I went to Brookfield Central HS, a suburban high school in Metropolitan Milwaukee. Growing up I was a soccer player and later on a track/cc convert so in a communnity where soccer meant just about everything I had plenty of friends in high school. The popular crowd consisted of three main cliques all of whom were varsity sports athletes, lancerettes (poms squad) and at the same time among the top ranked kids in academics. Our "nerds" of the group were a couple of all-state tennis players. These groups fed the junior prom, senior homecoming and senior ball courts which were purely popularity contests. Our soccer programs were continuously among the top ranked in the state and occasionally appeared in the national rankings. Our football team had a great nucleus one grade below me and helped the team to the D2 state finals two years in a row. Basketball made it to the semis our junior and senior years and track took third in the team scoring at state my senior year. A lot of kids from our group(s) ended up going to UW-Madison or UW-La Crosse. A lot of my friends were all-state, state champions, ODP, and/or honors students and just about all are currently highly touted professionals in their field (including 1 NFL pro bowler). Many obtained graduate degrees.
I attended a great high school. In college I lived in a 3-story house with 8 others who attended this same high school. We had a blast and still do. My only regret in living with them was that I didn't branch out as much. In Madison we linked up with our rival high school's same scenario house just down the street quite a lot.
I never drank in high school but many of my friends did. It was like a monthly game of musical chairs as parties always ended up at someone's house whose parents weren't home. I was usually a DD. The funniest thing ever was when the local news channel's weatherman's son had a huge bash and we woke up to an empty keg and watermelon remnants floating in their outdoor pool. BTW anyone ever tried a Bear Fight (irish car bomb followed by a jager bomb) ??? Those are served to kick off our private reunions in the present day.