…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.”
