What Were You Like As A Teen?

[52Styleline]

I was very much an average teenage guy of the time. I went to a very small High School (only 35 kids in my class). Played some football and baseball and played trumpet in the band. Fell in and out of love a couple of times a month. I had an after school job to support my car. Dated a lot and hung out with the guys the rest of the time. We actually had a hangout called "The Malt Shop" if you can believe it. Nearly idyllic when I look back on it from this end of the lifetime.

 

[jamespowers]

Loud, obnoxious, class clown.

I can agree with that. Eddie Haskel incarnate.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I was actually a pretty good kid, well at least my parents thought I was! That's because I had an older sister to learn from, I just made sure to do everything she didn't. Like I knew not to come home drunk at 3 in the morning, stand in the foyer, shout "I'm Home!" and then throw up all over the floor!!
I did my share of "naughty" things, but I was a bit tense and worried that I'd disappoint my parents or get in trouble, so I did the silly things that teens did but never went too far, and never got caught.
I was pretty well mannered. I was a tennis player, sponsored by Prince, so tennis took up a lot of my time, being that through my middle school years I played 4 days a week and in upper school I played 6 days a week. My parents used to call me the energizer bunny. It just seemed as though I didn't need any sleep. I could stay out with friends til 3AM and be on the courts by 6:30AM no problem. After 4 to 5 hours of practice I'd get home, shower, and then go back out to hang with friends. I wish I had that kind of energy now!!!

 

[Fletch]

Musical, funny, obsessive, fragile, hopeless.

 

[Kimberly]

I was kind of wild sometimes

Just go ask my mother! lol lol

( well, wild but kind of shy at the same time, difficult to explain, whatever)

That sums me up too.

In fact, the teenage rebellion I have experienced with my kids is payback for me and the stuff I used to try and pull off on my mother.

 

[Marty M.]

What a ride!

Got into a lot of trouble. Spent my teenage years in different Juvenile detention centers and Boy's Homes. I saw the light at seventeen, dropped out of high school and took a full time job selling suits at a Department store. And with all of that I now have a Beautiful wife of 23 years, 3 outstanding kids and my own small store. Is this a great Country or what?
Marty

 

[rcinlv]

Whadda ya mean.... I'm still in my teens.

Okay, I admit it. I was miserable, just like every other teen. Uncertain, insecure, quiet, questioning my very existence. If you say otherwise, you're just kidding yourself.

Are fortys that much different from teens?

Hmmm...

RC

 

[MudInYerEye]

Skinhead.

 

[Pilgrim]

I heard a great definition of teen-age boys once: "Hormones with feet".

I was a good student, not a problem kid, but I fit that definition. Fortunately it was reasonably well-controlled.

 

[Fletch]

I heard a great definition of teen-age boys once: "Hormones with feet".

I guess under that definition, teenage girls would be cramps with shoes.

 

[GeniusInTheLamp]

Like any high school, we had our cliques (jocks, preppies, stoners, etc.). I was the band geek. I dressed as conservatively then as I do now, wearing button-down shirts with khakis or jeans. I did well enough in school to get me into National Honor Society, but in retrospect, I probably could have done better with a little more hard work. As a band geek, I also further developed my interest in music. As far as popular music went, my tastes were about the same as most students (read: Arena Rock, e.g. Foreigner, Styx, REO Speedwagon), but I also listened to lots of classical and jazz. Much of my exposure to the latter came from both my experiences in band and my exposure to drum & bugle corps (I went to high school with several people who marched with the Cavaliers). I had my small circle of friends, but outside of that, I didn't really fit in anywhere else. I stayed out of trouble, but some friends and I managed to keep our English and German classes loose with our repartee and our slightly irreverent approach to those classes.

 

[John in Covina]

A mix of personality traits. Shy at times, self depreciating, caring and loyal. Sometimes impetuous, occasionally greedy or self centered, a dreamer.
Always wishing for better opportunities to have fun. Enjoy entertaining. Sometimes defensive and quick to anger when attacked. Silly with obtuse humor references. Wide interests but easily bored. Poor at languages and musically ability. Sometimes prone to exaggeration. As a teen I took risks I would not do now but that is what happens when you get older.

Youth is wasted on the young.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Like this...

I was very fortunate, as a teenager. My father had passed away while I was in the sixth grade and my mother worked hard to maintain a home for my sister and I. It's only now that I realize how hard she did work, and how dedicated she was to maintaining a happy and comfortable home for us.

I began taking drum lessons the summer of '66. I'd like to say that I was inspired by Ron Wilson of 'Wipe Out' fame, or Craig Atkinson who performed 'Psychotic Reaction', but the truth is, besides Ringo I was totally inspired by Micky Dolenz and the 'Monkees' to actually learn to play.

Also in 1966, a (future) brother-in-law dropped off all of this Beatle albums with me while he was in the Army. I learned to play along with that music. I became, overnight, a fully-infected Beatlemaniac (it persists to this day!). Thank God for those four lads - I learned a great deal from them, and they helped me through my teens and beyond!

My mother bought me drums and a motorcycle - which she did against her better judgement! When I was about fifteen, I convinced her to buy me flying lessons. Either she spoiled me rotten or, through a stroke of motherly genius, she kept me away from the drug and alcohol abuse that was so pervasive with my peers.

I dressed well and always had three squares a day. I was a latch key kid as my mother worked 12-18 hours daily, practically everyday. She managed a small department store.

I didn't realize til much later in life just how spoiled, coddled and sheltered I really was - especially in the areas of earning and spending. It took a couple of decades to get a handle on the 'real world'.

When I think back about my teenage years, I have to admit that despite losing my father at such an early age I was really quite happy, contented and fulfilled with my drums, motorcycles and flying. Unfortunately, the twentys and thirties were a little rougher, trying to get along with others, actually working for a living and overspending like a drunken sailor!

I am always and constantly reminded of John Lennon's epitaph; "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." Man!...isn't that the plain truth?!!

-dixon cannon

 

[Dixon Cannon]

The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe...

Oh Dr. Evil!... such a pathetic youth. Are you sure you aren't Dougie?!! lol

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

...I stopped straightening my hair and I guess began really looking for myself. My tastes in music broadened and I listened to a lot of my dad's old jazz and golden era albums along with my mom's soul from the 60s, 70s and 80s and grunge, garage and punk bands. I began watching foreign and indie films, showing an interest in anything different and not what everyone else was into. I dressed in black alot, dyed my hair like every other week (it's a wonder it didn't fall out) and tried all manner of makeup, hairstyles, etc. I started college and was opened to a whole new world of people which added to my search for self. I began writing more, painting, having discussions on race, politics, religion with people around the world...

Rosie,

Just reread your original post... I envy you so much to have had the inner drive to do so much exploring and searching for self at the right time in your life to do it. You really sound like an amazing person, hope we run into each other at some point, it'd be fun.

Thanks for posting.

I really enjoyed my teen years (tho people kid me about growing up "in the hood" yadda yadda), they really were good times, so I never did any exploring. I've felt in the last couple of years a backlash for that, like I'm trying to make up for it but it has led me to finding an exciting major career change to something I *like* (healthcare) before it's "too late", lots of new interests & friends, going back to school, etc - life is getting more "fun" again

And I get a kick out of talking to folks like yourself who were more adventurous in the teen years and tried out more stuff, and what was learned. Thanks

- C H

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Let's see -- I was shy, moody at times, insecure, witty; determined to step onstage and so was the leading lady in high school plays.

Also lettered in tennis, one of the few sports gals were allowed to play back then.

I didn't date or go to proms or anything. I was a B-plus student due to the fact I was lazy about doing my homework.

I dressed much like other gals of my era, but a bit more casual and tomboy. Hair was always tossled and tumbled, never wore those pony-tailed or rolled or flipped hairdos.


And, of course, I was a Rebel Without a Clue.

karol

 

[MattJH]

In high school, they:

Strip-searched me for drugs twice (and never found anything)
Suspended me countless times
Held an expulsion hearing for me with the school board
Banned me from the nurse's office
Banned me from the graduation ceremony

I had fun as a teen, but I had absolutely no respect for authority and was under constant worry that I was wasting my time attending high school in the first place. I admittedly didn't make the best of it, but I certainly had a good time. I just couldn't stand a single second of any of it.

 

[Feraud]

Oh Dr. Evil!... such a pathetic youth. Are you sure you aren't Dougie?!! lol

Thank you! I have been waiting for someone to call me out on that. lol

 

[Honey Doll]

I went away to college right after I turned 16...so I pretty much ran amuk! I had my own car, no parental supervision and was often presumed to be older than I was. I did a lot of theater, listened to a wide range of music, played dress-up, dated boys my parents wouldn't have approved of and ran around with fake ID. All in all I enjoyed my freedom but still made good grades and came out of it alive and with little regret. I'll chalk it up as a successful adolescence. My kiddos, however, will be under tighter supervision.

Honey Doll

 

[Fatdutchman]

High school sucked. BAD. My teen years have affected my life (quite negatively) to this day. I am only now (at 36) at a point in my life that I should have been at 18....

I was not exactly outgoing, fat, nerdish. I had no problem with school itself...I always got excellent grades, National Honor Society, etc. I was definitely smarter than the average bear. Not that it got me anywhere. Never dated. Only had a few real friends. After high school I wasted 2 or 3 years on college for no particular reason, which only further screwed me over.

I have made a real change in my personality only in the last few years. I have gotten myself out of debt (but only have about a thousand bucks to my name right now...), I have lost weight (and continue to do so), while growing perhaps another inch. I look NOTHING like I did in high school. I went through a couple of my annuals the other day, and came across my photos and really couldn't believe that it was me. I know what I want now, and what I want to do. It'll take me a while, though (It may be the last thing I'll ever do, but by golly, I'll do it!).

I'd kill a thousand people if that would get me back to 1984 to do it all over again. VASTLY differently. I would be a billy bad-ass. I'd have to beat the girls off me with a stick.... I would know what I wanted and would take it, by george....