What were you like in high school?

[MillieDynamite]

I guess I was thinking that when I was in middle-school (we called it junior high school) Lyndon Johnson was still president. In that era, if I had been drawn to cross-dressing or other gender issues, I wouldn't have dared tried to express any of it in public. The consequences would have been too drastically bad. I'm sure that of all the hundreds of students in that school, there must have been some who were gay, bisexual, transgender, or otherwise "unconventional." I can be pretty sure when I say that no one knew who they were; whoever they were, they all hid it almost completely. That was the nature of being an adolescent in 1966-69. And this was in one of the most "liberal" cities in the country.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10219248246256693&set=gm.10164329883645074

Yes, I was never comfortable in the closet. So, I outed myself pretty early.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I didn't notice it in Carrie, but it's been a very long since I've seen that movie. Maybe Badlands? Quitman is some ways east of Dallas.

I'm just talking about her natural speak, not movie speak.

 

[djrip]

A moron. There were girls that were into me and would have dated me, but I had my heart set on a Miss Unobtainable and pretty much ignored them. What I would give to go back and slap some sense into young Rob.

That's me right there. And throw in giant nerd. Well, 100 pound nerd.

 

[TxRad]

High school? That was a hell of a long time ago. Who was I? I was busy. I had a car, I had my own place. I worked a full time job unloading the new Fords off the train cars at the KCS yard. I'd been on my own for four years when I graduated. I was voted the guy not likely to live to see 21. I celebrated my 21st birthday on my third tour in Vietnam. I've outlived most of the ones who voted for me.

I think I attended my 5th high school reunion. I arrived on my motorcycle. Went into the reception area, looked around, and didn't see anyone I knew. Most of the people I wanted to see either didn't attend or were dead. Heavy on the dead part. Spent the rest of the weekend in an all nude bar across town.

Good grades for the most part.

 

[Seadog777]

High school? That was a hell of a long time ago. Who was I? I was busy. I had a car, I had my own place. I worked a full time job unloading the new Fords off the train cars at the KCS yard. I'd been on my own for four years when I graduated. I was voted the guy not likely to live to see 21. I celebrated my 21st birthday on my third tour in Vietnam. I've outlived most of the ones who voted for me.

I think I attended my 5th high school reunion. I arrived on my motorcycle. Went into the reception area, looked around, and didn't see anyone I knew. Most of the people I wanted to see either didn't attend or were dead. Heavy on the dead part. Spent the rest of the weekend in an all nude bar across town.

Good grades for the most part.

Thank you for your service.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm just talking about her natural speak, not movie speak.

I don't think I've ever heard her in an interview or otherwise beard her usual voice. Reminds me that Catherine Zeta-Jones usually has a neutral American voice in most things (I guess I've seen her in interviews). But if she gets excited about something, like winning a Tony Award, she's instantly back in Wales.

(I used that very trait when I had a "version" of her in a story with a character named Cynthia Delta-Yates. That one was from Sheffield, however, and I think they have a very distinctive accent there too.)

 

[gunhilltrain]

Thank you for your service.

Yes, but only two tours would have been fine, I guess.

 

[gunhilltrain]

High school? That was a hell of a long time ago. Who was I? I was busy. I had a car, I had my own place. I worked a full time job unloading the new Fords off the train cars at the KCS yard. I'd been on my own for four years when I graduated. I was voted the guy not likely to live to see 21. I celebrated my 21st birthday on my third tour in Vietnam. I've outlived most of the ones who voted for me.

I think I attended my 5th high school reunion. I arrived on my motorcycle. Went into the reception area, looked around, and didn't see anyone I knew. Most of the people I wanted to see either didn't attend or were dead. Heavy on the dead part. Spent the rest of the weekend in an all nude bar across town.

Good grades for the most part.

What did they die from after only five years? Drugs? Accidents?

 

[Seadog777]

Yes, but only two tours would have been fine, I guess.

I imagine.
I talk to a few surviving Vietnam Vets up at the Legion on the weekends.

 

[ZfrkS62]

A moron. There were girls that were into me and would have dated me, but I had my heart set on a Miss Unobtainable and pretty much ignored them. What I would give to go back and slap some sense into young Rob.

Yup. Miss Unobtainable for me was actually my first girlfriend. Dated her sophomore year, spent junior year waiting for her to come to her senses and get back together, but joke was on me. That's a story for a different thread.

I split between the weirdos, stoners, and jocks. Must of my remaining friends were the weirdos. We actually say on the benches by the library at lunch causing the administration to raise their eyebrows, especially when we'd burst into the Tiny Toon Adventures theme song for no fucking reason.

I was one of the rockers that plastered their locker with magazine cut outs of their favorite bands. Always has my disc man on me, even had my headphones run up my sleeve from my pocket for the insufferable classes.

Made out with a couple of my female friends, but never advanced much past that. Never heard after graduation that so and so had a crush on me, so as far as I know, I was invisible.

 

[TxRad]

Yes, but only two tours would have been fine, I guess.

Stupidity is my only excuse.

What did they die from after only five years? Drugs? Accidents?

Vietnam mostly.

 

[Comshaw]

Stupidity is my only excuse.

Vietnam mostly.

It always amazed me how a certain section of the population ended up in country. Out of my tight group of friends (7 of us none of us in college or even considering it), 4 were drafted and 3 of us ended up in 'nam. Actually, I should be totally honest about that. Two were drafted before me and sent to the war. I was drafted but felt I had to go too so I volunteered, but I'm sure I would have been sent anyway. In another thread about if you could turn back time what would you do, that might be one of the things I would do...might. But all of those things experienced in country and after are part of me, made me who I am so I'm not sure if I would after all.

Comshaw

 

[MrPixel]

Interesting. I was born in '54, which put me in the last cohort they drew lottery numbers for, but never drafted. So, I-1 forever, and none of my classmates saw 'Nam. Military service really didn't appeal to me, but OTOH my skills as a musician at the time would have paved a path to be assigned to one of the primary armed services groups such as The President's Own or the US Air Force Band.

I had two classmates I kept up with who enlisted. Oddly, both ended-up with Pentagon assignments, one Air Force, the other Army. The Army guy was my best bud in HS, and he retired a Lt. Col. after a long assignment as - get this - Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. Wow.

 

[Cagivagurl]

What was I like in High School????
105 years old, wondering if they were going to hold me back another year

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Me: quiet, good grades, realised by 6th form I could get away with anything given said good grades.
Reports complained I was 'cynical' and 'flippant'; school yearbook had me as 'most likely to rebel' - so all quite accurate! Thought I was gay (only told a couple people, that's s28 for you) so never went out with anyone and got much better grades than anyone expected.

 

[Scarla]

Shy on the inside, and extremely insecure. On the outside I was a loud-mouthed wannabe goth girl who smoked behind school. I did have good grades though.

 

[PennameWombat]

Nerd but athletic enough so got along with both sides of the divide. And mostly stayed quiet and minded my own business. Recited some erotic doggerel and somehow fell into writing the occasional erotic one-pager for classmates now and then. That was, for some reason, the last time I wrote erotica for just over four decades.

Had a 1960s Ford. One day a friend decided to prank me by popping my car’s hood (since you could), lifting the distributor and stealing the rotor. He’d put the distributor cap back, but I guessed quickly the issue was in that path when I cranked the engine and clearly had no spark. It would’ve been inconvenient for most, but not for me. I took auto shop as an elective and thus knew that we had the exact same engine as what my Ford had attached to a stand in the auto shop. A quick explanation to the shop teacher, a shared laugh, and I walked out with a replacement rotor.

My other story occurred about six years after I’d graduated. My school had finally established a varsity soccer program and I went to one of their games when I had a free afternoon. Started kicking the ball around and showing them warm-up drills (the ‘coach’ was the wood shop teacher (not my auto shop one) I remembered who knew squat about the sport, two Latin American exchange students ran the team, more or less.) They decided to ‘sneak’ me into the game… but it all fell apart when the refs showed up. I knew them and they knew me from the amateur Premier league I played in. My ’classmates’ were shocked, said they never had ‘real’ refs, more like dudes with whistles like their ‘coach.’ Alas. Yes, they lost. Badly. I might’ve helped it be not quite so bad.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Who would be a teen again?

Who wants to be old, either? (A shipwreck, as somebody called it; Charles de Gaulle I think.) But that's the path of life that we all go have to go through.

 

[Omenainen]

Who wants to be old, either?

It beats the alternative. Personally, I like these murky middle years quite a lot, but that might be because I’m there now.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It beats the alternative. Personally, I like these murky middle years quite a lot, but that might be because I’m there now.

The middle years aren't so bad. Most people have gotten over some some of their younger hang-ups (maybe). And when you're thirty, forty, or even fifty, one still feels that there is some time left to maybe have some further options. But the "alternative" is always coming, and it's exact timing may be a surprise. That expression that firefighters use: "Today could be the day." (The last one, in other words.)

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yes, I was never comfortable in the closet. So, I outed myself pretty early.

Maybe this is hard to believe, but even in high school (1969 to 1973) people generally or always did not out themselves. This is a guess, but kids in schools didn't do that until the 1980's maybe. If anyone else more accurate information, then let us know.

 

[Krigirl1233]

Back then I was a good girl… times change….

 

[CurvySassyAJ]

I was a chameleon / invisible. I could and did blend in with any group. Rarely dated any boys my age, was not into them. Played volleyball and some soccer. Was quiet and unasuming.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Maybe this is hard to believe, but even in high school (1969 to 1973) people generally or always do not out themselves. This is a guess, but kids in schools didn't do that until the 1980's maybe. If anyone else more accurate information, then let us know.

Contemporaries of mine (late 80s) were expelled from school for being gay - or rather, for mentioning it.
Less likely in a state school, but there the chances of getting your head kicked in was much higher.
I don't know of anyone who came out at school, publicly, until the 90s.

 

[Ssbbw4u1974]

Wow, good question..
I was into alternative/heavy metal music ( this is 1990ish)..
I wore black, smoked pot, drank whenever I could... Rarely dated..
I was pretty fun to be around
Got expelled from the 9th grade for multiple infractions, lol... Got my GED.