There was Stuart the nuclear engineer. And Kathy the publisher, and Brenda the lobbyist.
And Steve, and Jim, and Dennis, and Jano, and Duane, and Ed, and Francie, and Phil, and Maureen, and Tex. The list just goes on and on of amazingly talented and genuinely nice people.

And the best part was, that mostly, people did not revert to form, and the cliques from 30 years ago seemed, by and large, to have finally crumbled. The "cool kids," of which I definitely was not a member, actually turned out to be cool.

Coincidentily, not a week later, I found myself watching a dvd of the movie, "Dazed and Confused." It chronicles the comings and goings of members of the class of '77, on the last day of school in 1976, as they head off into the summer and the beginning of their senior year. It is a pretty accurate representation of things, especially the eternal quest to just try to fit in.

So I got to thinking. What movies best capture the spirit of high school, and the overall high school experience? Or, at least, my high school experience. So, because I had nothing better to do at the moment, I came up with the following list.

10.) "Mr Holland's Opus." The one high school movie that focuses not on the kids but on the dedication of the teacher. Actually, come to think of it, "To Sir With love" did the same thing. But I like "Mr. Holland" better because the Beatles songs in that one are far better than the Lulu songs in the other one.

9.) "Hoosiers." The tale of one basketball team's run for glory, and Gene Hackman's flawed coach.

8.) "Remember the Titans." The true, Disney-fied story of T.C. Williams' High School's struggles with integration in the early 70's, as viewed through the perspective of Denzel Washington's football team.

7.) "Grease." Sure, it's corny. And yeah, Sandy and Rizzo were both pushing 30. But who can resist it? Plus, the way the T-Birds hassle Eugene is classic.

6.) "Back to the Future." Marty McFly's struggles with Biff perfectly capture what it's like to be picked on by a bully for no reason. And of course Marty outwits him. Repeatedly.

5.) "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Another one that mirrors what suburban high schools were like in the mid and late 70's. Mr. Hand is perfect. Exactly like every teacher I couldn't stand.

4.) "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Of course it's ridiculous. No kid could get away with the stuff that Ferris did. But then again, it does seem that there really were a lucky few that always got away with murder. How they did it, I still don't know to this day.

3.) "The Breakfast Club." The anger, the torture, the alienation, how nobody really understands anybody, and yet in the end, they find they're really all the same.

2.) "Dazed and Confused." Could Ben Affleck and his stupid paddle have been any more cruel? Weren't there a million guys like that back in school, while the rest of us just tried to keep our heads above water?

1.) "American Graffiti." Four friends on the last night of summerr following their senior year. Who wants that to end? Not me. I wished it would've gone on forever and the future never got here. But it did. And so it did for these guys, despite their best effort. Plus there's radio d.j. in hiding Bob Smith's immortal line to Richard Dreyfuss: "If the Wolfman were here, you know what he'd say? He'd say, "Get your ass in gear!'"

Honorable Mention: And it's not even a movie, It's a t.v. show. But week in and week out, the scripts nailed what it was like to be growing up in the early and mid '70s, from the pecking order in the school cafeteria, to the old man who didn't understand anything but in the end turned out to be pretty wise, to Kevin's never-ending yet always awkward love for Winnie Cooper. Check out "The Wonder Years." For my money, it's Hollywood's best-ever depiction of high school, which even now for me, three decades on, still matters. Why? Just because it does.