highline56 op ed

We have all heard of the "Baby Boom Generation" and "Generation X", but demographers have named ours the "Good Times Generation", and for good reason. There were so few of us born during the last few years of the Great Depression that there was little competition for jobs, schools, housing, etc. compared to the baby boomers and thereafter. I often wonder how I'd have ever found a job had I been competing with the talented youth of today. On top of that historians say that we came of age during one of America’s great "golden ages", our "golden age" being that period between the end of World War II and the social upheavals that began in the mid '60's. Our generation really lucked out. We were too young for the Korean War and too old for Viet Nam. (Those of us who were involved in Viet Nam were at least a bit older than the average kid they sent over there and we'd been around the block a few times.) There was virtually no crime, child molesters, gangs, drugs, and no deadly sexually transmitted diseases. How sweet it was!

However, I try to avoid the excesses of the "good old days" syndrome. We tend to remember past events as they should have happened, and not always as they actually did. It has been requested that us Highline High School class-of-'56 members relate an anecdote about our school days, and I added one to Vignettes. Anyone who may have any corrections or additions to the story, please feel free to share it with us. It's as I remember it. But would I go back and do it all over again? Oh, yeah, how I wish! Especially now that there are not that many good years left. You often hear the quote, "If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't change a thing." That certainly doesn't apply in my case. I'd like to change a lot of things. Not that I didn't have a ball. As I mentioned in the guest book, I thought that the fun life, as I knew it, was over when we graduated.