Santa Clara

May 24, 1967

May 24, 1967

This entry is typical of most of the teen years. Part of it was fun, exciting – the motorcycle ride with Rich – followed shortly by another blow to my ego. For the record, Erin Heinlein responded with class to the news bulletin that I liked him – he treated me exactly the same after finding out as he did before. That’s how one should handle such a situation, when the feelings aren’t reciprocal – although it’s hard to envision an adult scenario in which one of my friends plays messenger to inform the object of my desire that I have a little crush.

Kathy Happy
Life is a beautiful comedy!
Kathy Not So Happy
Life is a painful tragedy and then you die.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s also quite different from many of my junior high diary entries, in which the boy I liked was a closely guarded secret that I would die to keep. If one of my friends wanted to get a rise out of me, all they had to do is write “Kathy likes Jim” or whoever on my books and I’d be near coronary arrest. Why was liking a boy a cause for such mortification? I don’t know – but what a difference a couple of years makes.

May 20. 1966

 

May 20, 1966

I was fifteen, caught between the tail end of childhood and looming adolescence (becoming boy crazy). Sharing adventures with Vania and other girlfriends would soon give way to pining by the phone waiting for some cruel or clueless guy to call.

I was still deeply attached to my childhood nuclear family, as likely to spend my Friday nights with them as with my friends. It was family swim night at the local Y and for a time the five of us went every week. I can still smell the humid locker rooms and the chlorinated pool; it seemed primal and thrilling to swim after dark.

%22Worldliness%22

The last two sentences describe a state of mind – or heart – that I called “worldliness’” for lack of a better word. Between the ages of 12 and 16, I physically ached from an overload of emotions I had no way to process. Too much beauty in a sunset or the loneliness of the solitary liquid amber treeLiquid Amber Tree outside my window brought me to tears. I miss those tumultuous emotions. That fragile moment on the cusp of adolescence is too brief!

 

May 13, 1966

 

5-13-1966

 

Sandy_edited-1Kathy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Catholic priest created the Wutzit Club to keep teen-agers off the streets. In 1966, it was on Newhall Street. It was open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights and featured a ballroom, stage, game room, television lounge and snack bar.  Dances were strictly chaperoned and a dress code was enforced. No alcohol – and nobody 21 or older – was allowed. Live mostly local bands performed; Buckingham and Nicks played there in ’68, before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac. Dues (admission) was fifty cents – a small price to pay for the chance to meet the love of your life.

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wutzit club 1_edited-1

Wutzit Card Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For people like me and my friends, who weren’t part of the Wilcox High “In Crowd,” the Wutzit offered an opportunity to meet non-Wilcox guys who didn’t know we were dorks.  Males massed on the right side of the room. Girls milled on the left and waited for some brave boy to cross the great divide and ask us to dance. Our popularity – which in those days meant success – depended on how many times we danced.  Higher mathematics were not required in my case since it is hard to miscalculate one (1).

Truth at seventeen

At the Wutzit, beauty got you asked to dance. (I suspect being under 5’9” helped but I can’t prove it.)  While it’s true other values – intelligence and persistence – are rewarded in the real world, it’s equally true that real life tends to be easier for those born beautiful.

Today, girls don’t need to wait by the wall. No social stigma attaches if they dance alone or with their friends. I applaud their freedom but can’t help wondering if underlying values changed too.  I hope I’m wrong but I suspect more than a few millennials dancing alone still relate to the words Janis Ian wrote in 1975.%22The valentines....%22