Gaper's Blog

GWHS Class of 1988 Reunion Recap

If you were to ask ten different people about their high school experience, you'll likely get ten wildly different responses ranging from abject horror to wistful nostalgia.  For some, high school was the pinnacle of their lives, others got through fine but peaked later in life and others still look back on high school the way someone might recall a stint in prison or fighting in a war.  In my case, I made some lifelong friends, had some truly unforgettable life-shaping moments but of course, there was that awkwardness that is adolescence which doesn't spare many.  There were some bad haircuts and questionable fashion choices but I turned out just fine and lean towards wistful nostalgia.  What certainly colored my experience was the school itself, Glenbard West is still (bias aside) one of the most gorgeous public high schools I've ever seen.  Along with a few hundred of my classmates, we spent last weekend commemorating 20 years since graduation.

The first of two gatherings for the reunion was held at a bar/restaurant called The Bank in Wheaton on Friday night. The irony is that when we graduated from high school, you couldn't even buy liquor in Wheaton, let alone drink it freely in a bar, so hats off to Wheaton for shaking off a bit of their austere past. Originally, Carla agreed to go to both nights of the reunion but reconsidered and chose to go Friday only--wise choice.  Thankfully Jeff W's wife Vanessa was a familiar face to keep Carla company, some of my fellow classmates also spent time getting to know her as well.  She was a good sport and said she had a good time and also admitted she would've done the same thing which is but one of the reasons I married her.  It's not like I abandoned her but I was all over the place catching up with people, some of whom I hadn't seen in 20 years, it was after all, a reunion.  Round midnight, we called it a night which was probably for the best because it kept me from getting into the trouble of staying out 'til 4AM, like some of my friends did.

Among the 4AM crowd were my Grandma Sally's breakfast companions, Kent and Jeff, who made it out by 11AM Saturday morning, not bad.  Following the requisite greasy (but delicious) meal, we took a self-guided tour of the high school, which for me was my first time back in 1o-12 years.  A lot changed but some remained remarkably the same.  The one mistake we made in taking this tour was the long haul up to the sixth floor to where our beloved radio station used to be.  Instead of the studios and office with the highest and best vantage point in town, it had been converted to mere classrooms with no vestigial evidence of what was there before.  So sad.  Also odd was the former 'Girl's Gym' which was host to all of our high school dances had been converted to a library following the $12 million (!) addition to the main gymnasium, which was stunning.  We managed to squeeze in a quick trip to our pal Steve's for a Bloody Mary before the varsity Homecoming football game.  The game ended up being a rout, West won 69-13.  Hell, the halftime score was 69-7, they must've put in a Pop Warner team for the second half.

Jeff R. and I dropped Kent off after the game and went over to the Doubletree Suites in Downer's Grove to check in to the suite and rest up before the reunion proper, which was being held seven floors below.  With this event being the third gathering of the weekend, there were people who were making their first appearance of the weekend.  Some people only went to The Bank event on Friday, a few only went to the game and a few more still only came to the official reunion event, so the were new faces to catch up at every stop.  Since Jeff made the 10,000 mile trek from Singapore, Kent, Jeff and I were "In for a penny, in for a pound", and took part in everything which was great because we got to spend time with a considerable portion of our classmates.  We didn't all get to see everyone but I bet between the three of us, we did.  I'll admit I was a bit dubious when I heard the food would be a 'hearty buffet' but it was actually much better than most wedding food I've had.  The cash bar was a bit steep for the suburbs but not too bad, still cheaper than The Bank.  After dinner there was much drinking, reminiscing and even dancing, which if I was dancing definitely means there was alcohol.  Considering we're all pushing 40 and a lot of us are parents, there was a considerable amount of general debauchery, which impressed me.  As the official reunion wound down around the Midnight hour, we got a nice group of nearly a dozen close friends (including 4 of the original 5 Rational Actors) and went back up to the suite for some wine and more catching up, which finally ended around 3AM. Bedtime.

The only drag was when I woke up around noon, I realized my car key was missing.  I looked everywhere in the hotel suite and checked with the front desk lost-and-found--to no avail--so Carla had to come out to the hotel with the spare key.

There are tons of additional photos for anyone interested on Facebook on our various pages (Kent, Jeff, Me, et al) and I'll try to get some up here as well.  All in all, it was an amazing weekend spent with people I wish I saw more often, some I see just about enough of and some I'll likely never see again, for better or worse.  Oh, and I promise, this will be the last of my spate of recent reunion-themed posts.

Man, It's Been Twenty Years.

As if I wasn't feeling old enough already, I was flying with a pilot last week who in the course of our conversation revealed he was born the same week I graduated from high school: June 1988.  I literally have at least one pair of boots and a t-shirt or two older than him.  A bit of perspective though, the next day I flew with a pilot who told me he was loooking forward to his high school reunion, his 40th.  I was -2 years old when he graduated, I suddenly felt better.

I attended my 10 Year Reunion and had a blast.  What made it so much fun was that even ten years ago, e-mail was still a relatively new phenomenon, so I was only really in touch with a few dozen old high school classmates, there were plenty of surprises.  The weekend was filled with the usual revelations, some of us got fat (present company included) some of us lost our hair (thankfully, not me) and some former wallflowers became hotties.  We all aged, just some more gracefully than others.  We took away from the weekend a shiny new booklet with all our new contact information and promised to keep in touch, which we did for a few months.

When 2008 arrived, I began thinking about my 20 Year Reunion and how much had changed and how great it would be to see all those people from last time and hopefully others who didn't make the 10 Year reunion.  As spring began, we started getting information about the impending reunion and word began trickling in about who was going to make it and who wasn't. I was getting psyched.  Then Facebook exploded.  I was either soliciting or confirming 'friendship' from fellow Hilltoppers nearly everyday.  It was like a virtual reunion before the actual live event.  At first I wondered if perhaps the Facebook reunion would take a bit of the novelty out of the real thing.  But after posting that notion (on Facebook, no less) I was reassured that a) you can't have a beer over Facebook and b) the 'randoms' that you encounter at a reunion far outweigh the fact that I know more about my classmates now that I probably ever did in high school.

So, I remain completely stoked about this weekend and with a little luck will have a GWHS-themed Unheard Music on Friday.  If you're going, what are you most looking forward to?  If you're not going, what will you miss?  If you don't fall into either category, share your reunion thoughts.

I Threw A Brick Through A Window

Actually I didn't do the brick throwing, my partner in crime--also named Kenny--did but there's no song I know of called "Kenny Threw a Brick Through a Window".  I'm not going to let something like the facts get in the way of a good title/U2 reference.

It was spring of 1985, my freshman year in high school and I was on the GWHS baseball team.  We had just been trounced by York HS on a damp, cold and windy April afternoon, like 11-3 or something.  We rode the bus back to school and were supposed to shower, change back into our street clothes and go home.  Our coach had parked his car not far from where the bus let us off so he just got into his car and drove home in his uniform, forgetting to allow us entry to the locked locker room.  None of us thought much of it initially as we shared the locker room with the tennis and track teams, so someone was usually in there. Not that day, the other teams must've already gone home because the locker room was dark and locked.  A few of my teammates went up the hill to the main school building (our gymnasium was/is separate) and find a custodian or other staffer to let us in.  No one could be found.  We were left with two choices: walk home in our spikes and uniforms (without our books and homework) or find a way to gain entry to the locker room.  I think you know where this story's headed.  Kenny and I walked to the side windows of the ground floor locker room and launched a brick through to 'break in' to our own locker room.  Of course the janitors we were seeking mere minutes before were driving by just in time to see me boost Kenny up through the broken window.  Rather than approach us to see what we were doing, they called the police on us. Now mind you, we were wearing matching forest green and yellow jerseys, white pants and green socks and spikes on, not exactly cat burglar outfits.  The police came, we explained ourselves and after our irate coach (whose fault it was to begin with) had to come back to school and mitigate, we were allowed to change and go home about ninety minutes after we should have.  For our part in the caper, Kenny and I both received Saturday detention for one week  (like the Breakfast Club, except we had to pick up trash for three hours, not get stoned with socially stereotypical classmates). Remember, no good deed goes unpunished.

So, I'm sure the staute of limitations has run out by now, what was the worst thing you did on school grounds?  It can be something you were caught doing and subsequently punished for or something for which you've remained scot free.  If you wish to diguise your identity in the comments, I'll allow it.