Hot Pink Pants and Crocheted Poncho's

Disclaimer: I wrote this in Leu of my moms upcoming high school reunion...that she is not going to. :)I found this picture from her web page and I think she looks like a model. (See mom you are fashion forward....really really forward. People do their hair now like you did it then!) Anyway, to whomever reads this don't assume I think you should go to your reunion. This is merely my thoughtful pondering on high school reunions....



I was sixteen when I started working at the Coppermill Restaurant in Logan UT. It was the first job that I had had that didn’t involve paychecks coming from my parents, and having to decontaminate a bathroom used by welders. You can see why I thought being a waitress would be so much more glamorous!
One of the things that I loved about working as a banquet waitress was the variety of banquets we put on. No day at work was ever dull, as I jumped from wedding breakfasts, to birthday parties, to company parties. By the end of my time there I had served the Rotary club so often that I think I was on the roster, and I had been to more family Christmas parties of people that I wasn’t related to, than Christmas parties of people I was.
Of course I learned a lot of things. Work always teaches you customer service skills, money management etc…But serving groups of hungry people is kind of like being a covert psychoanalyst. I mean, you see the usual stuff, like girls passing on dessert and then having “just a bite” from their neighbors plate, or the fake pleasure when two people who don’t like each other are sat at the same table. “So how are you these days?”
My favorite “study” on people was the time that I single handedly served the temple workers and temple presidency. I was running drinks out asking, “Coke, diet Coke, or Sprite” over and over. Pretty soon my Coke pitchers were all watered down from all the people ordering Sprite. That is until someone in the temple Presidency ordered a Coke. It was like the black drink in a herd of sparkling sheep-in-wolves clothing. After one coke was ordered I couldn’t keep it on tap for all the others. (No comment from me on this one, but I am pretty sure the temple workers all still have temple recommends)
All those experiences were great, but the one that is on my mind today is the time that I served two High School Reunions back to back. The first was at the Coppermill. It was Sky View/Mountain Crest’s first year that they had either been combined, or separated….I am not really sure. I am going to go out on a limb and say that it was the class of 1980 something. (Mom you can probably correct me on this.)
I was in charge of this particular banquet so I arrived early to set up all the tables. The room was small, but there were a lot of people coming so all the tables were fairly close. The first handful of people started coming in just as I finished putting on the last couple of glasses. A man at the doorway caught my attention right away. He had come alone and looked really excited to see everyone. As people filtered in after him they gave him a smile and hello, but no one really engaged him in conversation. Undeterred he made himself the reunion greeter, standing at the door welcoming everyone.
When it looked like most of the guests had arrived I invited everyone to find there seats. Most people clung to the person they had come with and sat down as quickly as possible as if I was going to start pulling out chairs when the music stopped. Some took their merry little time making sure that they had been seen…I mean that they had seen everyone. Our little door greeter was one of the first to sit down. He watched as everyone sat down—all at different tables.
In my mind I thought, “Come on people, your not in third grade. Someone go sit by this guy.” I made sure to give him a lot of my personal attention, but there is only so much you can do for a man all by himself—at a reunion!
I started bringing out salads as a few more people filtered in. I watched as a lady in hot pink pants and what I can only describe as a “fluffy monkey shirt” came in with a guy who I was pretty sure sold used cars from California She took one look at the room, panned it, noticed all the tables were full except for the one table seating the one lone man. She trotted over to the table jerked two chairs from the table and resituated herself at the end of an already full table.
The man sitting alone may have been socially awkward, he may have been a little naive, but he wasn’t stupid. His face suddenly showed past years worth of high school memories tumbling out like dirty gym cloths from a locker.

I was so mad at pink pants I came the closest I ever came to spitting in someone’s drink. (I did manage to drop a dirty fork on her and that was almost as gratifying).
Luckily more people filtered in to the party late, and a nice man and wife sat down at the empty table and talked the lone man, treating him like he was just the guy they had come to see. I could tell there were other people that this couple wanted to talk to, but they chose to pay attention to this man instead.
I hate to cut out important details, but I am going to skip to High School Reunion number two. This one was held at the Alumni house at Utah State. Again, I am not positive of the class year, but I know that these people had probably gone to high school while my grandparents were still getting to go to recess. Obviously I noticed that the pace of the reunion was a lot slower. Rather than asking each other what they did for a living, they chatted about retirement. Instead of trying to sit by someone “cool” they sat where their walkers would fit, reintroduced themselves and then shared tips on how to keep your hearing aid batteries from dying. I noticed that no one wore hot pink pants, and that the flashiest thing there was a handmade crocheted poncho that matched a crocheted purse. Probably the biggest difference between these two reunions was that the second one began by one man reading a list. It wasn’t a list of people there, or even important things people in their class had done. It was a list of classmates who had passed away. I quickly noticed that the list was longer than the list of people there.

I don’t know if having false teeth breaks barriers, but it seemed to me that this bunch of people got it. They got that everyone is different, and that being different isn’t bad. They had the confidence to come as they were with no pretenses. Good grief they went to their reunion which is more than I can say for myself! They seemed to understand that though we all have different paths we walk in life, when you get to the end and look back the view it’s pretty much the same for everyone. We all look back and see success, family, and memories, but we also see trials, disappointment and grief. That’s life.
When you see a big group of people it’s really interesting to what the dynamics. Sometimes there is an obvious pecking order. High school is hard. I drive by high schools and it gives me the creeps. I mean, I liked high school, but there is something about it that just makes me self conscious. Maybe it’s because it’s a time in everyone’s live when they are insecure. It just seems really sad to me that sometimes we don’t move on fast enough, that it takes your last reunion to realize you’re in a room of equals. (That goes both ways)
Looking back I had a lot of good memories from high school, and I had a lot of good friends that I really do miss. I’m always excited when I find one of them and realize that surprisingly…we still have a lot in common. I was a self proclaimed geek in high school, but I am comfortable with who I am now. I have done a lot since high school, and I don’t really think it’s changed me, but perhaps I just grew into myself.
I missed my five year reunion and I have to admit I don’t really have plans to go to my tenth, but I hope when I go that I will be secure in myself. (I’ll probably be the one sitting alone at a table so please come and sit by me!) I doubt I will be secure enough to wear hot pink pants, but maybe…I’ll crochet myself an outfit. 