High School Reunion
Making an appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, Janis Joplin excitedly revealed her plan to attend her high school reunion on the 14th of August, 1970. While it might seem like a trivial piece of gossip to fill airtime, this reunion held immense significance for Janis. She confessed to Cavett that during her school years in Port Arthur, she was the subject of relentless mockery – she was “laughed out of class, town and even the state!”
Janis yearned to return to Texas, her heart set on a grand vindication against those who had once belittled and excluded her. She wanted to flaunt her success, her fame and fortune, right in their faces. But beneath it all, her vulnerable inner child still yearned for acceptance from her old stomping grounds. However, her drunken antics at the reunion, coupled with her public criticisms of the town, did not result in the triumphant homecoming she had envisioned. Once again, she left Port Arthur feeling dismissed, unacknowledged, and unloved.