Most high school reunions follow the same pattern. There are squeals of recognition (or puzzled, who-the-hell-are-you? looks). There’s dinner and dancing. Maybe a slide show plays in the background, but no one notices.
At the Staples Class of 1982 reunion earlier this month, everyone watched.
Soreyrith Um created a 14-minute video that will intrigue anyone remotely close to that age — whether they grew up here or not. Along with dozens of photos — some from the yearbook, many taken by Soreyrith himself — he’s integrated video from Kirsten Gill Bartie.
Though a few things have changed — the guys’ shorts are cringe-inducing, the cars are vintage, and there’s a card catalog in the library — what is remarkable is how little is different.
Tracy Rodino and Betsy Gross, outside the now-defunct Sport Mart on Main Street.
Hair styles, sweatshirts, goofing around in the cafeteria, boys and girls hanging all over each other — teenagers from 1982 are almost interchanageable with those in 2012.
A video from 1952 — 30 years earlier — would be almost unrecognizable.
I’d love to hear what today’s high school students think, watching the boys and girls who are now men and women, the same ages as their parents.
Or, in some cases, actually are their parents.
One thing kids will immediately notice: all the alcohol. Senior Skip Day was held at Sherwood Island, and nearly everyone was drinking in public.
Then again, the legal age was 18…
(Click here to view Soreyrith and Kristen’s remarkable video.)
