The alumni...
The outfits that people wear, or should I say, squeeze into...

One woman made her reservations months in advance but for whatever reason purchased her dress reunion day. Minutes prior to the reunion, as she was getting dressed at her hotel, she realized the security tag was still attached. She dashed to the store to have it removed only minutes before the store closed.

At another reunion, a group of former football players decided to renew an old skit that won them 1st place in the school's talent contest their graduation year. However, ten years later, during the break dancing part, one gentleman got down on the floor and tried to get down and funky. He shouldn't have. His black dress slacks ripped all the way down.

One alumna called just hours prior to her reunion in tears. She had just dyed her hair (never had before) and looked like, in her own words, "something out of a science fiction movie."

Even my sister-in-law had her eyebrows waxed for the very first time two days before her reunion. A hairless gap in one eyebrow was noticed (you just can't glue hair back).

However, one of our favorite stories was a 30-year reunion. Toward the latter part of the evening an alumna decided she needed to remove painful pantyhose. Well, that was not the only item of clothing she removed. Everything came off. She (age 48) ran back into the grand ballroom stark naked and before anybody could catch her (everybody was in shock), ran to the elevator until security caught up with her.

Committee members and alumni keep us on our toes. For the most part, it creates a lot of joy to play such a huge part of reuniting old friends with an occasional laughable story. As my own twenty-year high school reunion approaches in the year of 1999, I will dust off my gym membership card, color that gray right out of my hair, and invest a small fortune in wrinkle-free creams.

Is there a good excuse?
Our good friend and former Reunions magazine editor, Mary Fobian is co-chair of her Oelwein (Iowa) Community High School Class of '69 reunion. One of her responsibilities is the newsletter in which she included the following.

If you are not coming to the reunion, you need a good excuse and a note from your Mom. The following reasons have been tried and are unacceptable.

Excuse #1: I'm overweight.
Rebuttal: You're not alone. Note t-shirt sizes being offered.

Excuse #2: I'm a different person than I was in high school
Rebuttal: Lucky for you, we ALL are. Let's face it: we could only have improved.

Excuse #3 I don't look as good as I'd like. I (choose one or more) am bald, have wrinkles, saddlebags, grey hair and no one will recognize me.
Rebuttal: Guess what! You won't recognize anyone else, either. Using the reunion committee as a representative sample, our whole class looks like a "before" photo in a plastic surgery ad.

Excuse #4: I'm not successful. I'm not (choose one or more) a lawyer, a doctor or rich.
Rebuttal: You'll be pleasantly surprised to find how much everyone has matured. We may be plump and wrinkled (see Excuse #3, above) but we're not stupid. Money is not success.

Excuse #5: I was not in a popular clique in school
Rebuttal: Now that we're old and smart, those cliques have dissolved just like the superficialities they were based on. The only cliques you'll notice at the reunion will be the sound of your joints as you walk around.