THE WAY WE WERE

Rites of passage have changed

By Wally Wachter
Retired Herald Managing Editor

WHEN DOES A BOY become a man? Today it may be when he first applies a razor to the stubble on his chin and cheeks. Or when he gets his permit to officially drive a car. With these stages comes a feeling of pride that gives today's youth an advantage over our emergence into adulthood back when.

Our growing years were probably the most awkward and trying days of our lives.

Entrance into junior high made us feel like adults, although we still tended to act a little like children. Parents frowned on the use of razors, and automobiles were scarce, and few had the opportunity to even sit behind the steering wheels until they were out of high school.

The step into the fringes of adulthood held many challenges, especially for boys. They cast aside their grade school knickers for long pants. The trousers, often hand-me-downs from older brothers, were too loose at the waist and had to be held up by colorful suspenders. The suspenders couldn't always do the job properly, and as a result, trouser cuffs on many boys were frayed and torn at the rear from dragging on the ground and being stepped on by the heels. Aside from this, the school garb usually was neat. The budding gentlemen wore suits with neckties, or fancy vests and handsome sweaters to attain a new manly look.

But the chief problem the boys had at this age was the girls. They found that the young things they had a crush on during grade school days suddenly appeared to be older and more mature than they.

Girls seemed to develop earlier and much more quickly, physically and mentally, than the boys. But most of their emergence was obscured by the loose-fitting cotton dresses that were the style then.

Aware of their new adult image, girls looked ahead to attracting the older boys, leaving their young male classmates to catch up. Girls became more conscious of hair an clothes styles. The old shingled bobs were traded for new wavy sets that came at the expense of hours with hot curling irons. Or there were ringlet curls that had been rolled into the hot irons and tied into place during the night with pieces of rags from old sheets.

But, emergence into teen-age years, like today, haad its happy endings. The boys overcame their problems, their insensitities and their inadequacies. They soon caught up to their girl classmates again.

Many high school romances between classmates blossomed into later marriages.