" room is now a computer lab.

Last night was the official party. In some respects it was like Friday night "social center" back in eighth grade. Some people were seated at tables and weren't about to move. The more social folks were going from group to group laughing and starting conversations. Fifty years ago at our Friday night "Social Center" dances, the boys sat on one side of the gym and the girls on the other. Back then girls could NEVER initiate a dance, so we waited patiently until....Oh, please, let him ask me....a brave boy would walk across the room to ask the lucky girl.

Our eighth grade, like every eighth grade I've ever taught, had its cliques. I hung out mostly with Diane, Marge and Donna. Diane has been a life-long friend, we were in each other's weddings and are god-parents to each other's children. I see Marge about once a year and, in spite of both working in Des Plaines, haven't seen Donna since high school. We picked up right where we left off 46 years ago.

Some of the others were in the "cool kids" clique who went on to be the cheer-leaders and class officers in high school. I was always totally intimidated by them. Funny thing is that they were among the people I've had the most fun reconnecting with this weekend. The junior high barriers were down and they are fun, warm people.

Then there were the people I really didn't remember. That was embarrassing. Part of the reason is that I arrived at this school at the end of 6th grade and our June '59 class of 46 kids and the much smaller January '59 class made up two classrooms. I wasn't ever in the same class as some of the kids. There was one woman who looked extremely familiar to me, who talked my ear off both on Friday and Saturday....who I really can't remember! What was even more embarrassing was when her husband (who is a few years older and not from our school) came up to me last night, remembering my name and recalling our "good times" working together in the language lab at college. I have NO, NONE, ZIP memory of him. I hope I faked it well enough with both of them.

Adolescence is so hard. I know I put a bubble around myself, having a good time with trusted friends, but being scared to death of going beyond the comfort zone. I was so naive and so oblivious to a lot that was going on around me. In fact, I was probably the last person in our 7th grade class to find out our teacher was pregnant. I just thought she liked wearing long jackets. :-)

I hope I'm past adolescence...but still feel like I'm at Social Center when I walk into a large party. When will that feeling go away?