Raymond Ouellette

Dernière sortie

Sixty-Four: Massachusetts' North Shore in 1964

1964 was for many, a year of optimism. It was also, for many, a year of trepidation. For most it was a combination of both. For high school graduates in 1964, it was a time to either look forward to the future or to dread it. For seventeen and eighteen-year-olds, before graduation, thoughts were occupied with nice cars, dating, dances, rock music, having adventures, cheering for the high school teams, and if not going steady, thinking who your Friday or Saturday date would be.
After graduation, it was a time of coming of age when the blissful protected existence of high school was ending for the seniors. It was a time for entering the real world, an end to a time when everything you wanted depended only on trying hard on a sports team or developing social skills, trying to improve your looks, or the way you dressed. Now, as the former seniors saw high school behind them, it was about wondering if you would be accepted to college if you were applying, and if you didn't go to college, would you be drafted.
Increasingly, students were hearing about a place named Vietnam where experts predicted Americans would be in combat soon. Would your "draft number" be high enough that you wouldn't be drafted, or would you have to worry that, any day, you could receive a letter from the Selective Service. Gone was the high school social scene where many thought nothing of moving from one person you were dating to another in the blink of an eye like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.
Now it was time to start thinking about marriage, a job, and about starting a family. But right now, for a group of friends, just after the end of the school year, at least until circumstances drew a stark line between that blissful school time and adult life with all its trials, their time was still spent having adventures, dating, going to dances, hanging out at drive in restaurants, and listening to rock music.
California had Mel's Drive in and D. J. Wolfman Jack. The North Shore of Boston had The Adventure Car hop and Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg. After graduation time was spent, dragging out as long as the world would permit, that blissful existence that had been high school.  
1964 was for many, a year of optimism. It was also, for many, a year of trepidation. For most it was a combination of both. For high school graduates in 1964, it was a time to either look forward to the future or to dread it. For seventeen and eighteen-year-olds, before graduation, thoughts were occupied with nice cars, dating, dances, rock music, having adventures, cheering for the high school teams, and if not going steady, thinking who your Friday or Saturday date would be.
After graduation, it was a time of coming of age when the blissful protected existence of high school was ending for the seniors. It was a time for entering the real world, an end to a time when everything you wanted depended only on trying hard on a sports team or developing social skills, trying to improve your looks, or the way you dressed. Now, as the former seniors saw high school behind them, it was about wondering if you would be accepted to college if you were applying, and if you didn't go to college, would you be drafted.
Increasingly, students were hearing about a place named Vietnam where experts predicted Americans would be in combat soon. Would your "draft number" be high enough that you wouldn't be drafted, or would you have to worry that, any day, you could receive a letter from the Selective Service. Gone was the high school social scene where many thought nothing of moving from one person you were dating to another in the blink of an eye like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.
Now it was time to start thinking about marriage, a job, and about starting a family. But right now, for a group of friends, just after the end of the school year, at least until circumstances drew a stark line between that blissful school time and adult life with all its trials, their time was still spent having adventures, dating, going to dances, hanging out at drive in restaurants, and listening to rock music.
California had Mel's Drive in and D. J. Wolfman Jack. The North Shore of Boston had The Adventure Car hop and Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg. After graduation time was spent, dragging out as long as the world would permit, that blissful existence that had been high school.  
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