Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
When did STDs, gangs, and school violence start to factor in?
-Rudey
--And was DeltAlum in the ham radio club?
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Funny you should ask. No.
But I was the president of the Radio (broadcasting) Club and did the morning announcements on the PA system as well as being the announcer for the Marching Band. Also announced for the Public Schools FM station and hosted a Junior Achievement radio program on a local commercial station. Worked for the local rock station answering the phones after school during "Beatlemania."
There is a Bob Greene book called "Be True to Your School" which talks specifically about the stations I worked for and some of the personalities I worked with. Greene graduated from a high school about ten miles from mine the same year. The book is a expansion of a diary he kept the second half of his junior and first half of his senior year. I don't know that I ever met him, but was undoubtedly at some of the street and "open house" parties he mentions. And I later directed the Ohio State Basketball games with the TV announcer he talks about.
STDs were with us back then, but they were treatable and not as likely to kill you.
One high school I attended was about 50/50 white and black and there was some racial tension, but we generally got along. I do remember a knifing at a football game, and "rumbles" (gang fights) did happen -- but were probably more the stuff of legend than reality in many cases.
And, of course, thanks to the Beach Boys, every teenager wanted to live on the California Beaches.
Let's hear it for White Levis!
(we've had 10 number local dialing here in Denver for several years.)