So, came the end of summer...the long and usually boring summer, and it was time to go back to school. The usual complaint: "It sure was a short summer." But despite the fact that we would have to get used to getting up earlier, (no more sleeping in to get the complete rest needed for a growing teenage body), and though having to actually go to work again doing homework, sitting through classes, doing reports, taking tests, there was that tingle of excitement to be going back to...well, a new, hopefully more exciting social life. What else was high school all about?
First step in the preparation was the planning: how would we dress to look right while at the same time not looking like we were really wearing something new? In some ways, it was easier to shop for clothes then than it is nowadays with such brand name competition that today's high-schoolers face. Clothes didn't seem to be so expensive. The desire was to wear something to fit in, not to necessarily stand out. It was still the 1950s, the Age of Conformity.
By the time we were launched into our senior year, that September of 1959, we had faced the going back to school ordeal at least eleven times, twelve if we had gone to kindergarten. We should have been conditioned veterans. Nevertheless, the same apprehensions were still there: Would we have boring and tough, mean teachers? Would we have any friends in class or be stuck in one where we didn't know anyone? If we had friends in class, would the teacher make a seating chart and separate us, anyway? Would there be someone of the opposite sex who was good-looking or at least interesting? Would we have our most boring class at the end of the day? Problems, problems, toil and potential trouble.
Once the building was entered there was that mixed feeling of excitement and foreboding. It always was better to go back with someone else or better yet, several others to guarantee that there would be someone to talk to.
The building looked cleaner than it ever would again for the rest of the year...shiny floors, new desks, everything spic and span with the smell of janitorial cleanness. Teachers looked rested and had the look of having new duds themselves.
It was pretty hard to settle down and concentrate on the teachers' welcoming remarks. A surveillance had to be conducted in each class to see who was going to make the class more interesting or perhaps more uncomfortable. It could take a whole period to check out thirty classmates. Think back to the first day in any of your classes that you remember. Do you remember anything about the teacher's welcoming address? Or do you remember, more likely, a certain person or other kids, especially one who might be in the desk across from you?
It wasn't until the textbooks were distributed that we knew it was official: school was officially begun, and it would be a long, long way to June. To some, June couldn't come fast enough. To others, let the senior year maybe go a little slower. Chapter two of our lives, The School Years, was coming to an end.