Walked over to the local bar to get a cheesesteak hoagie, and I ran into a friend from High School I had not seen since 1988. The next hour of conversation sounded like something from an Alzheimer’s intervention:
Remember so and so, who always used to sell suckers for 25 cents
Oh, shit, what was his name.
How about, Gina, have you seen her. Which Gina. Wait, I only remember one. Do you mean that Gina?
I think it was her name.
Oh, well, she is still gorgeous.
Did you hear about Sam?
Sam who?
Sam, the guy who ran for president and was best friends with Geno?
I think I do. But what about Santoro and Lombardi?
Granted, it has been since 1988, but I thought between the two of us we could remember something other than the super hot girls.
Violet
Gina, Geno, Santoro, Lombardi. Was everyone you went to high school with Italian?
Dennis SGMM
Well, hell, at least you remember the good stuff.
burnspbesq
This, I think, is a good approximation of what you would get if TBogg were to sit down and try to write a 2,700 word book review. Pretty awesome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/books/review/the-great-disconnect.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www&_r=0
tkogrumpy
sounds normal to me.
different-church-lady
Perhaps still preferable to last year when I ran into somebody I had worked with 15 years ago and all we could do is bitch about how the youngsters of today were obsessed with their iPhones and social networking and sense of discretion had utterly died. Boy, we really sounded like a couple of cranky retirees.
Cacti
I was reading stories today about how the POTUS has been missing his debate prep because he’s been busy Presidentin’. It got me feeling concerned.
Then I thought, is this just a ruse that team O is leaking to the media to try and get Mittens overconfident?
lamh35
in 1988 I was 12 & in love with LL Cool J. graduated high school in 1994, so all my high school chums are between 35-37. Alzheimer’s is it some thing we talk about that makes us feel old .we are on the other hand amazed at the fact that some of the have children going off to college now.
jurassicpork
I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own: A Psychological Profile of Mitt Romney.
muddy
Yeah, it’s tough that’s there’s no imdb for real life. I could sure use it! The other day my 30 year old son kindly informed me that there is such a thing as diabetes type III, which is some kind of Alzheimer’s. He said I could look it up. Lo and behold, I found articles about it from 2005. I was wondering why he would know such a thing but then realized he was probably googling, “Why is my mom so stupid?” Oh dear. I told my doctor that today and we had a good laugh over it.
burnspbesq
@Violet:
There was a high school like that in our league. The guys were all named Joey and the girls were all named Anne Marie.
tkogrumpy
@burnspbesq: Definitely worth a read.
Cacti
@Violet:
For reals.
Being West Virginia, I’d have figured his classmates were guys named Rusty, Larry Dean, Jethro, and Bubba.
Fluke bucket
Discussion about 25 cent suckers naturally leads to thoughts of hot women.
different-church-lady
@burnspbesq:
The bit where the GOP got taken over by completely batshit crazies. I mean, it’s like they’ve stopped being a political party and started and endless audition for a reality TV show.
Quaker in a Basement
Could he throw that speedball by ya? Make you look like a fool?
am
Not sure what the problem is from mostly remembering the hot girls from high school.
different-church-lady
@burnspbesq:
There would have been hella more f-bombs by now, and I’m only on the 4th ‘graph.
Dennis SGMM
@burnspbesq:
Awesome indeed. The evocation of Maimonides was pitch perfect. Thank you for the link.
different-church-lady
@Quaker in a Basement: They talked about some old times and they drank themselves some beers.
lamh35
@Cacti: I distinctly remember that until the end of the primary, that POTUS wasn’t doing all the campaign events. I suspect that the Obama cam are/were already prepping their strategy to defeat Romney. I also remember reading that Sen Kerry had been designated to play Romney. The debate prep for POTUS is diff than 4 Romney. Romney has to not only learn all this new &complicated I info, but also pick up a debate strategy. POTUS has been living & breathing the job for past 3 1/2years. he doesn’t have to learn stockpiles of info. He already knows it from firsthand knowledge & the info and experience. POTUS debate prep has to be more strategy, not knowledge dump by virtue of being Prez. so of course Romney needed more prep time.
I don’t believe for one minute that Obama has been having to skip debate preps. it just doesn’t seem anything like him and despite what GOP/Consevs think of him, Obamajust doesn’t seen the top to be that Cody.
hitchhiker
Can NOT stop laughing at this. Possibly my own 2nd childhood setting in.
I never went to a high school reunion, and I graduated in 1970 so there have been lots of opportunities. As my old friend Rindy said, the people you’d want to see would never go, and the people you’d never want to see again would all be there, and nobody would remember anybody’s names.
I remember this guy named Rick who sat next to me in Latin class and poked his pencil through the little soundproofing wall thingies that separated our desks . . . very suggestive, eh?
I don’t think he would have gone to any reunions.
lamh35
@Cacti: I distinctly remember that until the end of the primary, that POTUS wasn’t doing all the campaign events. I suspect that the Obama cam are/were already prepping their strategy to defeat Romney. I also remember reading that Sen Kerry had been designated to play Romney. The debate prep for POTUS is diff than 4 Romney. Romney has to not only learn all this new &complicated I info, but also pick up a debate strategy. POTUS has been living & breathing the job for past 3 1/2years. he doesn’t have to learn stockpiles of info. He already knows it from firsthand knowledge & the info and experience. POTUS debate prep has to be more strategy, not knowledge dump by virtue of being Prez. so of course Romney needed more prep time.
I don’t believe for one minute that Obama has been having to skip debate preps. it just doesn’t seem anything like him and despite what GOP/Consevs think of him, Obama just doesn’t seen the type to be that cocky
daverave
@Quaker in a Basement:
Ha, my first thought too…
lamh35
OK, there is no reason for there to be another Taken movie there has got to be no real plot to it, but…I.CAN’T.WAIT.TO.SEE.IT!!!! Anyone else?
Cacti
@lamh35:
But the MSM is just waiting to roll out their new narrative…
“Romney wins debate, changes course of the race!”
Regardless of how he actually performs.
All Bush had to do to “win” his debates with Gore was not belch into the microphone.
dance around in your bones
FUCK, I remember NOBODY from high school and I do not care to remember them. It was…………….a clusterfuck, as I recall.
My husband LOVED high school – prolly ’cause he had a Corvette and all the girls wanted to fuck him. I didn’t know him then, but I am somewhat envious.
different-church-lady
@Cacti:
He did. You just couldn’t hear it over Gore’s sighs.
PurpleGirl
Cole, there are times you just make me laugh.
different-church-lady
@dance around in your bones:
Why? Don’t you get to fuck him?
Rich C.
WTF are you doing with cheese steaks John? We’ve seen the photos.
http://www.southbeachdiet.com/diet/
Get it John. It will save your life.
Rich C.
WTF are you doing with cheese steaks John? We’ve seen the photos.
http://www.southbeachdiet.com/diet/
Get it John. It will save your life.
Violet
@different-church-lady: I think the correct verb tense is “didn’t”, as her husband passed away relatively recently.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@different-church-lady: her husband is no longer with us.
? Martin
@burnspbesq: That was fantastic. I’m going to have to read that again tomorrow.
iOS/Mac Reading List is fantastic.
dance around in your bones
@different-church-lady: Sweetie, he died last year.
But, yeah, I got to fuck him from age 15 to age 57.
Here’s a funny thing – the first time I was with him (in the just-about-to-fuck-mode) a girl came to the door. He had promised to gently rid her of her virginity, and he had to just as gently tell her no-go, because he had me now.
We lasted 40+ years. I miss him every day.
different-church-lady
@Violet: Uhhh…
[turns deeply humiliated shade of crimson]
Wow… Okay. Deepest and most sincere apologies.
Didn’t there used to be a “request deletion” button somewhere?
Dennis SGMM
@dance around in your bones:
My HS class held one of its reunions less than a block from where I was living at the time. I didn’t attend.
different-church-lady
@dance around in your bones: My genuine apologies, sometimes I play too rough.
patrick II
@lamh35:
Bill Maher said they should just title every Liam Neeson movie “I’m Coming to Kill You”.
Violet
@dance around in your bones: Love the way you speak of your husband. It sounds like you had a wonderful marriage. So sorry for your loss.
@different-church-lady: It’s easy to get confused by who’s who. And yeah, I do think there used to be a delete button. Did it get eaten in a FYWP update?
dance around in your bones
@different-church-lady:
Oh, don’t worry about it. Y’all can’t remember everything.
Frankly, I’m amazed at how many people here remember stuff about little ol’ me.
And I love them all.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Dennis SGMM: I didn’t go to my 20th, and won’t attend the 30th when it happens in 2 years.
Gian
I forget which yahoo or google news had the link up to some wingnut suggesting part of Romney’s road to debate victory was the magic teleprompter.
I swear, maybe a dozen fucking rightwing billionaire loons dictate to their minions what the talking points are to be and the minions click heels and obey. regardless of how fucking stupid said talking points are.
they like hte Kochs did this year fuck with their own think tanks now too… I seem to recall that right wing funded think tanks used to try to come up with solutions to problems – which even if they were bad solutions – were more creative than deregulations and tax cuts for the rich.
To be fucking honest, I don’t think the sane GOP billionaires take their party back unless and until they get so fucked in sucessive elections that tax rates circa 1979 seem like a nirvana they’ll never return to.
I seem to remember that all the hundreds of millions that sheldon addelbrain from nevada was chucking at the GOP this year was something like 10% of his expected tax savings under Romney. If that’s true…
MattR
We had out 20 year reunion in June. Was a blast. Had about 125 of 380 graduates there. Of course our class is/was weirdly close. Most of my closest friends are guys I went to high school with. And that is true of quite a a solid chunk of our class – or at least its true that they are each still close friends with a half dozen or so folks from HS.
EDIT: Reviews were so good on facebook that those who couldn’t make it are insisting on another one at 25 years.
Yutsano
@dance around in your bones: I definitely less than three you as well. :)
dance around in your bones
@Dennis SGMM:
Most of the people from my high school I pretty well disliked and have no desire to “reconnect” with. It’s one of the main reasons i don’t do social media like Facebook and etc.
If I wanted to be in touch with them I would be, in another way. I guess I’m just weird.
amk
@dance around in your bones: sweet story.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
I’m actually looking forward to number 25 next year. I went home in August this year and my mom had cut out an article from the paper. There is a feature in the paper that summarize “today in history” local stories from 150, 100, 50, 25, and 10 years past. August 14, 1987 must have been the slowest news day in history as the top local story was about the distribution of the high school yearbook. And there was my name in the paper as one of the photographers. There were lots of names listed of folks I hadn’t remembered. I look forward to seeing a few again.
Radio One
I was surprised to hear today that Bill Doss, the lead singer and guitarist for the band The Olivia Tremor Control, passed away a couple of months ago at the age of 43. They were one of my favorite bands when I was in college before they disbanded. I can only describe their music as the Beatles writing inspired songs with the input of Spike Jones, Chuck Jones, and Mary Tyler Moore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjd6DHAutU
Spaghetti Lee
Don’t worry, I occasionally get that feeling and I’m 22. I’m sure I’m remembering the important stuff though: if it wasn’t important I wouldn’t remember it.
Geoduck
I don’t think my class has ever even held a reunion. We were a bunch of slackers in the social department. It’s also possible it has happened and I never heard about it, which is fine by me.
suzanne
@dance around in your bones: I went to my HS reunion and I’m so glad I did. I was MUY unattractive in HS, and angsty. But ten years later, I was skinnier, they were all fatter, and most of them had done NOTHING with their lives since high school.
A girl in high school keyed my car, then got pregnant and dropped out, I was hoping she’d be there so I could demand she pay me for the car repair, but she didn’t show up. DAMNIT.
MattR
@Radio One: It was discussed here briefly in one thread. Raven brought it up since Bill was an Athens guy. My brother in law used to hang out in the same musical circles when he and my sister lived in Athens and they still shared friends. I was a bad brother in law and never really made an attempt to get into that whole group of bands.
dance around in your bones
@Yutsano: Thanks, honey.
It’s still tough, sometimes. I was with him for over 3/4 of my life, and……….sometimes just don’t know how I’ll go on. I’ll go on.
My goals are to find a cure for irony and make a fool out of God.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
Teacher told to stop stamping faces f her students
MattR
@suzanne: Since nobody knows who I am and I’m not gonna use names, I think I can share this story. One girl came to the reunion who had gained a little weight and had a bit of a belly bump that was accentuated by the tight outfit she was wearing. At some point after midnight, another girl walked up to her, rubbbed her belly and asked when she was due. I don’t know whether it is more mortifying to have to say that you are not pregnant or to hear that and realize what you just did.
dance around in your bones
@suzanne:
Haha. The biggest popular chick in my high school stole my boyfriend right from out of under my thighs (? I’d guess you’d say? we never consummated) and if I had to see her pinche little face again I’d prolly punch it right in the nose.
Fuck that chick.
I was off traveling the world a year later. Best thing I ever did…..with my boyfriend – soon to be husband of 40 years.
Fuck those fuckers.
? Martin
@dance around in your bones:
Yeah, this. College was awesome, but I don’t want to think about those people either. Lots of people ahead of me to waste wallowing in what was and coulda beens.
SFAW
@dance around in your bones:
My dear –
I remember. He was much too young to leave you. And you’re much too young for him to have gone.
Shit.
SFAW
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Yutsano
@? Martin: I knew some really great people in college that I’ve re-connected with since wifey forced me onto the Book of Faces. High school was a mess. I keep up with exactly three people I went to high school with. That I’ve decided is enough.
dance around in your bones
@? Martin:
It’s really weird – my husband LOVED his high school years and I just HATED them….well, I didn’t have a Corvette and the guys that wanted to fuck me didn’t give a shit about me. They just wanted to screw somebody.
I was so glad to meet my (eventual) husband and take off for parts unknown – we ended up living in Afghanistan for a year or so, after traveling from Amsterdam overland.
In search of a guru (who, thankfully, we never found).
? Martin
@MattR:
I said that to a girl in college. Everyone puts on weight differently, she just so happened to put it all on where a baby would go. She looked like a skinny girl 7 months pregnant for over a year until she dropped the weight. We wound up being pretty good friends, but I never stopped feeling bad about that. I’ve never, ever, ever since even hinted that someone might be pregnant without them volunteering it. Learned that lesson the hard way. Tried to impart that lesson on the kids too.
Similarly, a buddy of mine met a nice girl and did the whole thing and they decided to get married – it was a relatively short relationship – under a year. We were all at the rehearsal dinner when one of his childhood friends finally arrived who had moved across country. He had seen pictures of the bride to be but never met her. We’re all standing there with the soon to be bride and groom when the buddy blurts out “Holy shit dude, I didn’t realize until just now how much she looks like your sister! Man, they could be twins!” We’d all noticed that from day one, but never mentioned anything because, well, how to do you toss out the observation that your friend likes fucking a girl that looks exactly like his sister? I wish we had that moment on video though – it was the groom looking completely confused, the rest of us mostly with our faces in our hands doing the Morning Joe ‘oh sweet jesus’ reaction, and the bride standing there with the most horrified look on her face I’ve ever seen on anyone ever in my life. And then she broke down in tears. We were seriously worried she’d call off the wedding, but it all somehow got evened over. I’m pretty sure she’s still pissed at him for saying that though. But the whole moment plays in my head in slow motion. It was just unbelievably horrible. He should have just asked the bride how many months along she was – it would have been less painful.
MattR
@Martin: The pregnant thing is temporarily embarrassing but is not the end of the world. But the sister comment. Wow. Just wow.
Death Panel Truck
@Cacti: No John-Boy or Jim-Bob? Oh, wait, that’s the other Virginia.
? Martin
@dance around in your bones:
That’s seriously cool. My grandmother took, I think, 6 trips around the world. Took a job on the floating university as a nurse. She went everywhere and saw everything. I’ve mentioned before how she would take her kids on vacation. She was a retired Lt from WWII – nurse, wounded while serving on a ship trying to evac soldiers. Being an officer, she could fly standby on any military flight, so being poor and having 5 kids and a husband nearly permanently committed to the VA due to PTSD (3 Pacific tours including Iwo Jima) she’d pack them up with everything from parkas to swimsuits, head to the local base and ask for 6 seats anywhere in the world. They didn’t know if they were going to Australia or Morocco (they went to both, plus Japan, Germany, Hawaii). So, she got really comfortable going anywhere unprepared. She once took a 2 week vacation in Peru with nothing but a purse, which I believe contained little more than a spare set of undies and a toiletry kit. She’d just wash her clothes every night.
But she went everywhere and loved it. India was her favorite. She went there at least 3 times. My dad is doing sort of the same thing now that he’s retired. He’ll call up the airline and negotiate to fill a seat for as few frequent flier miles as possible – doesn’t much care where he goes as long as it’s new. He spent a month rattling around argentina, couch surfing and hitting up tango clubs every night.
dance around in your bones
@? Martin:
I WISH we’d had the option of free military flights. Luckily, back in the day (late 60’s) you could get a flight on Icelandic that stopped in Reykjavic and then in Brussels for about $150.
That’s where we started from….then, a train to A’dam and later trains all across Europe and the Middle East until there WERE no more trains(somewhere around Iran).
(Also, as I recall, there was a HUGE cholera epidemic going on at the time, and everybody said “Don’t go!” Naturally, we paid no attention to that.
After that it was buses and private Jeeps and all. No worries, once we crossed the border into AFG everybody busted out the hash they’d hidden …. wherever…..it was much fun :)
Death Panel Truck
@The prophet Nostradumbass: My 30th was last year. I’ve never been, and won’t ever. Of 160 classmates, I remember about 25 or so fondly. They’re the ones who don’t attend (I’ve seen the reunion photos published in the paper, so I know.) The rest I can do without. My brother-in-law graduated in the same class, and he attended the 20th in 2001. He said everyone bragged about how great they were, how much money they had, etc.
I have nothing against reunions; I think they’re for people who enjoyed high school and wish to relive their happy memories. While I was in high school, a brother died in a car accident on Halloween 1979, and five months later my mom was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. So I have few happy memories of my last two years of high school. Except for drinking, and my girlfriend Marilyn. Smokin’ hot, but she ended up marrying my best friend. Sigh.
eemom
late to the par-tay, but Dave Barry once said: Never assume a woman is pregnant unless you see an actual baby emerge from her at that actual moment.
? Martin
@eemom:
I remember that. Alas he said it about a decade after I needed to hear it.
Chris
Yet again, I’m going to point out that this is yet another post that confirms its time to launch Operation Girlfriend For Cole
dance around in your bones
@Chris:
I’d be Cole’s girlfriend, except I’m old enough to be his mother.
Soonergrunt
@John Cole, top:
I had 408 students in my graduating class. (I looked it up.) I’m pretty sure that there were 217 girls of varying degrees of hotness, my three friends, and 187 faceless, nameless others roaming around the halls. I graduated in 1988, too.
Soonergrunt
@Quaker in a Basement: hahahahahahaha!
Anne Laurie
@dance around in your bones: :
Why let that stop you? My mother-in-law’s second husband is a couple years younger than her oldest son (my Spousal Unit). Although, as she always reminds us, he’s older than her youngest son — which makes aaaaaall the difference, apparently.
Soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: I assume that makes one feel somewhat less like a cradle robber.
I wouldn’t go to my HS reunion if you put a gun to my head. According to one friend who went to the 20th, the only people who actually got invitations were all the clique-ish cool kids. One of them who had matured took my friend as his date. She and some others more or less crashed the party and the resultant cherry-faced apologies for the “oversight” were priceless, apparently. She related to me that most of those who went were just as self-absorbed, petty, and ignorant as when we were 17. She was amazed however, by the number of insurance salesmen and stock brokers there were.
bemused
Ha, ha, in another 20 years you and your age peers will be trying to remember the names of some vegetables. I speak from experience.
BCHS Class of 1980
Wow, what it tells me is that you are from the Northern Panhandle! I used to kid a guy from Weirton that it was a misdemeanor up there if one’s last name ended in a consonant. :) Years ago, my then-SO, now-spouse from upstate NY [nonni di Sicilia] didn’t think there were any “hillbilly wops”.
Took her to the Clarksburg Heritage Festival; she was stunned.
Also a picture of the junior Senator from WV works too.
patrick
@lamh35:
RE: the new “taken” movie: my wife and I are eagerly anticipating it…
re: high school….yeah, the only thing I care to remember are the hot girls I wanted to do…..
njorl
@Violet:
“Gina, Geno, Santoro, Lombardi ” Combined with “Cheesesteak hoagie” makes him sound like a South Philadelphia native.
dance around in your bones
@Anne Laurie:
I have memories of bringing my toddler to meet my dad for the first time, and he had a newborn baby on his shoulder (second wife).
It was disconcerting.
Sorry, JG, I think maybe you and I wouldn’t work out. Much as I love you.
dance around in your bones
@Anne Laurie:
I have memories of bringing my toddler to meet my dad for the first time, and he had a newborn baby on his shoulder (second wife).
It was disconcerting.
Sorry, JG, I think maybe you and I wouldn’t work out. Much as I love you.
dance around in your bones
@Anne Laurie:
I have memories of bringing my toddler to meet my dad for the first time, and he had a newborn baby on his shoulder (second wife).
It was disconcerting.
Sorry, JG, I think maybe you and I wouldn’t work out. Much as I love you.
dance around in your bones
@Anne Laurie:
I have memories of bringing my toddler to meet my dad for the first time, and he had a newborn baby on his shoulder (second wife).
It was disconcerting.
Sorry, JG, I think maybe you and I wouldn’t work out. Much as I love you, my daughter is your age.
dance around in your bones
Ok, FYWP. I did NOT submit that comment 3 times.
So, Fuck off.
Disculpame, FOUR times. FYWP.