Sixteen years ago today, I started this blog. That's a lot of time, and a lot of posts. 5,959, in fact. When I come across one that I've forgotten about, it's clear just how much time that is.
When the real Daughter Number Three turned sixteen, she was starting her junior year in high school. As I said last year, by this time I was doing real school work and finally getting good grades. In junior year I jumped into a lot of extracurricular activities, too, including my one attempt at a varsity sport (back-benching on the field hockey team).
Once again, it looks like I had 0 days absent for the year, though the carbon for the second quarter column of my report card is so faded it's impossible to read. This is the year I got my mom to come to the guidance office to argue with the staff so I could sign up for art instead of chemistry. I stopped doing well in math in the third quarter because of the Fourteen Derivations (which are probably now programmed into graphing calculators so no one needs to memorize them). No more math for me after 11 grade!
I took four New York State Regents Exams: English, social studies, French, and math. Oh, yeah, and the PSAT exam also.
1975–76 was the year heading into the U.S. Bicentennial in July, so that was an overwhelming amount of promotion to live through. Daughter Number Two was a senior at the same time, which was important in our household. In the news, Squeaky Fromme tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford, Juan Carlos became king of Spain (Franco was out, finally!), the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, Pol Pot's regime began in Cambodia, the Apple I computer was released, women were admitted to the Naval Academy, and Jimmy Carter was on his way to becoming the Democratic nominee for president.
Sixteen was a significant birthday in our household. Birthdays in general were not a big deal for our parents, with four kids to manage, but I think they decided early on that the 10th and 16th would be marked in special ways.
At age 10 we got our "big kid" bikes and at 16 we got to go out to dinner at a restaurant alone with our parents. Woohoo! I don't exactly remember what restaurant we went to, but I do remember how special it felt.
While I don't think our family's practices were generalizable, even for the late 1960s and ’70s, I do think they say something about the difference in the way families behaved then vs. now, and definitely about my family's relative class position: we could afford some luxuries, but only in a limited way.
I'd make some joke about this blog being old enough to drive, but since I'm transit-oriented, it doesn't seem appropriate. But I'm happy to still be here.
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My past anniversary posts, each with an age-appropriate photograph:
- First
- Second
- Third
- Fourth
- Fifth
- Sixth
- Seventh
- Eighth
- Ninth
- Tenth
- Eleventh
- Twelfth
- Thirteenth
- Fourteenth
- Fifteenth
2 comments:
Congratulations, Pat, on lo these many years.
Happy blog birthday! Impressive. :)
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