History Normalized
A few months ago I cleaned out a bunch of boxes in my storage unit. That’s my garage as you may guess. I still have work to do, but I found something I had been looking for. My Yearbooks from my high school years. Having reconnected with so many friends from days gone by on social media, I am struggling with their present image and what they looked like back in the day. I mean, 40+ years have gone by and we all change. In fact, we seldom look anything like we did back then.
Hair, weight, height, styles… all the fashions and trials of life as are lived from generation to generation.
The yearbooks show us a normalized view of ourselves. We all looked to be the same height, age and have the same smile as we look at the camera. We could all be related! We were so much smaller back then!
I’ve spent a few hours turning the pages, reading the comments, and remembering those teen years. I find folks that I know I was close friends with but have not reconnected on social media. I was one of the school photographers and carried cameras with me just about everywhere. I went to just about every event. I rubbed shoulders with just about everyone, or so I remember.
As I was looking through my books something popped out at me and I had to go check my theory that the various professional photos taken for our school record normalized everyone into a similar size. I remember some students as simply larger than life, you know those huge football players, tall volleyball basketball players, and those that were fleet of foot – in my yearbook they all looked the same size. Our best look smiled at the camera! Hair just so. Best clothes.
Imagine a yearbook with David and Goliath included. You may be able to tell the age difference, but in my yearbook, you would not be able to tell who was the tallest!
This was the ending time of big hair on girls and we were beginning to see long hair on boys. The hippie movement was dying out but the rock era was really active. But we also lived in a blue collar, rough and tumble cowboy time period. The Blue Barn, our High School snack bar, kept a mixture of rock and country songs on the jukebox. Cigarettes, beer, snuff and chewing tobacco were all the rage and you could see the round ring in the back pocket of many boys showing they skoaled as often as possible! Only occasionally did anyone talk about illegal substances, although it was known that some were leaning that way.
It was a fairly conservative life, in fact, prior to my senior year by only a slight margin were girls allowed to wear pants to school! We were safe riding our bicycles all over the place, even at 3 AM. We were not racially diverse. No one was rich. Trucks and hot rods were the normal vehicles and it was common to see gun racks in the back windows of the trucks. Just about all of us went to church on Sunday and Wednesday. Scouting, Little League, FFA, and Friday Night Lights were very popular. It was nothing to see burn barrels in the back of yards as a popular way to get rid of daily trash. Many kept a steer for their FFA project or some other barnyard critter.
The school was a challenge. No A/C, high ceilings, old buildings. I remember afternoon naps being hard to resist in the stifling heat. Sitting in class, of course! On a cold and wet morning, we were not allowed in the building just because it was wet and cold. We had to wait until an official door opening time, and on a hot day, we dreaded going in!
We were not far from the big city. Houston. When learning to drive mom kept me focused on learning to drive freeways, tunnels, downtown streets – and, country driving was done in the country! Dirt roads and pastures!
I don’t remember much drama that I’m sure happened along the way. But I’m sure
The only way you see our uniqueness is as you turn the pages to look at the school activity. Sports, dances, performances – we all had something different to add to the school year. And the yearbooks document our history. That’s where we stood out!
There are good memories, tied in with bad memories. I realize that these growing years were not popular for everybody. We all had issues growing up and some faced rocky years. Home challenges, financial difficulties, health issues. But I believe we were all given an ample opportunity to grow up and be prepared enough to face the future. It’s just fun reliving these old memories!
We are all so different now! Knowing some of the feelings of my current social contacts, I believe we all have a fairly decent view of these years as we grew up…