What was high school like for YOU?

Those high school movies from the 80's hit the proverbial high school nail on the head for me. My high school was exactly like all these high school movies growing up.

Hughes definitely knew what he was doing when he made these movies. Basically, these movies (I think) represented his high school experience, and he expanded on it. There were definitely the "richies," and the "nerds," and the "geeks," and the "misfits," and while financially I was a "richie," I was actually a "geek," and a "misfit." I was not in the "popular" click, but frankly, I am glad I wasn't. However, what I found in high school, was that most people left each other alone. Yeah, people would talk behind each other's back, but I don't remember anyone publicly making fun of or bullying others. That was more of an elementary and Junior High thing. By the time we all reached high school, we realized that we were ALL trying to find a place to fit in, and were too worried about ourselves and our friends to make a fuss of anyone else. No, you didn't go out of your way to talk to someone who wasn't in your group, but you didn't go out of your way to make someone else's life miserable, either. If it did happen, I never saw it. But yeah, the "clique's" were there.



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Tiny hick town in NC, I graduated in 1984.
I was a preppy girl, izod shirts with collar turned up, members only jackets and big hair!

Class of '86, went to high school in Chicago. My HS was a college prep public school, very cliquish, probably 15% rich kids, the remaining population middle class and under. I was pretty preppy my freshman year, and eventually discovered alternative music and was more of a punk/goth chick by the time I graduated.Probably 1/3 of the school was African American, that was where most of the jocks came from. I had friends mostly in the "nerdy/popular" category - generally well liked honors class kids, but I also had friends in the other cliques.

For fun, we went to the Belmont and Clark area (alternative shopping area), the beach, movies, thrifting, record stores (Wax Trax!), or out to eat. None of my friends had cars till college, as living in Chicago, you could bike, bus, train or walk everywhere. I was into music so I went to a lot of shows with friends. I wore a lot of neon accessories, and wish I kept some of my old stuff!

And I went to prom solo - my BFF went to another HS, and a mutual acquaintance asked her to our prom, so she and I pretty much hung out after she danced with him a couple times. We crashed another prom in the hotel (got kicked out), and left and went dancing at a 17 & up club. My dress was also "handmade" (black of course, being goth and all), because I've always been unfortunately busty, and none of the Jessica McClintock dresses (prom dress maker of the 80s) were suited for a petite chesty girl. Overwhelmingly frilly and Scarlett O'Hara-y.

It was definitely fun, and a lot more innocent going to HS in the 80s. Despite the fact it means my 30 year reunion is next year, I'm glad I was born when I was! The worst thing was a fight or two on school grounds, and some of the really rich kids had parties that were broken up by cops, where they found a LOT of drugs and alcohol. I was not popular enough to attend those parties. ;-) My friends and I drank a bit and cut class on nice days (sometimes to go drink), nothing crazy. I only had 1 friend that got pregnant in HS, my sister knew a lot more (class of '95). She also witnessed a drive-by at her HS, and they had metal detectors by the time she started. Apparently my school also has them now, and tons of security. I guess that's been the reality since the 90s in city schools.

This is fun! I agree with a few of the above posters - my high school was a lot like the ones John Hughes depicted, although not quite as extreme. I should mention that my high school was in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) & I was Class of '89. I kept to myself with a very small circle of friends - seriously, there were 3 of us, LOL. I was just trying to look normal, I guess - maybe I would've been thought of as preppy. I liked pastel colours and L.A. Gear shoes.

For the specific groups at my school, there were the army kids (as I called them), who were in cadets, wore camo most of the time and hung out in one hallway (near the Cosmetology area) at lunch, then the "smokers" - there was actually an outside smoking area on the first floor and the stoners, head bangers and the punks would mostly hang out down there. The preppies/popular/jock types would hang out near the gyms, on the bleachers or take over this podium that lived in the front area of the school (no one else could sit on it or they'd suddenly go silent and stare at you). The rest of us just found our own little areas in front of or near our lockers. Oh, and the recently-immigrated kids hung out together and played ping pong on the 3rd floor; the "nerds" as I secretly called them, went to their respective clubs or to the library. It was very cliquey back then. I suppose it still is, just in different forms.

Thanks for asking! I could talk about the '80s 'til the cows came home, LOL. Gag me with a spoon! Gnarly!

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Be excellent to each other!

My HS was nothing like John Hughes' middle aged crisis fantasy schools. In NYC, there were few cliques, people seemed to move between groups with a lot of overlap. But then again I was a big scatterbrain as a teen.

I was one of those kids who would talk to everyone then promptly forget the conversations. So during graduation, everyone had funny memories of me and I would be wondering...where did I meet this person again?

I graduated high school in June of 1989. Our school had the typical John Hughes Clicks. There were the rich kids, the poor kids, the art geeks, the band geeks and the athletes. I was the art geek in school and didn't fit into a particular click. I had friends but wasn't popular at all. In fact, I was bullied throughout most of my four years of high school. It was tough but I made it through. Back then, if you weren't rich or a sports athlete then you just weren't considered the in crowd. Can you imagine a high school having a smoking section for the kids?!? Yep. We did, lol! Do much has changed. Kids don't have as much freedom as we did back then and now with social media being the norm, I think kids have a harder time in school.

I graduated high school in 2004 and I really must say it sucked for me. I got bullied alot growing up and the bullying acctually stopped when I entered high school. By that point, my self esteem was shattered. So, because of that I was extremely quiet and shy.
I basically missed out on my prom and did not particpate in any of the activities throughout my HS years.
My HS had the cliques. The smart kids hung out together, the popular kids hung out together, etc.
So, I actually enjoy watching these HS based 80s' movies.!