KarenMusserNortman
  • Home
  • Frannie Shoemaker Mysteries
  • The Time Travel Trailer Series
  • Mystery Sisters
  • Karen's Blog
  • Large Print and Audible
  • The Newsroom
  • Coming Events
  • Borrow My Books-KU
  • Camping (when it isn't murder)
  • Giveaways and Stuff
  • About the Author

1968: That was the Year that Was

11/24/2014

0 Comments

 
As I've gotten older, I've managed to delude myself that that isn't really happening. I see a stranger on the street who is probably in their early seventies and think--without judgement, mind you--there's a pretty old person. Or I see an obituary for someone in the same age bracket and think, well they are pretty old. It's those age blinders that allow us to think when we turn 21 that we are at the height of sophistication and wisdom; or in our thirties that we still look eighteen; or in our fifties that we don't look a day over forty.

Every once in a while, though, an event grabs me by the throat and shakes some reality into me. It's not a horrible shock; I don't mind getting older. It's just that I forget that I am.

So yesterday, one of my sisters turned 60. That occasioned a number of jokes from her relatives and friends. But it reminded me that she was in eighth grade when I began teaching eighth grade--fortunately for her, not in the same town. What that means is that my first class of eighth graders is turning sixty also this year. They are retiring or thinking about it soon. I can't handle this.

What were they like in 1968? What was school like then? My knee jerk reaction is that nothing has changed much. See what I mean about delusion? That was 46 years ago. And 46 years before that was 1922. Would I have said things hadn't changed much in that time? Of course not.

First of all think about the year. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated earlier in the year. The Democratic Convention in Chicago that summer brought out the police and dogs. Vietnam was heating up. These kids had been five years old when JFK was assassinated and they remembered it. There was no cable TV or video games so most of them at least occasionally saw a news broadcast. And, of course, news broadcasts in those days didn't cover celebrities or human interest stories. Newspapers and magazines did but there was enough going on in the world to fill a nightly half-hour show. Apparently not so any more.

To use technology in those days, one ordered a film from the area education agency, reserved the AV room in advance, marched the kiddies down there and hoped that the film didn't break or, as happened to me once, the reel didn't jump off the projector and roll to the front of the room between the chairs.

Mini-skirts were in and that was important because female teachers and students were not allowed to wear pants unless the temperature dropped below -10. I wore heels everyday---not extremely high ones but heels nonetheless. Woman teachers were paid less than men. It wasn't a question of equal pay for equal work. Men were expected to work at extracurricular events for their extra pay but women couldn't opt in and men couldn't opt out.

But they were a good class. I often gave thanks that they weren't out to drive me from the field of education my first year. I guess after all this time, they deserve to retire.

And maybe I need to take a closer look in the mirror.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Some random thoughts about writing, camping, and eating.

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly