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Health & Fitness

Where was I in 1962?

Three channels on the TV, transistor radios and negotiating with mom and dad to borrow the family car on a Friday night. It was Peoria, Illinois in 1962 but it could have been Anywhere, USA

The Salute to American Graffiti folks present that question as a tease for the automobile nostalgia trip back to Petaluma and 1962, the setting for the movie, American Graffiti. While the film is based on George Lucas' high school experiences, the amazing aspect is that the film documented similar experiences elsewhere in the country at the time. The names and places might be different, but the stories were the same.

To answer the question about 1962, I was in Peoria, Illinois and graduated in June of that year. I had not thought much about my high school years except for the reflections generated by the movie when it first came out.  My memory banks were jarred again in 2002 when I was asked if I was going to Illinois for the 40th class reunion.

I did not go, but ended up being the historian for the event with the final product published and included in the local historical society.  It is a long story and difficult to explain.

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Given the Salute to American Graffiti this weekend, I thought I would attempt to add a little non-automotive flavor to those times by posting the introduction from An American Memory Scrapbook...

During the week of June 3, 1962, members of the Peoria High School Class of '62 celebrated the completion of four years of "education."  They were about to graduate with the charge to "Uphold our heritage through a lifetime of purpose." 

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They had to pass through two events before being finally released: 

  • The Baccalaureate Vesper Service on Sunday, June 3, 1962, at 4pm at the Peoria High School Auditorium;
  • Commencement ceremonies on Tuesday, June 5, 1962, at 8pm at the Robertson Memorial Field House.   

Thereafter the Peoria High School Class of 1962 was released to the World. 

Forty years later, a class reunion was held on August 17, 2002, at the Mt. Hawley Country Club in Peoria.  Seventy-seven members of the original class (298) attended. 

During the intervening 40 years, members of the class pursued family interests, careers, and life in general.  While many remained in Peoria or located elsewhere in Illinois, many lived and worked in many parts of the country as well as the world.  Graduates lived or live in such "far off" areas as the United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.  

As the notices of the reunion stirred interest, a Web site and e-mail service were created to promote interest in the upcoming reunion.  The e-mail service (managed by Laraine (Wilson) Wessels) and the Reunion Web Site (managed by Todd Marshall) were quite successful in generating interest in the reunion activities -- so successful that many used e-mail to arrange for additional "informal" events such as the Friday night party at Terry & Patty (Wilson) Fuchs' Sweetwater Bend Ranch preceding the official reunion party.  The e-mail surge also increased attendance at the official reunion dinner. 

The blizzard of e-mails created a rich supply of stories and memories which started to form a "story" in my mind as I watched them unfold on my computer screen.  Clearly e-mail provided a forum for those who would not have had an opportunity to speak or would not have spoken publicly.  E-mail also facilitated the "catching up" on events in peoples' lives making the actual reunion an even richer experience. 

As I started to gather and group the e-mail exchanges, I realized they largely fell under several stanzas of the "Memory Poem" in Mark Paulson's e-mail.  As I have always followed the path of least resistance, I elected to follow Mark's "lead" by beginning each section with part of the poem followed by excerpts from the e-mails. 

For those reading about this period for the first time, I must point out that our forms of entertainment were a bit different from those available today.  AM radio was the source of music.  We listened on car radios.  We listened on the wonder of the time--the transistor radio.  The average cost of a transistor radio was $10. 

If the radio cost $40, it had four (count 'em) transistors.  A really good transistor radio could be heard (barely) across the street.  At home, music was primarily on 45-rpm records.  For those who have never seen one, imagine a 7-inch record with a big hole in the center for playing only on 45-rpm players.  You see, we suffered from hardware and software compatibility issues even in the dark ages. 

We did not have a fast food restaurant on every corner but we did have Hunts, the Steak & Shake and A&W drive-ins.  McDonald’s was just on the horizon. 

While there is much talk about cars and cruising, it must be remembered that the average high school student did not have a car.  There were exceptions of course, but for the most part, we had to negotiate with our parents for the use of the family car on a Friday or Saturday night.  Moreover, some of us just could not stand the kind of cars our parents owned.  By the way, usually there was only one car per family.  

Of course we had television, but it was black & white for the most part.  The number of broadcast channels -- three.  No cable.  No satellite.  No MTV.  No CNN.  It was on this television that we watched the inauguration of the hatless President Kennedy and, the year after graduation, we watched his assassination and funeral. 

Before turning to the "story" I must caution that all memories, recollections, in fact all memoirs, whether they be individual or collective as this one, are a bit suspect.  There is a tendency to "remember the good old days" although they were not always so good. 

For some, it was not a happy time from any perspective.  One classmate perhaps described it best in talking about his high school years: "I was not a mover and shaker nor was I in the least popular.  I was the skinny kid (96lb at graduation) that lurked in the shadows and had few friends.  Growing up was tough for me and I do not look back at my High School years with any fond memories.  Not only was I a little kid but I was probably the poorest and the youngest." 

We all had our problems with peer pressure, pecking orders, and general teenage angst.  We worried about our appearance.  We worried if we had the "right" clothes.  One poor soul (an upper classman) had to suffer the ultimate embarrassment of having a team photo published in the yearbook and mounted in a trophy case in the school.  The problem was that no one noticed (until after publication) that his left testicle was plainly visible…if one cared to look.  Trust me, people looked! 

Many, if not most of us, struggled with acne or "zits."  Some of us still do.  However, my cautions notwithstanding, these memories do depict a time and an era…when we were in high school.  We entered Peoria High School on the tail of Sputnik…the last of the war babies. When we graduated, the Eisenhower Era had ended. 

We, whether we knew it or not, were on the cusp. 

Note: The entire scrapbook is available as pdf attachment to this article

Photos from the recent Salute to American Graffiti in Petaluma, can be seen at:

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