Saturday, March 16, 2013

Growing Up Silent: Chapter Previews


 Growing Up Silent in the 1950s: Not All Tailsfins and Rock and Roll is now avaialable on Amazon.com. Check it out!
 
Growing Up Silent in the 1950s

…in his carefully dirtied white bucks, wearing a pair of chinos with the vestigial buckle on the back, and his shirt collar perfectly turned up.

Chapter One: In Our History Lies Our Voice

What kind of future did our parents dream of? Were they surprised thirty years later to find their own offspring—(us) would be viewed as similar in many ways to their own generation in its youth?

Chapter Two: The Youth of Our Parents

William Bartell, born in 1889 to a family who lived in houses rented to stone cutters, became the first student of Italian ancestry to enter the Curwensville school system where he was bullied by other students. 

Chapter Three: In Our Beginning

The Curwensville Golden Tide became the Western Pennsylvania Football Champions of 1936, an event still talked about even by those who couldn’t possibly remember it.

Chapter Four: Out of a World of Darkness

The best part of an evening’s sled riding was coming home and finding the remarkable aroma of baked potatoes being kept warm for hungry sledders and finding dry snow pants on the radiator for our next trip out.

Chapter Five: Into a World of Peace

By the time we were twelve years old most of us were frightfully self-conscious as we entered the river to swim or exited to dry in the sun. We were sure that all eyes were on us, judging us.

Chapter Six: Public Normalcy, Private Chaos, the 1950s

First Period: 1950-1952: In these early years of the 1950s the country still resembled the 1940s in many ways, Teenagers were not yet a subculture and we were barely distinguishable from our parents.

Second Period: 1953-1956: Americans had fastened onto the idea of “togetherness” to deny their loneliness as they reached for a sense of community which no longer existed.

Third Period: 1957-1959: Russia’s invasion of Hungary brought us to the brink of nuclear war, the incident at Little Rock brought us close to a division over race, Sputnik I terrified us, and the rigged quiz show with Charles Van Doren and the payola exposé of Alan Freed squashed our trust. 

Chapter Seven: Are You Perfect Yet

We knew we had to be well-mannered, attend to personal appearance, defer to adults, refrain from acknowledging or expressing differences, and do well in school. However, the most important thing in our lives was how we looked.

Chapter Eight: Blinded by the Media

I can’t remember a time that we didn’t have comic books. …Television changed the family dynamics by interrupting family personal encounters. … Much of what we learned about life was learned in the movies.

Chapter Nine: Rock Around the Clock 

We were careful to not share anything about ourselves with anyone else. We spoke to each other, but we didn’t really say anything of importance. We were secretive of our personal lives, to the point of not knowing we had one.

Chapter Ten: Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Cars  ruled our culture. Whether or not we had the use of our own or the family car, had a driver’s license, or simply were very willing to be passengers in whatever vehicle was going somewhere, we wanted to be in a car.

…………Regardless of size, high schools were judged by their game scores and season records, not their SATs.

…………Pep rallies for major games could be as thrilling as the game itself, particularly the one held the night before the end-of-season game between rivals.

… Above all activities, however, was the magic of the Curwensville Teen-Age Center. We viewed this place as our own, our birthright, our haven, and our social hub.

Chapter Eleven: The Dating Game

We girls never seemed to know where we stood with boys. Whether we were liked or not, how long the relationship might last, and how “far” we might go were only some of the questions that troubled us.

Chapter Twelve: Rituals, Customs, and Traditions

Among the best events in high school—parties included—were the special occasions that were unique to any graduating class. These were carefully planned affairs that held special and individual memories for each class member as well as collective remembrances that bonded teens together as a Class: selecting and ordering class rings followed months later by their arrival; holding class meetings, choosing class colors and a class flower.

Chapter Thirteen: Education and the Lost Sex

Everything about our lives was private or hidden, and most of us girls walked hunched over as we made our way through the school halls and to and from school, carrying our books tight against our chests, our glasses tucked away. Boys, of course, with nothing to hide and full of bravado, carried their books down at their sides.   

Chapter Fourteen: Reflections, Reunions, and Regrets

Remembrances are what we think, reflections what we reveal, and reunions often are the catalyst for the other two. Reunions are complicated to explain and tend to stir up feeling of regret, unexplainable even to ourselves. Perhaps this complexity is best summarized by Jim Marra, “How sweet and wonderful we all were… sharing such memories of the tender time we passed through together.”

 

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