One of the differences between the 70’s and now is that back in the 70’s schools had lockers and kids went to their lockers between classes to get their books for the next class.
Unlike those of my son’s generation who carried a four hundred pound backpack to every single class. There will be some wealthy chiropractors in the future.
When I entered 7th grade at East Cobb Junior High School, it was my first encounter with a locker. Some how, some way, I lucked out and got a big locker.
At East Cobb, lockers came in two sizes: big and small. The small locker was actually a compartmentalized big locker-instead of the one locker, it was two: one stacked on top of the other. The big locker was the size of the two small lockers. At the top of the locker, it had a shelf and it has enough room for a couple of coats.
It was like this: if you had a small locker, it was bad. It barely had enough room for your books and your coat when it was winter. That is, if you didn’t have to share it. A lot of kids had to share a small locker, dividing the top and bottom with a piece of wood. In this case there is only room for the kid’s books. No other item could go in the locker.
How you got a big locker was strictly up to chance. It just depended where you had home room. My home room was next to a set of big lockers, so there you go.
It was beauty, too. It was the first locker in the row, right out side of the Spanish class, taught by a refugee of Castro’s Cuba who had a germ phobia. My combination was 17-5-19. That’s pretty good considering those are numbers from 1971-1972. I’ve had a cell phone, since 1998 and I’ve never learned the cell phone number.
One day, before school me and a bunch of guys were doing what the East Cobb kids did back then: hang out in the halls. Somebody, and I not sure who, said, “Hey Manis”. [ Whenever somebody in my life has said, “Hey Manis”, I know nothing good well follow it] “Why don’t you get into the locker and let us close and you can tell us what it is like in a locker?”
To understand why I agreed to this is to understand that I am the type of short person that tries to get along with everyone I possibly can out of the realization that everybody can beat me up. So I agreed.
I got into the locker and the door was shut. There were slits in the door, so I could see out a little bit. The guys were in fine form. “Uh, what’s that combination again, oh man, the locker’s jammed! You may have to stay in there all night”.
I was okay. I knew they were clowning around and then I heard that voice.
The voice of Nicky.
Nicky was a kid I feared and for some reason he smelled the fear and came around me as much as he could. He was a tough hombre, only 7th grader I have ever met that had a tattoo. He also, and this is the truth, chewed on a tooth pick all day, like he was some sort of Robert Blake impressionist.
“Maaaaaaanis…are you in there?” I wanted to say, No, Nicky, I’m not in here, but I was very certain I would get out and I wouldn’t want Nicky to be mad with me.
For you see, I not only feared Nicky, I would have dreams about Nicky throwing me off of the Holt Road bridge into Sope Creek. He was my own personal Freddie Kruger.
“Hold on, I’ll get you out” and with that he began punching the locker door like was a punching bag. It was loud and I’m not sure how beating the door was going to help me. It seemed to help him.
“Did you feel that?” he asked. Um, no, Nicky, I haven’t become one with the locker door, but again I wussed out and said it was okay.
Then the bell rang for Home Room. Everybody left. I was stuck in my locker. Alone. So I did the only thing I could think off. Kick on the door and yell for help.
It felt like a long time, but it probably wasn’t when Sammy Lawhorne came up and opened my locker, letting me out. I was late to home room for the first and only time of the year. The teacher didn't ask me why I was late.
If that had happen today, I’m pretty sure a movie would have been made out of it or I would have gotten a reality TV show out of it. But, by the time third period rolled around, it was yesterday’s news except somebody told my math teacher, Mrs. Fussel, who said I could have died. Nobody got in trouble and now that I think about it I’m not sure I ever told my mother about it.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Brve New Wrld
One of the biggest differences between now and the 70’s is that back then nobody was in a social network, unless you counted school, home and church.
The whole idea of everybody walking around with a phone in their pocket was as sci-fi to us as moving spoons with your mind. Having a phone that was a combination typewriter, camera, and computer would have been too ‘far out’ (another 70’s phrase) for us to comprehend.
But today, every kid walks around with their head bent down typing away with their thumbs. I think that we should call the kids born in the 90’s “Generation Thumbs”, because they use their thumbs to crank out messages. Our basic thumb messages were “Thumbs Up” (good), “Thumbs Down” (bad), and “Thumbs Sideways” (give me a ride and I hope you are not a criminal).
Kids think it is funny when one of us (old people) just can’t get understand the concept of the camera phone that you can type on and look at the internet. When we were coming up, Computers took up entire buildings if not city blocks.
We were the test monkeys for the computerized tests that determined your future. You had to use a number 2 pencil because a number 1 pencil was just not good enough. Shut up! Fill in the bubble that represents the right answer, but do not have a smudge outside of the bubble. This would cause the computer to explode. I always use my deficient bubble filling out skills to explain my SAT score.
There was band back in the 70’s called Bread and it was your 1.0 soft rock band. They had a ton of hit records back then, most not making a lot of sense like “Baby, I’m A Want You” and “If”. I’m convinced a lot of 33-39 year old people are alive today due to the Providence of God and David Gates singing “If a picture paints a thousand words then why can’t I paint you?”
Their most hilarious song was “Diary”. Pardon me while I write in brackets for my younger readers. [ A diary was a journal people used to keep to write down their innermost thoughts. Now we call it a "blog".] “Diary” was about this guy who finds a girl’s diary “underneath a tree and started reading about me”. The song meanders along about how great this was until he got to the part where he realized she wasn’t writing about him.
Young people today would have no idea what that would be like. They announce their relationships on Facebook. If “Diary” came out today it would be called “iPhone”and you would hear: “I found your iPhone underneath the tree where you were texting about me”
One thing that does bother me is how superior young people think they are when it comes to texting.
Back in the 70’s, you still had to learn how to write a letter and communicate a response with properly spelled words. Even the hippie teachers taught it.(‘Hey Man, I know it is Fascist, but like, we got to know what you mean, you know”?) Now you just write in a way that you think Prince would like.
A friend of mine wrote a text to her son one day. It took her almost an hour to complete it. It went like this:
Taylor Tyler
4545 Bonnie Meadow Road
Mayretta, GA 30065
Dearest Taylor,
I would like to take this opportunity to express to you my joy as to having a son as brilliant as you. People stop me in the store to tell me what a great young man you have become and soon look forward to voting for you for President.
Please be advised that we are having dinner as a family this evening and we were wondering if you would be in attendance? Dinner will be served around seven. May we set a place for you?
Again, you are a great son and your father and I pray hour long prayers of thanksgiving that you are our child.
Sincerely,
Your Mother
This was Taylor’s response:
Thnx. No. L8er.-T
The whole idea of everybody walking around with a phone in their pocket was as sci-fi to us as moving spoons with your mind. Having a phone that was a combination typewriter, camera, and computer would have been too ‘far out’ (another 70’s phrase) for us to comprehend.
But today, every kid walks around with their head bent down typing away with their thumbs. I think that we should call the kids born in the 90’s “Generation Thumbs”, because they use their thumbs to crank out messages. Our basic thumb messages were “Thumbs Up” (good), “Thumbs Down” (bad), and “Thumbs Sideways” (give me a ride and I hope you are not a criminal).
Kids think it is funny when one of us (old people) just can’t get understand the concept of the camera phone that you can type on and look at the internet. When we were coming up, Computers took up entire buildings if not city blocks.
We were the test monkeys for the computerized tests that determined your future. You had to use a number 2 pencil because a number 1 pencil was just not good enough. Shut up! Fill in the bubble that represents the right answer, but do not have a smudge outside of the bubble. This would cause the computer to explode. I always use my deficient bubble filling out skills to explain my SAT score.
There was band back in the 70’s called Bread and it was your 1.0 soft rock band. They had a ton of hit records back then, most not making a lot of sense like “Baby, I’m A Want You” and “If”. I’m convinced a lot of 33-39 year old people are alive today due to the Providence of God and David Gates singing “If a picture paints a thousand words then why can’t I paint you?”
Their most hilarious song was “Diary”. Pardon me while I write in brackets for my younger readers. [ A diary was a journal people used to keep to write down their innermost thoughts. Now we call it a "blog".] “Diary” was about this guy who finds a girl’s diary “underneath a tree and started reading about me”. The song meanders along about how great this was until he got to the part where he realized she wasn’t writing about him.
Young people today would have no idea what that would be like. They announce their relationships on Facebook. If “Diary” came out today it would be called “iPhone”and you would hear: “I found your iPhone underneath the tree where you were texting about me”
One thing that does bother me is how superior young people think they are when it comes to texting.
Back in the 70’s, you still had to learn how to write a letter and communicate a response with properly spelled words. Even the hippie teachers taught it.(‘Hey Man, I know it is Fascist, but like, we got to know what you mean, you know”?) Now you just write in a way that you think Prince would like.
A friend of mine wrote a text to her son one day. It took her almost an hour to complete it. It went like this:
Taylor Tyler
4545 Bonnie Meadow Road
Mayretta, GA 30065
Dearest Taylor,
I would like to take this opportunity to express to you my joy as to having a son as brilliant as you. People stop me in the store to tell me what a great young man you have become and soon look forward to voting for you for President.
Please be advised that we are having dinner as a family this evening and we were wondering if you would be in attendance? Dinner will be served around seven. May we set a place for you?
Again, you are a great son and your father and I pray hour long prayers of thanksgiving that you are our child.
Sincerely,
Your Mother
This was Taylor’s response:
Thnx. No. L8er.-T
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Really Wierd
This is a separate blog site from HUMOR ME and it is about The Seventies, particularly my experience in the Seventies and how things have/have not changed.
The blog has its origin in a phone call with a high school buddy who I haven’t seen in at least 28 years. He was talking about our high school experience and he used a phrase that all of us Wheeler High School people use when describing something outside the norm: It was really weird.
The 70’s were a really weird time. Everything that happened in the 60’s seemed to bottomed out in the 70’s and we just had to deal with it.
On top of that, Wheeler High School experienced an explosion of growth because of ‘Yankees’ moving into the east part of Cobb County. So there we were, a bunch of Southerners having to deal with all of these Northerners whose parents all seemed like they made a lot more money than ours did.
This population explosion caused Wheeler to be on split sessions: the upper classmen went in the morning and the under classmen went in the afternoon. It was really weird.
I’m going to be commenting on everything I can remember about that time: music,movies,sports,and of course, growing up. It's not going to be a weekly blog, at least, I'm not planning on it to be. Just when the mood strikes me. But believe me, I will keep on truckin.
Now about the name: I was looking at one of my old yearbooks and noticed that the word "weird" was misspelled by several classmates ("Alan, although you're ugly and wierd, you're a nice guy and I hope I never see you again, but if I do, I hope you have that money you owe me. P.S: You smell"). Then I noticed on our alumni website some of the alumni would misspell "weird" in their postings. ("It has been really wierd being the only member of the class of '78 that has great-great grandchildren, but I can explain..."). I came to this conclusion: Wheeler High School students of the 70's cannot spell "weird".
While I’m at it, let’s review some other words and phrases from Wheeler circa ’76.
“Gah”: This is the way we swore back then. “Gah” could became a seven syllable word when spoken correctly. Many times it was “Oh Ge-ah”. It took me years to realize we were saying “God”. [One time me and some church friends of mine were playing softball with Dr. Ralph Swearngin, the current head of the Georgia High School Association. Ralph hit a huge drive into right field. My brother was playing right field and watched the ball sail over his head. My brother said, “Gah”. It was a word that always seemed to be appropriate}
“All get Out”: When something was fun, it was as fun as “all get out”. I don’t know where “get out” was, but it must have been fun.
“Rip Off”: This is a familiar term to everyone. I remember the first time I ever heard the term. I heard this kid say, “Man, what a rip off” and from that day in 1972, I heard “rip off” for years. Sometimes we’d shorted it to say, “Man what a rip”. It meant getting gypped or cheated.
“Home made Sin”: If a young lady of the opposite sex did not appeal to you, you said she was as “ugly as home made Sin” because everyone knows store bought sin looks much better. You didn’t hear much of this after the Northern Invasion except when a few of us natives were sitting around (of course, we were no prizes either, but that’s another story).
“Cool”: We used this word everyday. It is one of the few that has made it.
“Turkey”: If someone was acting stupid, we called that person a “turkey”. If we wanted to sound “cool” we called that person a “Jive Turkey” because a skinny black kid on TV said it.
I’m sure there will be some other phrases or terms I’ll have to stop and explain, but I hope you will enjoy my thoughts on the decade that saw me go from elementary school to college.
The blog has its origin in a phone call with a high school buddy who I haven’t seen in at least 28 years. He was talking about our high school experience and he used a phrase that all of us Wheeler High School people use when describing something outside the norm: It was really weird.
The 70’s were a really weird time. Everything that happened in the 60’s seemed to bottomed out in the 70’s and we just had to deal with it.
On top of that, Wheeler High School experienced an explosion of growth because of ‘Yankees’ moving into the east part of Cobb County. So there we were, a bunch of Southerners having to deal with all of these Northerners whose parents all seemed like they made a lot more money than ours did.
This population explosion caused Wheeler to be on split sessions: the upper classmen went in the morning and the under classmen went in the afternoon. It was really weird.
I’m going to be commenting on everything I can remember about that time: music,movies,sports,and of course, growing up. It's not going to be a weekly blog, at least, I'm not planning on it to be. Just when the mood strikes me. But believe me, I will keep on truckin.
Now about the name: I was looking at one of my old yearbooks and noticed that the word "weird" was misspelled by several classmates ("Alan, although you're ugly and wierd, you're a nice guy and I hope I never see you again, but if I do, I hope you have that money you owe me. P.S: You smell"). Then I noticed on our alumni website some of the alumni would misspell "weird" in their postings. ("It has been really wierd being the only member of the class of '78 that has great-great grandchildren, but I can explain..."). I came to this conclusion: Wheeler High School students of the 70's cannot spell "weird".
While I’m at it, let’s review some other words and phrases from Wheeler circa ’76.
“Gah”: This is the way we swore back then. “Gah” could became a seven syllable word when spoken correctly. Many times it was “Oh Ge-ah”. It took me years to realize we were saying “God”. [One time me and some church friends of mine were playing softball with Dr. Ralph Swearngin, the current head of the Georgia High School Association. Ralph hit a huge drive into right field. My brother was playing right field and watched the ball sail over his head. My brother said, “Gah”. It was a word that always seemed to be appropriate}
“All get Out”: When something was fun, it was as fun as “all get out”. I don’t know where “get out” was, but it must have been fun.
“Rip Off”: This is a familiar term to everyone. I remember the first time I ever heard the term. I heard this kid say, “Man, what a rip off” and from that day in 1972, I heard “rip off” for years. Sometimes we’d shorted it to say, “Man what a rip”. It meant getting gypped or cheated.
“Home made Sin”: If a young lady of the opposite sex did not appeal to you, you said she was as “ugly as home made Sin” because everyone knows store bought sin looks much better. You didn’t hear much of this after the Northern Invasion except when a few of us natives were sitting around (of course, we were no prizes either, but that’s another story).
“Cool”: We used this word everyday. It is one of the few that has made it.
“Turkey”: If someone was acting stupid, we called that person a “turkey”. If we wanted to sound “cool” we called that person a “Jive Turkey” because a skinny black kid on TV said it.
I’m sure there will be some other phrases or terms I’ll have to stop and explain, but I hope you will enjoy my thoughts on the decade that saw me go from elementary school to college.
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