How to Survive Your Spouse’s HighSchool Reunion or “I’m Ready For My Close-Up, Mr. DeMille”

Hey!  Let’s go on a book tour…and add relatives, and people we haven’t seen or kept track of in years and years. Won’t that be fun?

 

First Stop:  A Texas High School Reunion. (Go Eagles!!)

Now, I’m sure many of you have attended your mate’s/partner’s/good friend’s soirees in which you didn’t know a soul besides the bartender, and that was only because you stood, yakking at the bar all evening and tipped him for listening.

So follow these dandy tips to really enjoy this type of shindig.

1. DON’T WORRY ABOUT A THING. Everybody has been crammed through the AGE Machine. They’ve been cleverly disguised in layers of lasagna, worry, and hair dyes.  Participants aren’t sure who’s the alum  and who’s the spouse.  Hide your name tag, and tell yourself, you can be anybody you want to be.  Try out a few alternate personalities.
   

   Ha.Ha.Ha. No…this wasn’t one of the personalities I chose, but I rarely get to use this photo, and it’s Christmas…so here it is.

2) HAVE A PLAN. My plan was to talk to anyone sitting alone and photo-bomb as many pictures as I could. Two photographers had been hired to mill through the crowd getting as many “casual” photos as possible of the alums. So using the advice of Rule #1, I tried out my Kim Kardashian personality and stuck my head into every group photo I was close to. Often I dragged whoever I was talking to into the photo also.  (Remember in high school only the cool kids made it into  casual pics throughout the yearbook?)  HA.HA. Well me and my “I-only-had-one-picture-in-the-yearbook” new-friends made it into many photos this time. (I snagged 10 all by myself and I’m sure  the Reunion Planners are saying to themselves right now, “Who in the heck is this? Was that Betty Lukas? “No, I think it was Krissy Bell.”)

3) DON’T FOLLOW ALL THE RULES.  Oh, good grief, you didn’t follow the rules in high school, so why are you acting like an old fart and doing what you’re told now?  Remember, you can legally drink now (but your liver may tell you otherwise). But wait a minute….maybe you were one of those kids who DID follow the rules?  Well, remember RULE #1: You can be anyone you want to be.  So let loose a little.  Ask somebody you don’t know to dance.  Start a card game in the corner.  Talk someone into doing karaoke with you.

4) HAVE OTHER PLANS BESIDES JUST THE REUNION.   Seeing people you haven’t kept up with or even exchanged a Christmas card with is fun for a little while, but don’t make it the center point of your excursion.  Dallas Cowboy’s reunion was a hoot, but if it had turned out to be a flop we still had these exquisite adventures to bookmark our memories.

Dallas Cowboy Fan and I visited the concrete wonder that is Dallas.  Most of the time we found ourselves parked on the LBJ Freeway amazed at the modern art called, Our Interstate Highway System, and we learned the interesting hand signals Texans use to communicate with each other.

Dallas Cowboy Fan affectionately named our little rental, Gutless. It had the pick-up-and-go of a wisk broom and was quite a joy because it often earned us a few hand signals.

The little Kia Rio made it into EAST Texas and every Sonic Drive-In along the highway.

 

Gutless and I with our 44 oz cask of Root Beer which Sonic calls a “Route 44.”

All that’s left of the poor farm in Kauffman, TX

Once the richest half-acre in the world, Kilgore, TX produces little oil anymore.

So…it’s true.  You can have great memories of a high school reunion, or any party where you don’t know anyone.

Just remember…for the upcoming year…

You can be anyone you want to be!

Bless Sonic Drive in. In a tiny Texas town they, let me be a carhop for a while. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to wear one of those ka-ching money changers.