Friday Night
About 35 classmates (many of whom brought spouses) met in the Holiday Inn lounge. The bartender wasn't expecting such a large group but managed to keep up with the lushes thirsty people from our class (anyone interested in blackmailing Sanjiv Mahajan, please see the Submit Photos page for the necessary evidence). Bill Dabney and Hope Morrison administered a quiz which asked which of the classmates in attendance matched each of the facts provided, such as a hobby or profession. Jeff Dempsey and Jimmy Key both won a free drink for correctly identifying every person on the quiz. The hotel bar closed at 11pm, but a large group of lushes classmates and spouses continued the festivities at a bar called Jimmy D's. There was an inexplicable round of bouncing quarters into an empty shot glass, after which Rhett Butler purchased several horrid cocktails of Stoli and Red Bull to pass around. The loud and rowdy group finally packed it in around 2am.
Saturday Picnic
We had about 35 classmates and their families at the picnic, which was held at Jimmy Key's house. The picnic was apparently the catalyst for Jimmy to take care of about two years' worth of "honey do's" around his house, so he will probably never host another reunion event at his house ever again. However, the place was perfect for the picnic - ample parking, room for both of the inflatable jumpers, a couple of tents with tables, food set up in the garage, a pool for all four zillion of the kids to splash in, and a couple of covered decks for pool viewing. It was hot but fun. Russ Ellis commented on how we all have some really beautiful kids, and he was absolutely right. The cute factor at the picnic was off the charts. Some of the late-night partiers from the previous evening were noticeably absent, but most of them rallied and showed up despite the hangover lack of sleep.
Saturday Dinner
Again, about 35 classmates attended. The bar opened at 6:30. The room was decorated in Northside colors, and we put up a class banner and posters of the class photos from the 5 and 10 year reunions. Around 7:30 people began going through the buffet line. During dinner, Bill and Hope passed out ballots so people could vote for reunion superlatives (see below for the winners). Then Bill welcomed everyone officially, mentioned classmates who have died (with a very brief moment of silence to remember them), and announced the results of the voting. Hope gave a short presentation (see below) on our high school years, the classmate profiles submitted via the website, and the results of The Way We (Really) Were survey. Finally, Bill mentioned that we were not quite $50 short of covering reunion expenses and someone passed a basket around for donations. (See below for the Reunion Ledger showing collections and costs.)
After the presentation, a photographer/amateur comedian from Moore Studio took a group photo then a DJ played. Unfortunately, the DJ was a little clueless and despite being sent a playlist prior to the event and receiving numerous requests during the evening, managed to play few songs that anyone wanted to hear. I mean, he didn't even have Rapper's Delight. Come on. Nonetheless, there was quite a bit of dancing. The intrepid Bret James (who explained that he was not actually a Pop-O-Matic in high school but rather a sort of Pop-O-Matic alternate) amazed and inspired us all with his energy on the dance floor. Who knew a man of his age could still move like that. We were also treated to a tender moment between Jonathan Cole and Russ Ellis when the DJ, in a fit of uncharacteristic "give them what they want"-ness, played our prom theme, The Long and Winding Road. There was an unfortunate circumstance with the banquet bar (prices much higher than the lounge bar), which resulted in most of the lushes social drinkers spending the post-dinner portion of the evening in the lounge rather than the banquet room. Then the banquet bar actually shut down due to some unfortunate rudeness on the part of one attendee who shall remain nameless (even though a little public ridicule would not be altogether inappropriate). They did ultimately open the banquet bar again, but we hit our midnight room deadline pretty quickly.
Once again, several people decided the party should continue and made their way to Octane, which some of you may remember as The Water Hole. The DJ there was great and knew just what to play - he even had Rapper's Delight (darned if every 20 year old in the place didn't know all the words) and Jam On It. He also inexplicably played YMCA (completely outside the typical playlist at that club). Bret James, Russ Ellis, and Chris Tanner ran up to the stage and performed, leading the entire club in spelling YMCA with our arms. For a bunch of old white people, we were pretty impressive on that dance floor, and didn't leave until about 3:30am.
Sunday Brunch
Brunch was less-well attended than the other events, but there were still about a dozen or so classmates. We watched Not A Creature Was Stirring - a movie made during either junior or senior year as an English project. It could have used some better lighting but otherwise it stands as a proud testament to goofy adolescent humor. When Mike Mayes finally becomes a famous musician, we'll see his breakdancing zombie bit on VH1's Behind The Music. Thanks to Jeff Dempsey for figuring out how to make one of the TVs work with the DVD player.
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