MASON CITY – The Mason City High School class of 1991 held it’s 20 year class reunion over the weekend.
The event was planned by Jina Long (Wattnem) and Jen Christy (Bye). The two planners created a website that classmates could register at and pay for the event, in addition to actually planning out all the activities. Everyone at the reunion agreed they did a tremendous job of planning a full weekend.
The reunion was fairly well-attended with about sixty in attendance, not including spouses. A lot of people wanted to be at the reunion but couldn’t due to work and family commitments. People came from as far away as Texas, Florida and California to attend.
Events included a bowling night at the Rose Bowl for families and their children on Friday and then on Saturday a tour of Mason City High School in the morning and an afternoon meeting at Birdsall’s Ice Cream.
There were lots of smiles, hugs and stories as people greeted each other that hadn’t been in contact in person, in years. Facebook seemed to make a lot of the conversations smoother since many classmates have been using that site to keep track of each other, at least from a distance.
The main event was dinner and dancing at the Prime N Wine Saturday night. This was the highlight of the reunion. There was late 80’s and early 90’s rock videos playing on big screens. There was a full buffet of great food and drinks were available at the bar. Dinner was served in the large banquet room and the atmosphere was perfect.
A “contest” was held to see who knew the most about the class and the year 1991. The contest consisted of a questionnaire with about 20 questions on it; each table got one. One of the questions was “how much did a gallon of gas cost in Mason City (on average) in 1991?” The answer was $1.02. Another question featured an awkward photo of a smiling teacher with a young man’s arm around her. The question asked who the teacher was (Mrs. Klussman) and who the arm belonged to (Bill Tolke). Everyone got a big laugh out of that one.
The prize for the winners was a bit of shock. The two event organizers announced that the winning table would be in charge of organizing the 25 year class reunion. Not exactly the prize the winners were expecting, but it was whispered that they had used smart phones to Google many of the answers, so they may have gotten what they deserved. Later that evening, they handed that duty off to Adam Gabel and Matt Marquardt, who happily accepted the job.
In the end, the reunion was a huge success. New memories were made and friendships were renewed. True to the class motto, it was definitely proven that the class of 1991 makes a difference, at least to each other.
