Juan Foote

So far as I can recall I have never signed up for the site. I remember getting spam from them for the longest time with the key words along the line of "someone searched for you" (etc.) Then the emails went away. Didn't really give it a second thought, figured maybe the site had gone down or something....until yesterday. Two days in a row I have gotten Classmates emails along this same line, direct in my inbox. I unsubscribed/marked as spam but they are back anyway.

Did something recently happen with the site? Some well known entity that really does have my email buy them out or something?

Hondo Gravel

Walked into a class reunion SOS same people huddling in the same circles acting the same way. I took a look around and walked out and left. I was there 5 minutes .

no motor?

I've never been to any of mine, I wouldn't recognize much of anyone if I did anyway.

Hondo Gravel

Small town, small school at the time still small minds Today the town where I went to school is practically part of San Antonio. I don’t recognize anybody either . One snobby girl is now as wide as she is tall so there is karma.

TakingMyTime

I'm closing in on my 50th reunion (3 years away). I have never gone to one and I have no plans on going to the 50th either. I think if I was ever to convince myself to go to one I think I'd probably end up doing what you did. My class had about 1300 people in it and on top of that I was a bit of an outcast. Any friends I had then I till have now. There's no one that I'm searching for.

canklecat

More like classmates dot con. Most of this stuff is a data harvesting scam. Even a free trial will get your info sold to spammers. Same with some genealogy and veteran sites, among others.

If I'm guesstimating correctly, I attended something like 16 schools by the time I graduated, and I skipped kindergarten and never had to repeat a year. We moved a lot so some years I was in two different schools.

I can't think of a single person I'd care to meet again from school or any school I'd want to revisit. Maybe a few teachers who were pretty good but they're probably all gone by now. The only good thing I got from school was learning touch typing and having plenty of time to read whatever I preferred hiding in the back of the classroom.

The entire experience only reinforced my impression that the US education system is worse than mediocre. It's designed to promote failure, tribalism, elitism, consumerism and many of our worst traits. I know some people who transcended the public school experience but very few. Most people do better despite the system, not because of it.

Hondo Gravel

We only have had about 80 so everybody knew each other. I was asked later why I turned around and walked out. I said I hated this small town BS then and I still do now. This was a 10 year reunion so it was awhile ago. If I get a notice for another one I throw it in the garbage I fit in at school OK it was just the mentality I couldn’t take.

Juan Foote

As far as any social media putting you back in touch with schoolmates...I feel like Classmates was among the first. Myspace and Facebook quickly ellipsed that. In my own experience I had a couple of "friends" in high school and a couple that actually turned into (real) friends well into adulthood. By and large my experience with "finding someone" you haven't spoken to in years is a quick lesson in why.

For my own part back when I had my accident I went through and found some old friend and old girlfriends that I felt like I had not broken off of the best of terms with or was just outright rotten to them. I made some amends with a lot of them. Finding a few of them actually netted my finding a high school sweetheart that just up and moved away one day. Like, dating, calling, talking at school and not one word of it ever came out. Just gone one day. I found out that she moved to a small town locally and went on to teach in a nearby University. I looked her up, sent her a message and was...well, quite disappointed at how cold the response was. Just like, "hey you ghosted me, what happened, how you been, etc.?" and the reply was something along the lines of "not looking for a hookup, have a nice life"....WOW!

roundypndr 

For someone who tried their hardest to hide in the woodwork in school, I wouldn't have known it at my last class reunion. I barely opened the door of the cab, when I heard my name being called out by a classmate who I haven't seen in (censored) years.

TakingMyTime

We moved to a new home that was about 6 miles away from our old home when I was in 5th grade. This meant that all my friends throughout elementary school were not going to be going to the same "new" HS I was slated for. I've always thought it might be more fun going to their reunion and seeing a few of them. I've searched through some of their HS yearbooks online, seen several faces and names that put a smile on my face, but that seemed to be the end of it. I'm not sure seeing them would really have any benefit other than a quick "I haven't seen you since 5th grade" and that would be the end of it.

roundypndr 

In fifth grade, I changed schools, but lived in the same house. With former school being a charter school, and the new school being public, and with both being only a quarter mile apart from each other, I was able to still see many of my former classmates who lived in my neighborhood. The opposite was true as well, with many of my neighborhood friends were now my new classmates at the public school.

It was fun to see that the venue for my last class reunion was owned by a husband and wife, with the husband being a classmate from the pubic school, and the wife being a classmate from the charter school, the virtues of living in a small town.

skidder

10 year reunion - A lot of folks still trying to find their way in life, so they were still in 'high school' mode. I stayed for dinner then left early.

20 year reunion - This was put on by an organization that does reunions as a business, so it was a 'pre-packaged' thing and required semi-formal dress (suit and tie for the men). I hardly knew anyone there so didn't stay long. Total waste of time and $$$.

30 year reunion - Skipped it.

40 year reunion - A few gals organized this and invited everyone who graduated in the 1970s. IT was held in a parking lot in a business park in front of a storefront restaurant run by a former graduate. $25 included buffet dinner and non-alcoholic drinks. About 300 people showed up. Really laid back atmosphere, great memorabilia display, and a great band fronted by a former classmate who's a pro musician. Lots of folks who I had not seen in years showed up (but no ex-girlfriends!). A lot of us met up for brunch the next day before everyone departed for home. Totally worth it!

Darth Lefty 

Classmates seemed like a pretty clever idea until they were totally outclassed by Facebook.

I can’t think of anyone from high school I’d like to see again besides the two I already keep in touch with.

FBOATSB 

Yes. High School? I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Didn't even go to the commencement. I would get snail mail invitations to reunions every ten years or so for awhile and had no interest in that. Then back in the early 21st century facebook took off. I joined up after awhile and started to get inundated with "friend" requests from my childhood and total strangers I had no need of. I thought it was kind of creepy and a huge time sink so I deleted all that and never looked back. Still got emails from that for a while.

no motor?

My ex wife wanted to go to hers, but graduated in 3 1/2 years and didn't get invited by either class.

Zedoo

Large schools are designed as prisons to control large numbers of students. I did not understand the prison aspect then, but I tried to avoid spending so much of my life there. If I had known how worthless a diploma is I might have dropped out at 16.

Hondo Gravel

HS was a waste of time I didn’t learn anything until I was in college. After a few semester I realized how worthless my HS was. It was a country school 20 years behind the times with no emphasis on academics. Total waste of time. College was refreshing since the students wanted to be there and learn.

indyfabz

In 2018 I combined cycling and my 35th high school reunion. Took Amtrak from Philly to St. Albans, VT and started riding south. Stopped in Deerfield, MA for my reunion weekend then continued home to Philly. General Patton’s grandson was in my class. Saturday night we next to each other and ate clams and lobster for dinner. Needless to say, I was the only person to arrive at the reunion weekend, which included numerous classes, by bike.

jon c. 

There are a handful of people I knew back then whom I've seen a few times over the intervening decades. And expect I'll get together with them again.

I scarcely remember anyone else.

I had completely forgotten about the classmates spam, but it used to be constant. Haven't seen it in ages though.

Altair 4

My wife is in a health profession and a few years ago ran into a former high school classmate of mine as a patient. She came home and said I should give him a call. I looked at her and asked, "Exactly what would we talk about?" This is a person I hadn't seen in 40 years. We weren't all that close in HS - more like we had mutual friends, but my graduating class only had about 80 people. We've had widely disparate lives - he got a girl pregnant either in HS or shortly thereafter and got married. Didn't go to college. Lives in the same mill town I positively wanted to leave ASAP as a kid. I didn't make the call.

'02 nrs

received notices also recently & never signed up.a $$$grab IMO.

Kat12

I've never even been invited to a class reunion, either for high school or college. (Of course, I've moved a few times and not kept up with many people, so it's possible they simply don't know how to get ahold of me; no idea.) Doesn't bug me much as I never saw the point. Probably nobody I know/like would be there; I wouldn't want a bunch of people saying "...you're who??"; and frankly I don't see the point in going unless I can report that my life is going fabulously (seems dumb, but since probably at least half the people there would be tallying up their "loser roster," I don't see a point in putting myself out there to be judged whether I made enough of myself to pass their muster unless the answer is unequivocally "yes").


That's part of the reason I don't use my real name on Facebook. Don't see the point in having to reject "friend" requests from a bunch of people who want to revise history to think we were friends, and/or use me to pad their "friends list" so they can look popular.