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Looking Back - Just a Boomer Moment In Time - Cars & Crowds
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by Paula Ezop
TheSyndicatedNews columnist
Paula M. Ezop writes a weekly spiritual/commentary column for Blue Ridge Today, a South Carolina publication. Her most recent book, Spirituality for Mommies is soon to be released.
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Cars & Crowds
Looking back…just a Boomer moment in time…
And, oh we were so cool...
We were the coolest…absolutely! In High School one thing that really made you cool was if your father would let you use the family car or if your best friend had a car that he could use. Then, you were cool!
It was usually the guys who drove, I can’t think of too many girls, who drove, maybe it was just the crowd I hung around with.
Those words alone take me back in time, “The crowd I hung around with.” There were definitely different crowds that you could be a part of.
The football players always stayed together as did all the, “Jocks.” The cheerleaders had their own crowd, as did the, “G.A.A.” Girls Athletic Association.
Then, the kids in the Drama Club stayed together and so did the kids that wrote the school newspaper. The class officers always hung around together too.
Then there were the, “Hoods,” (hoodlums.) They really weren’t bad. The worst thing that they did was to fight someone in the parking lot. They were the kids who cut class, smoked, and always seemed to be in some sort of trouble. They always hung out together at the, “Green Grill.” That was the local grill and school supply store. (I’m sure every High School had their Green Grill.)
The Green Grill was a scary place. It was usually smoke filled and had the worst hamburgers on earth. Freshmen were scared to death to go there just because of the verbal abuse they would get when they walked in.
The Green Grill was where the Hoods went when they cut class.
Yes, I’m sure I could go on and on about the different crowds that existed in high school. What’s strange about the crowds or clicks (we used to call them clicks too) is that they still existed at the class reunions. Some things never change!
Back to the subject of cars, at least where I came from you usually drove your family car. If you had your own car it was usually a clunker!
We really took pride in our cars. Our cars were big. Everything about them was big. They were big, they had big trunks, big gas tanks, big steering wheels, big front bench seats, and big back seats.
What we liked to do most was go cruising in our big cars. Gas was cheap so on a Saturday night you would pick your girlfriend up and go cruising. The guy if he was cool would drive with his arm around his date…now that was cool!
There was one place that guys with really cool cars would go to be seen, that was Skip’s Drive Inn. They used to drive thru the parking lot revving their engines. And, drag racing down the main street (North Avenue) was not uncommon. The Police would just wait and ticket the dragsters, who thought the ticket was worth the notoriety!
I remember there were a few cool things that we did to our cars too. It was cool to hang your prom date’s garter from the rear view mirror. (I don’t think that has changed – I still
see them on rear view mirrors.) My boyfriend (now my husband) always had a raccoon tail hanging from the antenna. Animal rights groups would probably take offense to that today…we thought it was neat (another Boomer term…neat.)
Our cars just had radios, no tape decks or CD players, just a radio.
We liked to blast the radio while we cruised. But, it was nothing like the blasting of today, today is more like super blasting!
Part of having the privilege of driving the family car was that you had to take care of the car. Our parents were smart. If you wanted to drive the car you would wash and wax it. Guys spent hours washing and Simonizing their cars.
Yes, having a car to drive definitely made you cool. If you drove an Oldsmobile, Buick, or Cadillac you were the coolest of the cool! (And, I imagine you had lots of friends!)
Looking back…just a Boomer moment in time…
And, oh we were so cool...
www.followingthespiritualsoul.com
Published: Jul 16,2008 15:23
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Andy Cowan
Andy Cowan, an award-winning writer, whose credits include Cheers and Seinfeld, regularly contributes humor pieces to the Los Angeles Times and the CBS Jack FM Radio Network.
Paul M. J. Suchecki
Paul M. J. Suchecki has more than 30 years of experience as an award winning writer, producer, and cameraman. He's written numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Currently he writes, produces and shoots for LA CityView Channel 35 and his more than 250 articles for Ehow.com are approaching half a million readers.
Coby Kindles
Coby Kindles is a freelance journalist, screenplay writer and essayist. She has been a staff writer at Knight Ridder and a regular contributor to The Associated Press.
Debbie Milam
Debbie Milam is a syndicated columnist for United Press International, an occupational therapist, family success consultant, and motivational speaker with more than 20 years experience. Her work on stress management, spirituality, parenting, and special-needs children has been featured in over 300 media outlets including First for Women, The Miami Herald, Elle, Ladies Home Journal, The Hallmark Channel, PBS and WebMD.
Dan Rafter
Dan Rafter has covered the residential real estate industry for more than 15 years. He has contributed real estate stories to the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Business 2.0 Magazine, Home Magazine, Smart HomeOwner Magazine and many others.
Jack Nargundkar
Jack Nargundkar has been repeatedly published in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. He is also an author of "The Bush Diaries" published in July 2005.
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