It Was a Different World
Sun., July 9, 01:32 PM
I have spent most of the past week frustrated and constrained, and I am going to spare you the details. Instead, I’m going to answer this meme that I saw on a lot of truly dissimilar pages. I guess I feel the need to add my two cents’ worth, but there is a madness to my method.
- Who was your best friend?
Bunny and A, about whom I first wrote in the pajama party. I still try to keep in touch with Bunny, and we write at least once or twice a year. On the other hand, I sent a “catch up” letter to A a couple of years ago, and it went unanswered. Whatever. - What sports did you play?
I didn’t play any kind of sports. PE was required in school, but why would anyone (except future gym teachers) do it for fun? Mostly I was a baseball fan. Sometimes we played a little badminton in the back yard. Tennis was for people who had more money than I did. - What kind of car did you drive?
Surely you jest. I’ve explained how I didn’t get the automatic license at sixteen. Some of the fellows drove. One guy I knew drove a Model A Ford – everything but the rumble seat. - It's Friday night. Where are you?
Probably baby sitting. I worked every chance I got, and I continued to baby sit for some of my old customers even after I started working at the library. (And sometimes I took the Friday night shift there.) I didn’t get an allowance. I had to find my own cash for anything my parents didn’t deem a necessity. - Were you a party animal?
Not our style. A bunch of “our group” might have gotten together to listen to music and dance, but if it was just the girls, we usually did needlework – sewing, embroidery. - Were you considered a flirt?
Of course not. I was one of the “nice girls.” - Ever skip school?
Except for being sick, I never was out. It wasn’t done. - Ever smoke?
Not in high school. I did for a short time in college but, gee, I really couldn’t afford 25 cents a pack. - Did you get suspended/expelled?
Never; we didn’t get ourselves in trouble. My mother nearly killed me once for getting a low mark; can you imagine what she would have done if I got suspended? - Can you sing the Alma Mater?
Oh, yes. We regularly heard it once a week over the P.A. system – drummed into our little heads – but I think we would have learned it anyhow. It has a nice story behind it.
For years our school had used its “fight” song, shamelessly lifted from a famous college song, as the alma mater. When people decided they needed a more dignified song, they held a contest; poetry was submitted under pseudonyms to keep the judges honest. The winner turned out to be a teacher who was retiring that year, and one of the music teachers set her poetry to music. I can sing our college alma mater too, but I think our high school one is better. - Who was your favorite teacher?
I’m wracking my brains and coming up with nothing. My favorite courses were ones I liked despite the instructors. The orchestra teacher might have been my favorite; it was a pass/fail course, so maybe I felt less stress. - Favorite class?
Geometry (sophomore year). German (junior and senior years). Chemistry (senior year). - What was your school's full name?
I believe I’ve mentioned it elsewhere, but I’m not flaunting it here. Pure and simple, it was [City] High School. At that time there was only one public high school in town. - School Mascot?
I don’t remember a mascot. The colors were orange and black, but I imagine we couldn’t afford a mascot. Costumes, animals, paint – they all add cost. - If you could go back and do it over again, would you do it differently?
I can’t imagine anything I could do to make everything come out differently. All the “what ifs” in the world can’t change the past. - What do you remember most about graduation?
We marched in groups of ten couples; TB was my partner. I had no pockets for the tissues I knew I would need, so he tucked some in his watch band. That was the very last time we did anything as a couple. - Were you 18?
I turned eighteen just a couple of weeks before graduation. - Favorite Memory of your Senior year?
It has nothing to do with school. Bunny and A threw me a surprise party for my eighteenth birthday, the first real birthday party I ever had. - Were you ever posted up on the Senior Wall?
Even if we had had such a thing, I doubt that our group would have merited posting. - Did you have a job your Senior year?
As I’ve mentioned, I worked in the public library, senior year and for years afterwards. It put me through college. - Who did you date?
Nobody steady – or even, as we used to say, “steadily.” I had crushes, but they pretty well remained silent. - Where did you go most often for lunch?
Whether you bought your lunch or brought something from home, you were required to eat in the school cafeteria, so the administration could keep an eye on you. (If you had already misbehaved, you had to eat in the “blue room,” where they took attendance.) During the years when we were in double session, we just left after last period and had lunch at home. - What did you do after graduation?
Nothing that I can remember, so I suspect I just went home. - When did you graduate?
1958. It was another world.
All of this was pre-baby boomers, of course. But even before the sociologists gave a name to it, my brother and I had realized that there was indeed a different generation, just a few years younger than we were. These kids were growing up with a different mindset. They didn’t remember the war or shortages. They weren’t disciplined in the same way. Advertising was growing in leaps and bounds, and a lot of it was aimed at kids. Parents had gotten out of the habit of “we can’t afford it,” and most kids got what they asked for.
[I suppose I should mention that an awful lot of my friends are boomers, and I’m not trying to lump everybody together. Remember, different doesn’t equal bad.]
Earlier this year, “CBS Sunday Morning” began running some features about the Baby Boomers Turning Sixty. From time to time they choose someone from the music world who personifies the New Generation. I had to laugh when they began with Kris Kristofferson. He may have been the darling of the Seventies, but he’s older than I am.
They’ve done Barry Manilow, Billy Joel, Paul Simon. Paul says he knows he’s sixty-four because Paul McCartney phoned him and sang him the song. And last week, when he turned sixty-four, CBS featured Sir Paul. All of this has been very interesting and amusing for me, in no small part because the effect of music on people, as well as that of people on music, is one of my pet pastimes.
Oh, yes, I would like to point out just how different members of the same generation can be: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. ’Nuff said.
