It's been nearly 50 years since I graduated from high school. 48 years June 12, to be exact. How in the world did I get to be so old? I came across a meme about high school. I wonder if I can remember back that far...
1. What high school did you go to?
St. Vincent School in San Francisco. Most of the girls in my 8th grade graduating class went to Presentation, but I wanted to be an "individual," so I went to St. Vincent, which was significantly smaller (only 200 total in the 4-year student body). Only 3 of us from my grammar school went there. It had been the best high school in the city for secretarial training, and had just recently started a college prep program.
2. What year did you graduate?
1960
3. What were your favorite band(s) or artist(s):
Oh, I was so incredibly boring. I liked the crooners--Perry Como, Andy Williams and, of course, Judy Garland. When I started getting interested in rock music, my father got angry because he felt it was "junk music" and so I never let myself really listen to much rock.
4. What was your favorite outfit?
Well, since we were a Catholic school, we had no "favorite outfits." We wore a uniform. A plaid pleated skirt, white blouse, and green cardigan sweater or jacket (we had both), with white shoes. It certainly eliminated any discrimination based on wardrobe!
5. What was up with your hair?
6. Who were your best friend(s)?
We had a group that formed somewhere in sophomore year, I think. We were all involved with the Senior play in my senior year. My best friends were Joyce Villa and Anne Micheletti, and Margie Kempers was in the group, though she and I were never really close. I still hear from all three women at Christmas time, though I have only seen Joyce since graduation (I had lunch with her about 5 years ago). I am also still friends with my "big sister," Joycie, who graduated the year I was a freshman.
7. What did you do after school?
A lot of the time I stayed at school to help in the classroom. I was also newspaper editor and yearbook editor, so I frequently had work to do after school involving those two publications.
8. Where did you work?
I didn't really have an after school job. I just babysat for money, and remember having a summer job as a biller-clerk for a tool company. My "big sister" Joycie was working there at the time and got me the part time job.
9. Did you take the bus?
Usually, but we lived only a block from the cable car, so frequently I would take the cable car and then transfer to the bus. I loved riding the cable car to school!
10. Who did you have a crush on?
My typing teacher.
11. Did you have a boyfriend?
I dated Bill Farrington exclusively for three years (my first boyfriend), until he entered the Jesuits. For a time at the end of my Senior year, I dated my leading man in the school play (they imported boys for male roles in the shows), but in my more enlightened years, I now realize that he was almost certainly gay.
12. Did you fight with your parents?
Not really, until I decided to enter the convent. My father was furious; my mother supported me. Ultimately, I never did go, though I did have my trunk packed and my airplane ticket in hand.
13. Did you ever get detention?
Of course not. I was a good girl!
14. Favorite Subject?
French. I loved learning to speak a foreign language and when I went to college, French was my major.
15. Did you get into any major trouble?
See answer to #13!
16. Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?
Guess. LOL. Judy Garland, of course!
17. Did you smoke cigarettes?
I smoked one cigarette and realized I hated it and didn't feel cool at all. That was the end of my smoking career, thank goodness (given the history of lung problems on both sides of my family!)
18. Did you carry all of your books around in your backpack all day?
We didn't have backpacks in the 1950s. I carried books in my arms and kept the ones I wasn't using in my locker. (It was a very small school and you could get to your locker easily between classese)
19. Best event ever?
Ever? None stands out, but we did some unusual things, like the yearly "living rosary," where students formed the beads of a rosary and we ringed the inside pews of the cathedral and said the rosay and sang songs. It was kind of memorable.
20. Did you have a clique?
No. Not really. We had our group, but I don't think we were exclusive. And I was really part of a couple of groups--the one mentioned above and the ones who said the rosary every noontime in the school chapel.
21. Where was your Senior Prom?
I don't remember. Some hotel. I went with my neighbor and had an absolutely miserable time. He was a nice guy, but I didn't really like him, or like dancing with him, and was terrified he'd try to kiss me goodnight (he did, and I hated it).
22. Did you have a hangout?
There was a Fosters restaurant a couple of blocks from school where we would go after school occasionally, but no real "hangout" since we lived all over the city. Most memorable event at Fosters was when someone tripped and spilled coke down my back!
23. Admit it, were you popular?
No. But then "popular" takes on a different meaning in a girls' school.
24. Who did you want to be just like?
I think I was satisfied to be me. High school was really a very good time for me and I was active in a lot of things, from music to publications to religious groups, to school government. Everything but sports.
25. What did you want to be when you grew up?
In high school, a nun.
26. Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?
In a convent somewhere.
27. What was the color of your yearbook?
It changed every year. In my senior year, when I was the editor, we had a white cover with red letters, and a bleeding red heart on it (because I had a special fondness for the Sacred Heart of Jesus).
28. What were the colors of your school?
Blue and white.
29. What was your school mascot?
I don't think we had one.
30. Do you miss your senior year?
Heck no. I LOVED my senior year, but to go back and be that age again and relive it all, no way!
BEVERLY ANNE WEST
Vincenta Editor
Legion Trea$urer ... "Will I ever finish?" ...
Tip-top typist ... avid Judy Garland fan ... definite
aversion to science ... day dreams of ??? ...
another member of the clan ... "Oh, yes, Anne!" ...
Feature writer of the N.N.N. ...ambition: D.C.
Ahhha...that cutesy "in" stuff. The "N.N.N." was a newsletter called, if
I remember correctly, "The Nasty Noogie News." I can't remember what
it contained--but just for our own little group. "D.C." is Daughter of Charity.
(I also can't believe that anybody made me treasurer of anything!)
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