Remember being 13?

Remember being 13? How did your life at that age parallel or differ from Corkey's?

Yes, I was 13 in the early 1960’s, and our small town in Indiana only had one black family. Also, there were no girls or boys working at the local drugstores, grocery stores or department stores. Only adults were working. We had a tiny library and there were no recent books for borrowing. The wealthy families lived on a small man-made lake. Church was the center and backbone of our town. We even went directly from school to The Methodist or Baptist Churches for Good Friday observances, then back to school again, the same day. We walked because the churches were just one block from our elementary school.

I was 13 in the early 70's and while there were some parallels as I grew up in a small town with a father who owned a local store, Corky was more naive than I ever was. By 13 we knew about a lot of things - war, drugs, sex, rock and roll. It was definitely a different time. By then our schools were fully integrated and we had many black kids in our classes and on our sports teams.

When I turned 13 in 1970, I felt less naive than Corky due to my upbringing and living in a college town. Although our town was integrated, it was predominantly white. My parents instilled in us the belief that everyone is equal, regardless of race or gender. Nevertheless, I lacked firsthand exposure to how Blacks were treated by those with differing points of view. I have since learned of racial incidents in our community of which I had been unaware.

The Kent State tragedy marked the close of my sixth-grade year. Our home bordered the college campus, where there was war-related unrest. The college dismissed students early that spring, bypassing graduation, as protestors seized the ROTC building. I sat on our kitchen floor daily, listening to the AM radio update on casualties.

The dress code finally modernized during seventh grade, liberating us from mandatory dresses. The war and numerous assassinations influenced the prevalent mood. We walked everywhere, which usually involved walking through the college campus. I identified with the "peace-loving hippies."

Our downtown was a busy place with three pharmacies, and each one of those had a soda fountain, one doubling as a lunch counter. The junior high was downtown, so I was there a lot; although our family was the opposite of materialistic, and there were many stores that I never entered.

I was 13 in 1970, growing up in a small rural town outside of Seattle, Washington. There was only one Black student in our school and I only saw people of color when I went to the 'Big City.' Fortunately, my mother was a social worker and would often take me to her Seattle office where all kinds of people would come for assistance. She was very clear that everyone deserved to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of race or class. I believe Corky's parents (particularly her mother) try to teach her the same thing.

I was 13 in 1963 and almost as naive as Corky. I thought heck was a swear and knew nothing about boys I was just me and having fun being me. Climbed trees roads my bike Giggled about boys. Finally talked my mother into letting me shave my legs. Didn’t worry about being liked or in a group or being bullied. There were very very few people of color but I’m not sure I would have noticed. THEN my parents moved us to Richardson TX my junior year in high school. Wow is an understatement. When my mom and I went to get our Texas driver’s licenses. There was a problem. When we filled out the form we checked C for Caucasian. They looked at us and asked why we had checked C we told them and they burst out laughing. C was for colored and we should have checked W!
Turns out my high school wasn’t integrated until the year after I graduated. Hadn’t occurred to me. I thought that there weren’t any people of color living near enough or they just weren’t in my classes. There were over 1000 in my grade! I grew up fast in Texas!

I was 13 in 1973. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma where church and sports (not necessarily in that order) were pretty central to our community. We had black families and Native American families, but they all lived on “the other side of the railroad tracks”- like in the book. I don’t remember overt racism, but I’m sure it existed. I don’t feel like I was naive, but I wouldn’t say I was worldly either.

I was 13 in the early 1960's living a suburban commuter town where there was little interaction between Blacks and White though without success I tried to invite a Black classmate to my house to work on assignment. Of course this changed soon after and also soon after many notable and events we all remember or learned about occurred.