1960s

High school was all Motown, Tamla, Soul, Gordy 45 rpms for me. James Brown, Wilson Picket, maybe still liked the Four Seasons. No Pete Seeger or Bob Dylan for me, thank you. 

High school was boring history teacher pounding on desk shouting: We. Are. At. War. I woke from my daydream wondering what I had missed.

I got caught up, as he continued his rant. He told us not to listen to what they told us, it was war, not a conflict. Vietnam. I was probably aware of the Watt's riot. 

Although I remember working full time, when a co-worker came to work with a black eye suffered from attending a mini-riot in my hometown. When I drove home from work, Albany Street was eerily empty and quiet. My father yelled at me when I got home, driving through downtown.

As if I could have gotten home in any other way. That is when I heard about the rioting. I guess that was 1967. Police brutality against blacks was the cause. Can not say "we've come a long way baby" in that regards. 

I do not remember having nothing to do, being bored. Personally, times were changing. I was a devout Catholic, but that was ending ~ mainly due to use of N-word by peeps who sat in the pews beside me. What about love they neighbor? 

I had embarrassing menstrual accidents. I suffered terrible "hay fever" and had contact dermatitis, or eczema. I do not know which was worse~ worrying about a boy asking me on a date, and telling him I was not allowed to date until 16 or that no boy asked me out. I was terribly shy.

My elementary school friends went into College prep courses, and I was in Office Practice. Once I started my part time job, I no longer got to attend basketball games or football Saturdays. I like working more than high school. School was boring.

I do not remember being bored as my favorite free time activity was reading. And listening to radio or my records, and dancing. People experienced the 1960s differently. 

1965

 I was class of '66, thus started 1965 as senior.

We spent 9th grade at the Junior High School. We went to the old high school as Freshmen. First day of school at the new high school was my birthday. Some kids teased me about them giving me a new school as a present.

I got pulled out of class ~ Office Practice? Filing? Maybe Office Machines? I was one of the two or three advanced students that worked on booklet for the new school. I do not remember the people who came to ~ what ~ a dedication? My memory is that this happened the 2nd year the school the school was in use.

We had to type, mimeograph programs, then put the booklets together. It was a lot of fun.It may have been. One of those two years in the new school, I had two study -periods. I spent one of them volunteering in the Vice Principal's office. One of my jobs was to file absentee notes.

My brother forged a lot of them. He got caught. Another job was to go to classrooms to pull out students to see the V.P. How embarrassing to walk into my brother's classroom to pull him out to the office. Foggy. My mother let him stay home on Memorial Day program because the year before he passed out at the outdoor program. Of did she tell VP that is why he skipped that day?

What about all the others!

I also manned the switchboard next to Principal's office between classes. That would have made me late for my next class. Maybe my next class was Lunch? My other study period I spent working on those programs. 

I vaguely recall the other girl who I worked with ~ maybe it was just the two of us ~ or others did it at different times from their class? We also were given the job of mimeographing teacher's tests for them. She and I were not the kind who would cheat, taking a copy of tests for friends who had those classes to give them a headstart. 

What Really Happened to the Class of '65

 I found an old note from "What Really Happened to the Class of '65" by Michael Medved. Most of my notes do not make much sense; people's names, like Pete Seeger, waist deep in the Big Easy. 

The book I read had passages highlighted in yellow. I wondered if my sister was the one who highlighted stuff. "Heartfelt love letter," might have been something she would highlight. Out of context, have no idea why I noted it.

"Most of the time we were bored Despite what you've read about how exciting the '60s were, those of us who grew up in them, spent a great deal of time, looking for something to do."

My thought: when people talk about the '60s, it is really about late 1960s and early 1970s. It was 1966 when the coolest girl in my high school class, stopped teasing, hairspraying stiff, her hair, to let it grow straight and long. 

She also was one of my classmates that wore mini-skirts. Mini, not micro mini, that some wore. When we arrived for gym, the teacher was by locker room sending us into the gym. We had to kneel on the floor; if our dresses/skirt hem did not touch the floor, we would be sent home to change.

Sandy pulled her blouse out of the skirt, pulled her mini down as far as she could, so that when she kneeled on the floor the hem touched it. A visual inspection would have shown it was not touching the top of the knee ~ the approved length. 

The traditional Senior Dress Down Day was cancelled. The principle did not think taxpayers would approve seeing boys in jeans and girls in pants on the next to last day of their senior year.

Was it two years later, or the next, when my sister was in high school? The dress code was changed; boys were now allowed to wear jeans to school and girls were allowed to wear pants or slacks.

My sister wore dresses. I wondered why. I hated dresses ever since the boys would look up the zigzag staircase to look under our them. And, on Sunday's we went to our grandparents. We played kids games, like What Time is It Mister Fox or Freeze Tag. I complained to my mother about my female cousins being allowed to wear comfortable play clothes ~ but she was not moved.