21- 1965 Nov: I’m President, Basketball Downer, Family Portrait, Raking Leaves
I’m having such a blast sharing my childhood diary entries from 1965. As an 8th grader in rural Southwest Georgia, I had many ordinary experiences of growing up. Perhaps, even though they were just that, I’m amazed myself at the detail of the annotations. What seems rather ordinary comes alive and brings back floods of memories of life in what we call simpler times. Please join me for a glimpse of family life over 50 years ago.
Family members in this story: my mother and father, my brother Adie (three years older). School friends Brownie, Razz, Laurie, Diane, Kay (all my peers), Jackie (close friend of my brother), Johnny Mac and T Moore are (couple folks who were a couple grades further along)I don’t remember too well; Mr. McKinney, our 8th grade Science teacher (girls in my class seemed to have a bit of a crush on him) since he was younger than any teacher we had had up to this point. Mrs Gladys Fort was a neighbor a couple houses down from ours.
“1 Nov 1965, Monday, I WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT of the BETA CLUB! I am so happy. Brownie got elected secretary. I sold two more boxes of Christmas cards today to Mrs. Gladys Fort. 2 Nov 1965, I went to the high school basketball game. Johnny Mac and T Moore saw Jackie sitting next to me. Razz called me about some math homework. 3 Nov 1965, This morning my stomach was hurting a lot. I stayed home from school until 9:30, then I went to school. Mr. McKinney teased me about sitting next to Jackie at the basketball game last night. I had basketball practice today. I’m seriously thinking about quitting the team. 4 Nov 1965, We had a junior high basketball game and I didn’t play at all. That’s really sickening. Laurie scored 16 points. She was a star tonight! 5 Nov 1965, Adie had school pictures taken today. I had a pretty good music lesson. We went to Columbus and ate supper. 6 Nov 1965, Saturday, Laurie came over to the house today. We practiced our piano duet and then went to her house and made candy. After that, we shot bow and arrows awhile (small toy-like stuff). Had fun. 7 Nov 1965, I went to Sunday School and Church. Laurie came down and played badminton awhile in our backyard. I taught Sunday School this morning. Adie is torn up about school.”
I seemed to be super excited about being elected as President of the academic honorary. My good friend Brownie and I perhaps saw ourselves with a little power to steer the group and explore new directions!
Could it be that a young entrepreneur was in the making, as I went door to door selling Christmas cards? Considering that I retired from the US Air Force after 20 years and taught in a state university system after that for another 15 years, I don’t think the wings of entrepreneurship ever spread too widely during my first 60 years. Could still be on the horizon, however!
What young person hasn’t experienced reaching for a goal that might have been a little out of reach? That will to succeed helps push us through the valleys. So it was with competitive basketball for me in junior high. I cheered on friends who seemed more gifted in this particular area. One lesson for me as I went through my life was that with practice, one can master anything. If the dedication to practice, to repeat, to ask questions is there, one can discover a talent just waiting to emerge. On the other hand without that dedication, the gift or talent might never be realized.
I recall that Laurie and I were about equally talented with piano playing. We had begun practicing a duet as early as November in preparation for a recital to be held in early Spring of 1966.
Brother Adie was a junior in high school during this academic year. He was taking Algebra II, Chemistry, American History, English Lit and Shop. My mention of six weeks tests later in these November writing brings back the memory of that intensity of being tested in every subject area for about a solid week, every six weeks. With his course load I can only imagine the stress he was carrying.
“8 Nov 1965, Today Laurie and Diane were out of school. Kay made a comment about my shoe size. Kind of mean actually. I’m almost 5'10" What would one expect, a size FIVE shoe! not really. I read my lesson on the tape recorder and have listened to that a few times. 9 Nov 1965, Tuesday, I made 100 on that Science test that I studied so hard for. Music lesson went well. Laurie and I played our piano duet, “Zampa.” 10 Nov 1965, We played Georgetown in basketball. Their girls won and our boys won. I rode home with Laurie and her folks. We talked some. I didn’t get to play at all in the game. Once again! 11 Nov 1965, Today Mom and Dad had their normal Veteran’s Day holiday off work. We all four went to Columbus and had a family portrait taken. I had my hair fixed beforehand. 12 Nov 1965, Friday, We had class pictures taken today at school. I had a music lesson. Went to the high school basketball game.”
Seems bouts with passing ailments was par for the course as the school year continued. Some bug was going around.
I had forgotten that what size shoe one wears could even be the topic for conversation! How funny. When does that ever happen?! Only in junior high school. Teasing among friends was common, but as noted below, by the following Sunday I was at Kay’s house spending an afternoon. Couldn’t have been anything too serious.
Fascinating to reflect on how technology impacted my everyday. Having a geek-like family before that word was ever coined put us into a minority of folks who used things like tape recorders as study aids. My father had suggested this study method. I took his recommendation to college when cassette tapes appeared on the scene a few years later. I had a cassette player at college (1970) and periodically recorded some lectures to help me capture more detailed notes in subject areas that required a little more work to master.
In 2017, we take for granted having a camera always in our hands AND a recording device! In 1965 families made appointments with photography studios for family pictures every few years. Yes, I know that still happens nowadays, but the urgency seems less intense since we are taking pictures of each other almost daily. Public schools also still schedule school pictures.
“13 Nov 1965, I went to Laurie’s house awhile, then we came over to my place. I beat her at two games of badminton. We went to the fish camp in Omaha to eat. My older cousin’s mother-in-law came to town. I tried out a little liquid make-up. Fun. 14 Nov 1965, I went to Sunday School. I went out to Kay’s house for awhile. She and I burned a pan of brownies! Tonight I’ve been studying for my English six weeks test. 15 Nov 1965, We had a Beta Club meeting at school after lunch. I’m worried about one of my girl friends. I hope she is all right. Adie and I raked leaves all afternoon.”
Outdoor activities in southern Georgia continued into the late fall. Playing badminton outdoors and shooting hoops were possible throughout the year, Exceptionally cold wintry days in January or February could interfere.
I find the short note about trying out make-up for the first time to be kind of endearing. Life at 13 was filled with many firsts. I think up to this point in this one year there had been first heels, first lipstick, first brush with close family death, first time a boy phoned me for something other than homework, and first time actually driving our family car on a dirt road.
I’m sure Kay and I would never go back to such detail in our memories of our eighth grade year in school. Who has not had a fiasco in the kitchen from time to time? From cooking brownies, making candy, baking a cake to just fixing a traditional dish, we’ve all seen failures along the way.
The fall of the year had reached high colors by the end of October. As mid November settled in, I can see my brother and me still raking fallen leaves into piles and diving into the heaps. More stories of 1965 are in the queue!
