The 30-year Black and Blue Rendezvous

Last summer, the Poky and Highland classes of 1990 had to cancel their joint 30-year high school reunion due to Covid. Fueled by long-lasting Poky Pride and Ram Power, organizers wanted to hold their event this year. They knew that their younger 1991 cohorts would be planning their own 30-year summer soiree, so numbers were exchanged. Texts were traded. And, now there’s a weekly Zoom meeting with representatives from all four classes to plan the 30-year Black and Blue Rendezvous.

I talk all the time about how I loved high school and how much I still love Poky High. I also generally like people and still live in my hometown. I’m pretty much a poster child for the kind of person who enjoys a good class reunion – and who eagerly joins the planning committee. It’s been fun getting to know and exchange jabs with the Highland folks. As the getting-to-know has increased, the exchanging of jabs has lessened. Some of us really have grown up since high school.

With the advent and rise of social media, some classmates have told me there’s no need to catch up in person because they can already see what everyone is up to. Well, almost everyone. Class reunions may very well fade off into the social media sunset, but I sure hope ours doesn’t.  

When we had our 20^th, I wrote the following in a letter to the editor about my classmates. These words still apply today.

Some of us revel in our high school memories while some of us cringe and are thankful every day that it’s over. Some of us aren’t where we wanted to be. Some of us surpassed all expectations. Some, because no expectations were placed on us. Some of us are fat, think we are fat or are unhealthily thin. Some of us are happily married. Some of us are getting divorced—for the second time. Some of us can’t wait to bring our partner while some of us are silently wrestling with the idea. Some of us have 3.5 kids. Some of us have 8 in a blended family. Some of us are regretting not having children and some of us have lost a child. Or a spouse. Or a parent. Or both of them.

Some of us want to come back for a Buddy’s salad. Some of us need to check in with our parents, so the reunion is as good a time as any.  Some of us have never left southeast Idaho and love it here, while some stayed and feel trapped. Some of us are nicer than we used to be. Some of us are as nice as we always were but are now more outgoing so the world can see it. Some of us are still shy. Some of us are still jerks. Some of us drink. Some of us don’t. Some of us probably shouldn’t. Some of us have heard, “you have cancer” and some of us delight in each new sunrise.

Some of us loved every minute of high school, and some of us hated it all. But ALL of us spent part of our existence, simultaneously inside the old brick walls of Highland or Poky High. And all of us can make our reunion weekend whatever we want, or need, it to be.  I want it to be fun and filled with my classmates’ many personalities. I want to reconnect with some and meet others for the first time. I want new, happy memories. This is what I want. What we need, however, are RSVP’s. 

If you are part of Highland’s or Poky’s class of 1990 or 1991, we’d love to see you July 23 and 24 – and we’d love for you to RSVP. You can email pokyhighlandreunion9091@gmail.com for all of the details.

The first night is planned in Highland’s neighborhood with food trucks at the Portneuf Wellness Complex The second night is planned in Poky’s neighborhood with a catered dinner at the Downtown Pavilion. These two main events will be outside and allow for social distancing, and we will continue to monitor CDC and local health department recommendations. We’re working on optional Saturday activities like golf, swimming, school tours and more.

These past couple years have been a doozy. Between politics and the pandemic; the economy and everyday life; global conflict and local clashes, people’s differences seem to be in greater focus than what we have in common. I crave peace. I crave connection. Funny thing is – I believe peace comes from connection, and those connections start with nourishing what we have in common.  That’s exactly why I hope those in the Poky and Highland Classes of 1990 and 1991 will join us at the 30-year Black and Blue Rendezvous: to celebrate and nourish what we have in common.