Kindergarten class breaks meeting record for 83 consecutive years | curiousity
2 min readMaintaining friendships in kindergarten can be a challenge, as we grow up on different paths. However, this was not a hindrance to a group of Americans. Together since 1938, these friends meet once a year and now have 83 meetings, winning the record for longest-running class meeting.
In addition to being recognized by Guinness World RecordsThe group also proves that the concept of long-term friendship is real. The gang attended kindergarten at Sadler Elementary in California and graduated 85 years ago. The meetings started two years later and since then they have been sharing these moments annually.
Porter Davis, one of the group’s members, said in an interview with Guinness The original class had about 27 students, but not all of them showed up for the meetings. Usually 10 or 15 people can participate. “There is a group of eight people who have kept in touch over the years and attended most of the meetings. On the other hand, others were infected through socialization and started attending afterwards,” he said.
The group likes to change encounters and each one takes place in a different location. They basically talk, share trips, and hear each other’s stories. Porter says he enjoyed seeing his peers change over the years and learned about marriages and divorces, children and grandchildren, and mutual successes and failures.
So far, the most memorable meeting was on June 29, 2021, because the fellows were celebrating the eighty-eighth birthday of part of the group along with the eighty-third meeting. They gathered at a famous coffee shop and invited friends from other schools they had known during middle school and high school.
While Porter wants to continue getting together as Kindergarteners, he knows it’s more difficult now that the group is entering their 90s. A colleague died and two others fell ill. “I think we might have the two of us together in the future, but not for a Guinness World Records title. It would take a lot of organisation,” he says.
The goal is to hold the eighty-fourth meeting. Until his arrival, Porter encourages the others to hold class meetings of their own. “Make it an event that will refresh everyone’s life,” he motivates.
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