BY GREG MARKLEY
OPINION —
I received confirmation that the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation will be celebrated in two years. I graduated in June 1975 when Gerald Ford was president and “Jaws” was filling movie theatres. It seems so long ago, as I have never attended a class reunion. But the 50th is the one many alumni will attend. Most 1975 grads will be 68 years old or older by October 2025.
“You Can’t Go Home Again” was written by Southern novelist Thomas Wolfe and published posthumously in 1940. The catchy phrase took on a life of its own meaning that when a person tries to return to a place of his or her past, it will be changed and that will disappoint the person hoping for nostalgia. The October 2019 issue of seniors magazine Sixty+ gave insights into attending your 50th.
“The 10th reunion is about competition left over from high school — seeing who’s still hot, who got fat, who has the better job, who is married, who has kids,” wrote Elizabeth Dunkel. “High school rivalries, insecurities and cliques are still in play. The 20th reunion is when we’re well on our way in life, though still comparing careers, children, marriages made, divorces, money earned or not.”
Perhaps, never having gone to the 10th through 40th reunions, I will have a lot to learn about the other students as adults. I did not have any high school rivalries and was not a member of a clique, so that is not an issue. I kept a low profile at that stage. But in 2025, I can tell them how my life developed over the past five decades.
In advance of the 50th reunion, I am starting to remember some particular students. One guy, a football player, was nicknamed “Huff” for Sam Huff, an American professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins.
When I was in college, I bumped into Huff from my graduating class at a pub frequented by Ivy Leaguers from Brown University in Rhode Island. But I don’t know what he is doing now. I read in a school newsletter that one member of our class was a soldier who died when his Humvee toppled over in a river in Iraq. I imagine they will have a prayer for him at the 50th that I can participate in.
Three months after our graduation, 112 girls were admitted to the academy. At the time, Catholic schools were floundering, so the girls added to the boys totaled a student body of about 650. In the local paper, a photo showed girls walking under a longtime entrance sign: “Enter as boys, leave as men.” The photo cutline read: “Your sign is slipping.”
The best thing I liked about the school was the academic depth. There were no “study guides” for exams, few tests with only rote memorization and only two or three class days off for special events. The Christian Brothers were heavily degreed and experienced. Saint Raphael Academy, when I graduated, had a 98 percent rate of graduates going to college or to the military. That’s amazing!
Relationship experts report that many people have no desire to attend reunions because, “With no fond memory to look back on, the event might seem more daunting than delightful” or “Re-engaging with a chapter they’ve moved on from doesn’t align with their future aspirations.”
Yet the real killer for these in-person reunions is the omnipresence of computers and other devices that link people through social media. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn keep us in touch with who we want, thus jettisoning the idea of physical reunions. People on social media can connect on a daily basis with friends and acquaintances — and they even choose the time to connect.
One thing I would enjoy at a reunion would be visiting the SRA student newspaper office. Computers would be there, not typewriters, but I hope students are as curious and engaged today as I was. Writing for the high school paper led to four years in my college newspaper, including two as co-editor-in-chief.
The first story I wrote for publication was on “The Student Guidebook,” and most students did not even know this important book was. Oh, well, seeing my byline in the school paper at age 18 was still a seminal event. In two years, I will probably go to the most important reunion, the last one for the 1975 grads, but the first for me.
Greg Markley moved to Lee County in 1996. He has a master’s in education from AUM and a master’s in history from Auburn University. He taught politics as an adjunct in Georgia and Alabama. An award-winning writer in the Army and civilian life, he has contributed to the Observer since 2011. He writes on politics, education and books.