Gay meant happy... Hardly no ethnic diversity..... We had a teacher named Mr. Wiener...The dean's name was Mr.LOONEY " Good Morning Mr. LOONEY...have you seen Mr. Weiner...? JEEZZZZ      This didn't make it any easier on the students....

The hang out was the pool hall.... Troy High was one of the schools that had the new flex schedule....you could be without classes for 3 hours on Tues. & Thurs. ..combined with lunch you could be gone for half the day....then it got easier just not to come back for the day..and we would head for the beach....or the pool hall. Big John's On foggy days....

If we were in PE vs; Wrestling, track...we would sneak cigarettes and matches in our gym shorts....it was a ½ mile lap around the farthest backboard....we would haul out there.. .light up...some a half of cigarette...take out time...and haul back....

There were the Juicer's ( beer drinker's) and the dope heads....Lots of pot for the time.... The juicers on Friday nights go out to a field ( called J.P for Juicers Point) behind the catholic church and next to the huge eucalyptus trees and drink beer, smoke and make out. We could see a car coming before they could see us...if it was the cops we would head out the opposite way and they would never see us......after awhile they would try and sneak up on us... it never worked... The cops were cool....but then again the kids were always polite and never showed disrespect...... and I think we got respect in return.

There is something about that year that was special. We were kids too late to be considered the 50's & the Elvis generation. A little too early to be full fledge hippies...and free love stuff.......by the time we were old enough to take advantage of the free love/ hippie life style.....it was over. We tried...A friend and me took my old pick up and drove up to Frisco....Height Ashbury....the center of Hippie, free love, acid....we were so out of place....all the freaks were really older people ( 40's) wanting to be young again. Parent's pretty much trusted their kids....( at least mine) because everyone was pretty clean ...no disease, guns, knives, bombs,etc....how much damage could we do..? We came from a generation of parents ( world War II ) that worked hard and had strong ethics. So...this was a new time for their kids. First generation OFF the farm kids.When I heard stories of my dad milking the cow, riding in the snow to school...bla bla bla....it was really true....!!! All of our parents were excited for their kids to have what they never did....! Convenience...cars, better educations, ...8 track stereo's....& records..? We use to go down to the new car dealers to see the new cars that came out.....the 1965 mustang,,,,,3300.00 ! Gas at the off brand stations....was 25 cent a gallon.

Submitted by Ross Cutshaw rcutshaw@ci.shoreline.wa.us