Franklin High School - Oskey Yearbook (Franklin, MA)

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Remember when . . . .

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hey! Check out that babe! ■3 asp What a cute couple. The inseparable bunch. Look out, John Travolta! Dancing up a storm.

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On Being Twelve . . . The day I turned twelve, just four short years ago, I became a different person. Throughout the household 1 was known as The Brat ' Nothing ever satisfied me, and I was constantly complaining when my hair or clothes didn ' t work just right. I realize now that 1 was the definition of a conformist. As 1 recall my own bewildering experiences in the midst of puberty, I remember the age of twelve as being unlike any other. Most kids were entering junior high, a big step up from elementary school. There were a million new people to identify, and the people who were popular in sixth grade were now just faces in the crowd. We had to be, and I stress this, coool. First impressions were everything. We were so self-conscious then, we felt we must be accepted, liked and popular, and by all means have at least one boyfriend. For girls, it was a time of discovery. It seemed that every girl in the whole world had a bigger chest than you, and (oh my God!) your best friend had just bought a bra. You suddenly liked the boy you ' d known since kindergarten, even though he had the maturity of a six-year-old. Remember those Friday nights at the rink? THE hang-out. New couples formed and broke up every weekend, and if a boy was lucky, he might even get a kiss under the bleachers. No one ever brought skates because then we ' d have had to carry them around all night. (But Mom, I ' ll rent them!) The exceptional child had a ten o ' clock curfew and received the added bonus of awe and envy from his nine-thirty friends. We smoked cigarettes, swore, and wised -off to the teacher at every available moment. But young people at the age of twelve are very scared, nervous, and confused. We were no longer children, yet not quite teen-agers. We were baffled at the way our bodies, voices, and attitudes were changing. Sometimes we felt anxious forever locked in the world of insecurity. Our parents were of little help—at this point they were the most embarrassing and non-understanding creatures that God had ever created, and it was very important that they were well aware of that. But underneath the Levi ' s and Nike ' s, below the cold surface of hostility, conformity, and rebelliousness, lay a very loving and caring human being—a person who dreamed of that peaceful, exciting, and wonderfully secure place—high school. An excerpt from Mirage 1986 By Linda Doherty Ct I