Seventy-two years after they received their diplomas, members of the Meriden High School class of 1937 were still eager to see their classmates at their annual reunion.

Now 90 and 91 years old, 13 classmates out of an original class of 365 gathered for lunch Friday at Sans Souci to chat and reminisce, said Shirley Berardino, a member of the class who helped organize the reunion.

A town away and a day later, about 50 members of Wallingford's Lyman Hall High School class of 1969 gathered at Villa Capri in Wallingford, and although those that showed up out of the original class of around 500 had a good time, such a low turnout disappointed event organizer Liz Douglas, who said she and her committee would not be organizing a 45-year reunion.

Four hundred invitations were sent out to every address the committee had, and Douglas was surprised the murder mystery and dinner the committee planned drew so few.

"We had good turnouts up to the 20th reunion," she said. "Then it started to decline. The 25th we had maybe 175 people, which is still good. The 30th we had 160. The reunion five years ago we had 100 people there.

"We put in so much work, but it was a poor turnout," she said. "We were very disappointed. I said 'I'm not doing this again.' "

The problems Douglas and her committee are having are not unique, said Rachel Ronis, professor emeritus of sociology at Quinnipiac University in Hamden.

A fairly stark divide can be drawn between the baby boomer generation and that of their parents, she said, with the boomers, and all subsequent generations, seemingly less concerned about being a member of a group and staying in touch.

"People are less loyal to groups than they once were," she said. "They don't build a history together. People pay more attention to their immediate families than they once did. Men are more engaged, and I think that's taken up a lot of the energy ..."

It's not just about reunions, she said. People who work together are also less likely to know something about their associates' families and are not getting together as much for dinners at each others' houses and other social gatherings.

She does not see this as something that might shift back toward a more group-oriented society, she said, and expected things to stay the same in the future.

The Lewis High School class of 1941 from Southington, which plans to meet for a reunion Oct. 28 at the Manor Inn in Southington, is expecting about 20 of the 50 surviving members to show up, said class member Walter Hushak, with many of those not coming unable to travel due to physical impairment.

They once had dancing and music at evening engagements, he said, but as the members, who are now 85 and 86, have gotten older, that's been scaled back to afternoon lunch reunions.

But the members are always eager to meet, he said, and the group actually increased the frequency of its meetings from every five years to every two or three because, "five years is too long a period to wait," Hushak said.

Berardino was not sure how many of her classmates remain, but she said that the few who live locally are now meeting yearly, with larger gatherings every five years.

She'll still plan the get-togethers as long as they are feasible.

"Don't forget now, each and every one of you," she told the members of the class Friday, "same place, same time next year ... I hope we all make it."

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