10 years after graduating, here are some high school stories I hope to always remember

This fall is my 10 year high school reunion. Wow. I’m only there now a few times a year at most to see my father, but I still think fondly of my time growing up in rural northwest New Jersey.

The reunion sent me back to think about what made me most happy, more than a walkable town square, even more than than learning — making people laugh. Likely more for me than for you, I share below a few jokes I remember fondly. Next time we’re stuck on an elevator and short on more meaningful conversation: ask me to tell you the stories.

Here are some that I remember:

  • Faithfully attending my high school’s unsuccessful baseball team’s games and cheering loudly and enthusiastically. (They had attended my basketball games and awarded me with my own fitted team baseball cap.)
  • Organizing and printing a swimsuit calendar of my high school friends, male and female in lots of funny poses.
  • Litigating an after-school court case in the school’s cafeteria to mediate between an in-jest rivalry between two teachers.
  • Establishing the Cafeteria Clan Coalition to honor our under-celebrated school cafeteria ladies. We got our picture in the yearbook twice and held meetings with a constitution. There even was an evening ceremony one year.
  • I printed one-issue of a satirical newspaper. It went exactly the way you think it would.
  • I was always looking for fun games to be held at parties, like when we competed to write the most convincing spoof Seventeen magazine stories
  • In fourth grade, I brought together a petition against a rule that students who got grass stains on their pants couldn’t play at recess the next day.

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