Who knew?

 

This is a class from 70 years ago. Just the average six-year old’s being educated for the future. There were dozens of classrooms down the hall with similar kids of different ages and every year they would shift until after a ½ dozen years we moved to another school building. After a few more years, puberty hit and we moved into high school.

Not all of this class followed my path until the grand graduation walking across the Mosque stage in my crimson robe and mortar board cap and tassel. After a baker’s dozen or so years, I was handed a piece of paper that declared me educated enough (and old enough) to become gainfully employed or ready to defend this country from those we ducked in the hallways avoiding the communist threat and possible nuclear annihilation.

Back in those days, every kid went to school. Truancy was not accepted by the community, so there were schools planted in every neighborhood (along with the churches) and we either took a yellow bus or walked to the assigned desk. A single female teacher would take the roll, direct us to the daily lesson plan, answer questions for those who raised their hands and was total authority over a group of squirming kids. Unruly kids were shamed in front of the class or sent to the principal’s office for discipline. Directed to line up in alphabetical order to the lunch break or do recess. When the final bell rang, we scattered outside. Don’t remember kids dropping out of school or getting expelled. At that point in time, no one ever contemplated someone with a gun coming into the classroom and using us as targets.

Looking at these faces and what lay before them?

Don’t remember their names. A few have been found on social media but most have drifted into their own lives.

How many graduated from public education? How many went onto higher academics to get more paper to mount on the wall? How many joined an established job title and followed the road of accepted conformity? How many started families? How many got married? How many bought cars? How many smoked? How many bought houses with a picket fence for that is the path of the middle class? How many went into politics? How many started their own business? How many got divorced? How many died overseas? How many became rich? How many became addicted? How many went to jail? How many volunteered to save feral cats or abandoned dogs to become pillars of the community? How many transitioned? How many reached their retirement?

Ike was president. Elvis was driving a truck. The Beatles hadn’t been heard of. Religion, food preference, politics, sexual preference were never discussed because an elder made those decisions. Wearing the proper clothing and having the stylish haircut made one popular. That become more important when puberty hit.

No one could even imagine a computer or a telephone in your pocket. That was as amazing as men bouncing on another planet and leaving their trash. As foreign as something in a comic book would be where everyone could fly and giant villages were constructed to entice families to come and overindulge eating and drinking and yelling while cars drove in circles faster than the speed limit or cartoon characters directed you to thrill rides or displays of ocean creatures out of their water to perform tricks as entertainment. Some would want to relive western fables of riding and roping or reenactments of famous historical battles. If cars weren’t fast enough and the airport is too slow there are air shows displaying the country’s military might. Consumerism vacations.

Equal voting rights are as distant as Woodstock and afros. The history your teacher asks you to regurgitate as knowledge, is as flexible as experimental science. When in doubt, refer to your religion for the unknown answers. Hate had to be taught to us.

These are faces living in the best place at the best time. We did not have those threatening bombs drop on us; we lived in a land of plenty of new appliances and gadgets. We could travel to parts unknown comfortably refueled by gas stations on every corner. Our adventures increased our status. Our security was protected by redlines drawn by politicians that our parents accepted. We had a lot to learn to be educated.

While there was a school nurse, we could not attend the class without mandatory vaccinations. We still got measles and small pox and whopping cough and the common cold we sneezed on each other. Our doctors and dentist recommended certain parts of our bodies like wisdom teeth, appendix and tonsils should be cut out for better health. We lined up to take a sugar cube to avoid the polio plague as the government instructed. If a family member couldn’t be reached, the school was responsible for the child in their care.

At the same time, we learned how to drink sugar colas and French fries and greasy burgers to avoid green healthy veggies. Exercise was automictically expected except the television screen froze our bodies for hours. Optometrist helped read the blackboard.

The legacy of these boomer faces is now being written in obituaries. Some may make the history books or have a street or building named after them, but for the most part, after the body is disposed of only tale tales from remaining family members will tell the world of someone else who took up space on this planet by birth and death dates.