Quickly gone ..racing forward

" it goes so quickly "  Emily ( Our town )  

No matter how hard we try this planet keeps on spinning . There must be something about whirling in orbit that ages us .

 By the time I was in the Seventh grade I was already looking toward High School . Our teachers were constantly reminding us how much more difficult High School would be . By the time we reached seventh grade we were the " Big " kids in the school .

 I entered the Seventh grade in the Fall of 1959 . There was a lot going on in that year .

Science had gotton popular : Two major events seemed to fuel it one was the Space Program ,April 9, 1959  NASA  announced the names of seven men who will become the first US astronauts. They are Alan Shepard, Jr., Virgil (Gus) Grissom, John Glenn, Jr., Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Walter (Wally) Schirra, Jr., Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., and Donald (Deke) Slayton.

 The other was the Results of the International Geophysical year which had begun in 1957 and ended in 1958 . BY the time we had returned to School in the Fall of 1959 the planet was beging to give up some secrets and was on the brink of looking a whole lot smaller as well .

 During the 50's there was a change in some of the underlying theories of earth Sciences . By 1959 textbooks on the formation of the earth were being changed dramatically. It had seemed almost over night we had gone from believing the mountains of the earth were formed by the cooling of the earths crust , a theory sometimes referred to as the shriveled apple theory . to the idea that the there were these huge plates of earths crust floating on the Molten mantle of the earth . And as they jostled for position they would occasionally slam into each other and the result was mountain building , earthquakes and volcano's .

 In 1957 the Soviet Union had surprised the USA by putting a man made satellite in orbit . Sputnik was a small device . but this 23 inch sphere was about to change the world as well . As a Seventh grader I was not able to fully grasp the implications of the Russians putting a satellite in Space befre we had a chance to do it , and to be honest not sure i understand as an adult as well .

The Barbie doll was introduced in 1959 . Bonanza was first aired , and as 1959 rotated into 1960 John F Kennedy announced his Candidacy for the president of the USA .

Events from years before were forming the events of my last years in Grade school and these in turn were rushing toward a political murder and a man on the moon .

and just as the great plates of the earth were being thrust together and pulled apart by forces we could barely understand ..The boys and the girls of the seventh grade were racing toward ...maturity.

It wasn't a sudden thing , nor was it the same thing for everyone ..but for many of us boys girls started to look a little different in the seventh and eight grades . The smiles were brighter , the skirts were tighter , and curves were curvier . Boys went to shop class in the Seventh and eight grade . Girls went to Home Economics .

At Multnomah Grade school the Shop class was next door to the Home economics class ...through the smell of sawdust and burned plastic came the sweet smell of baked bread and cupcakes next door .

There was a huge gulf between the opportunities for girls and the opportunities for boys in those years . There were a few occupations that were " suitable " for girls nursing and teaching were foremost . For boys it was a wide open field . Boys had more opportunity in the work place and in the education system . It was a mans world .

But we weren't men yet ..we were working it out , In play grounds and locker rooms we joked , we dispensed bad information , we told tall tales , and somehow in spite of our collective ignorance we found ourselves ..thinking more and more about girls .

IN time each of us would find our particular niche of girl magnetism. For some it came as sports , for some it came as snappy dressing . For a great number of us it didn't come at all , at least not yet .

I felt awkward around girls , a perfectly normal conversation about rocket fuel would turn to mush when confronted with a ______ or a _______ . A perfectly executed Yo Yo spin would dangle hopelessly when Pricilla went by . A normal 1/2 minute conversation on the phone would turn into an oral dissertation of War and Peace if I tried to call a girl .  I aslo found out that most girls were not intersted in a dissertation about War and Peace , nor the Nuances of rocket fuel .  

Fortunately there was more to These late years than girls , I found refuge in the science class , and had already successfully blown up several rockets and set the Science Laboratory on fire by an ill advised use of turpentine on a smoldering fire .

The boy Genius who in the 5th grade had been invited into the select ranks of the special Science Club for seventh and eight graders was by the 7th grade a full blown nerd. And even as a Nerd I was failing ...then a singular event , something i never saw coming and when first thrust into I resisted with all the wiles in my wiley youth , would despite my protestations change all this in just a few months ....