Old acquaintances (no spam)

[fable]

One of the banners I see on many sites offers to help get you in touch with your graduation class. Whether it's college, high school, grade school, or chain gang, they vow to do it. Personally, I've little interest in that sort of thing. Like most of us virtual taverngoers, I was something of a loner years ago in school, not fitting in with either the jocks or the hoods. I wouldn't mind knowing at all what a few of my old girlfriends were up to, these days; typically, I remained good friends with most of 'em either we moved on, but friendships tend to unravel when you change jobs and locations. In public radio, the only way to get new assignments and possibilities was to do both.

In any case, how do you feel about seeking out old friends from your own past? Obviously if you're in high school now, it would mean the kids you knew back in grade school, maybe the little girl you ate lunch with regularly, or the small group of pals with whom you held up your first bank. Ah, reminiscences.

[The Z]

I'm lucky in that most of the people I was friends with in elementary, actually didn't go to the same school, so I meet up with them pretty regularly (just like I did before). Like I said, I'm kind of spoiled in that way

[Gruntboy]

Couldn't give a monkeys about them. I'm quite happy staying in contact with the people I keep as friends. Everyone else is welcome to wonder what ever became of me.

[James Mason]

I feel the same as grunt. I'm still in high school but really I don't care about meeting up with anybody who I used to know.

[Robnark]

I quite frankly don't give a flying copulation about most of the people I used to be in school with. I still keep in contact with the very few people I do actually want to keep in contact with, speaking on IM, meeting up at birthdays &c.

the good thing about antisociability is that you can have a very... streamlined social life.

[James Mason]

I watched the movie About a Boy yesterday and it seems that that's the way to live, no friends no obligations.

[fable]

Agreed about school. It was a time of great personal problems for me, not exactly made easier by the fact that some of the teachers regarded severe asthma attacks that left me in a coma as just an excuse to avoid class. One even tried to prevent me from taking a few accelerated courses, because he said my unwillingness to perform in gym class meant I was "morally unfit."

I remember around that time the family was taking a car trip somewhere, and we stopped in the local gas station. It had been run for more than a decade by an older Italian and his two sons. (Gas was 25 cents/gallon.) It just being summer, and the owners knowing us, one of the sons asked me a school. I told him I hated it. He told me I'd look back upon it with fondness, someday.

I still find that self-righteous, all-knowing adult wisdom annoying to this day, and I've used it as a lesson. When any teen has asked me if things get better after college and graduation, or if they still stink, I tell 'em that yeah, school really is the worst of it, and that the hard part is not to let the teachers beat the best of your enthusiasm for life and learning out of yourself. And I've gotten a fair share of horrific looks from parents, and at least a couple of grateful grins from teens who had another lifeline to cling to. That's important information to pass along, because it's the truth.

That ends my pontification for this message. I have kept in very occasional touch with a couple of friends I made in college, but that's been it. School mates are like family: you're thrown together, and you can't choose 'em. I prefer the friends I can choose.

[Weasel]

Where I grew up, there was the county school and the city school.

I attended the county and to this day, have more friends I keep in touch with from the city school. Leedog is one.

Most from the county school only come to see me if something is broken...hoping for a deal. Weasel doesn't cut deals Weasel is known as a A..hole to most of them

[dragon wench]

Fable has pretty much summed it up.

I have no desire at all to find any of my school mates. During my elementary school years I moved around so much that I can't even remember names. I did spend my last four years of schooling in the same place, however, and I view that as a mixed blessing. I despised the school and everything it represented, but at least I was not being shunted about from location to location. I had little use for my teachers, and even less use for my classmates. I recall my graduation day very well.... Everyone (except me) was lined up on the stage stifling back tears... I, on the other hand, could barely contain my excitement at finally obtaining freedom. When it came time to accept my graduation certificate I practically skipped off the stage in jubilation.

I look back to my first years of university with sincere appreciation, and there are people from that time I would like to reconnect with... But anything that came before....? No way.

[Mr Flibble]

I have no desire to get in touch with any of the poeple I went to school with, but I do keep an eye on the sites here where people put their profiles for different schools, just so I can see how many of them have turned from rich, stuck-up, (many explicitives) kids, to complete nothings, who, in their mid-twenties, are still working at KFC or a supermarket checkout. Hey, I have an evil side too

[Chanak]

Considering that:

1.) I attended approximately 16 different schools during my youth, 3 of which were high schools;

2.) I have forgotten nearly everyone's names, as I never knew most of them for longer than 2 years at a time;

and 3.) Such websites lure you into checking them out, exclaiming something to the effect of "Chanak, 5 of your high school alumni are waiting to hear from you!!!"...never mentioning up front that in order to connect with these people - none of which I happen to remember - you have to pay a premium...

...I discovered that it is a waste of time and money. Not only that, but if you make the mistake of registering on such a website (which you can *always* do for "free"), you can never successfully unsuscribe from their spam list.

Besides...if any of those people saw me now, I would ruin a carefully crafted and maintained reputation I enjoyed back then. They would be amazed that I cut my hair, and appear....normal.

[Mr Sleep]

I saw one down the pub the other day and had a chat to him

Most of the people I knew in school were fairly uninteresting, after I left we just kind of disconnected from each other. I still know most of them to say hello but frankly if they don't want to stop and talk to me then that is their choice.

[der Moench]

If ever you think about the happiest days of your life
Cast back your mind for a while
And remember the time when you were a child.
Don't think of things that make you sad,
Just remember all the good times that you had.

Do you remember only happy days,
Full of flaming Junes and summer holidays?
Or do you remember those stormy Novembers
When we walked in the wind and the rain?
Schooldays were such happy days
Now they seem so far away,
I remember and I'll always treasure.
Schooldays were the happiest days of your life
But we never appreciate the good times we have
Until it's too late.

I miss all the acquaintances we made
And I'd go back if I could only find a way,
Schooldays were the happiest days
Though at the time they filled me with dismay.
We only remember what we choose to remember.
When I was a schoolboy I loathed regulations and rules
I hated my textbooks and my school uniform,
'Cos it made me conform,
And teachers were always disobeyed,
But I'd go back if I could only find a way.

Schooldays were the happiest days,
Now they seem so far away.
I remember and I'll always treasure
Schooldays were the happiest days of your life
But we never appreciate the good times we have
Until it's too late.
Now I wish I hadn't strayed,
And I'd go back if I could only find a way.
Schooldays.

I dunno. I know school was sucky, and I wouldn't really want to go back, but at the same time ... I don't take real easy to the idea that school was made by the people (or teachers) in it. I took a class once, and it was just boring, boring, boring, and I just couldn't get interested, and the teacher was bad ... and I told this to my sister by way of trying to explain why I hated it so much. Well, my sister said: "Oh, stop your whining. School - and life - is what you make it. You can learn in spite of a bad teacher, and you can have fun in spite of boring classmates. But you have to work to do it. So get to work!"

I still believe that. Ray says kinda the same thing in this song: your memories are, in part, what you make them, too. Do you look back with disgust? Or do you look back to those one or two people (or teachers) that really meant something?

I don't keep in touch with more than maybe one or two old chums, but I can still look back on our time together as something exciting and enjoyable. That's the way I prefer to remember those times, rather than thinking about all the negatives.

That ends my pontification for this message.

Peace.

[Tamerlane]

Originally posted by der Moench
I still believe that. Ray says kinda the same thing in this song: your memories are, in part, what you make them, too. Do you look back with disgust? Or do you look back to those one or two people (or teachers) that really meant something?

The Kinks made a whole lot of sense didn't they

I tend to look back with a huge degree of fondness, first few years of high school was rough as usual. But the final years was simply a blast, I've made a considerable amount of life long friends as a result and I figure that Uni will be just the same.

[Tybaltus]

Well I am still in contact with many of my closer friends in high school, while the many other friends I had, have sort of gone and done their seperate things. Its very difficult to stay in contact with one or two friends after high school ends, let alone the 25 or 30 friends I had at the end of my high school tenior. I suppose I could drive over to the school at any time to catch up with the underclassmen friends I made.

As far as my closest friends, I will be making a movie with about 10 of them this coming month, and I will be sure to catch up with my 7 other friends who hung out in a different group from the first 10 I mentioned.

Due to the fact I was a drifter, rather then a loner, I made friends from all sorts of different groups, which is another reason why it is hard to maintain contact with everyone.