Who was really popular?

Witty guys have always been popular because women like smart men more than good looking men.

When I look at my high school year book, I'm struck by how nice most people were.

There were a few girls who were very pretty (peaches and cream, porcelain fine complexions and thick hair) who hung around with each other and let almost no one else into their circle. Now, some might look at them as popular, but they never seemed to be included in other groups, which were basically flexible.

The journalism staff was popular. Everyone loved one girl who was a writer and editorial cartoonist. She was both pretty and funny. Our valedictorian wrote for the paper and also played basketball.

It could just be the small school thing but I think those pretty, standoffish girls are often labeled popular when they're only popular among themselves.

Dress and style were important. This being the early 60s, the styles were frat or greaser. We had very few greasers however. There were also a couple of kids who had no style and never would have, no matter where they went. A set of twins in this non descript group were always very well liked because they were nice and accepting. Even then, people always said, "They're so nice!"

I went to a decent sized school. My graduating class was 250. It was in an area that there was a lot of money so popularity was gained at my school by wearing the expensive cloths, having a brand new car at 16, your parents allowing you to have a party while they were away for the weekend, even supplying the booze at times. Stuff of the likes. They all dressed the same, had the same hair cuts, walked the same talked the same... They looked like clones. Especially the girls. It was quite laughable actually.

And then there was me. Boy was I frumpy. Still wearing cloths from the 7th grade because you know... they still fit after all. LOL Walking to school because I was "too cool" to ride the bus, but not "cool enough" to have a car. I went to our 10 year reunion and the "jocks" were all fat and bald. The girls all looked pretty "weathered". They were still sitting with and only socializing with the exact same people they had hung out with in school. They were all drinking like fish. I was the only one out of the 150 that showed up that did not have a drink in my hand actually. And one of the drunken "jocks" who'd never paid a lick of attention to me in school was like, "HEEEEEY BAAAABY... How's about you and me..."

Funny how things change. How down the road all those things that seemed so "critical" in school really didn't mean a thing in the long run. We were all still the same people. We just looked different than back then.

That's funny, hepzibah. It sounds like you are a great deal younger than me because no parents ever seemed to leave home and the only drinking that was done was accomplished by driving from Detroit to Toledo, Ohio for 3/2 beer.

But, just as the girls who formed this sort of click were a world onto themselves, they weren't necessarily popular. They didn't participate in the big activities -- chorus, drama and the school paper. One was a cheerleader during freshman year only, then refused to participate again because she couldn't take the cold. The only club they belonged to was Future Nurses. They actually had no other virtue than their complexions.

Hepzibah's story sort of backs this up. I wonder if many of the jocks actually participate in anything else and if it just the attention their sports focus on them that makes them seem popular.

Ironically, two of the cheerleaders were pretty far from popular because all they participated in was cheerleading.

In my school, the cheerleaders were not popular. Everyone knew them but most people thought they were huge bitches.

I guess it depends on how you define popular. Everyone knew me. I talked to almost every one in every "group". I was on Homecoming court (but not queen!). Does that make me popular? I don't know that I was friends with all these people. I felt most at home with the drama/music people and those were the people I hung out with out side of school. So does that make me not popular but well liked?

I don't know. I don't really care either. It didn't bother me then and it doesn't bother me now.

hepzibah's post seems to come from a B series Hollywood movie. Wow! It really is like that in the States (well, in some schools). Fascinating!

I was thinking about this the other day!
I was 'unpopular-ish' but this was just a term- i actually had friends- and I only just realised the other day-
I may have been a bit dork-ish then, but now im making something of myself, am confident and alright looking.

I met some 'popular' girl from my old school on the bus yesterday- and it turns out she doesnt keep in touch with anyone from our old school-
so even if she had status she didnt have true 'friends.'

And ive heard stories about most of the really cool 'rebels' and 'jokers'- they arent doing anything! Just straight out of school and on the dole!

I still keep in touch from everyone i was friends with from my old school- i have a really big but close friendship group of about twenty five people.
I have a social life and am getting qualifications.
So in the end whats better?

Its quite hard to believe now how hard school was at times.

I recently saw again a girl who graduated from high school in June. She was the only Black girl to dress hip hop. She had tons of friends -- both the boys with whom she ran (she was a disctance runner on the track team) and the girls, although none of the other Black girls dress hip hop.

She is now a student at BerkLee, majoring in voice. What a difference! She is more open to adults, confident and poised. In only five months!

That may show, Pentacle Queen, that for many kids, high school is something to weather through.

Indeed and its an achievement to come out ok!
in fact i want 'i was a dork at high school' printed ona t shirt!!!

High school, while seemingly significant at the moment, is a brief and fleeting speck of what your life will be.

Don't take it too seriously. Those who do don't get any farther in life than those who didn't.

(I mean socially. Academically you have to pay some attention so you won't be stupid :wink: )

plainoldme quote:



Yikes! Who needs a brain, when they're in bed with a hunk?

The funny kids were most popular at my school. And the good-looking lads more so than the good-looking girls for some reason.

It is interesting that the good looking boys were more popular because there are a lot of ugly men (movie stars and other public figures) that turn women on while most men (my ex husband was the champion at this) are highly critical of women in the public eye who are not perfect physically.

Yeah true. Maybe because the good looking girls didn't have to make as much of an effort personality-wise, while the good-looking lads were popular with both the boys and the girls for obvious reasons.

Does everyone remember the name of the smelly kid at school? I do. Do you think it's ok to say it on here or is that a bit mean do you think?

x

I don't think it would be mean.

We had a really smelly kid in elementary school who always reeked of feces. I swear the kid could not properly wipe himself. If I were to tell you what he did after high school, several people on this forum would pounce on me. But I will anyway. He became a Marine.

did he have a nickname? "Poopoo pants" or something equally inventieve?

Ok the smelly kid was Stephen Chow. He just smelt of wee though thankfully. He always wore a blazer and had one of those doctors-style leather bag things and his hair was always really thick with grease.

The fat kid was called Michael Amir.

x

Thanks Dorothy. I'm adding these names to my blacklist now.

No problem.

I went to a school reunion 10 years after leaving and saw Michael Amir (who was a lovely guy), he wasn't fat anymore but he was almost completely bald. Bad luck eh?

There was also Andrew Foster ("flaky-burgers") who has an unfortunate case of dermatitis and Leslie Bogart who was Stephen Chow's best bud'. Leslie didn't smell but had the same greasy hair and those glasses with the milk bottle-bottoms.

x

Ah, fat, smelly kids.

The kid who was the least academic in my high school was quite a delightful person at our five year reunion, the only one I ever attended.

I graduated from high school in 1965. Several members of my class have died. Surprisingly, none in Vietnam. At least one from a drug overdoes. At least one from a motorcycle accident. Most of the deaths were due to cancer.

<------ voted most likely to become a nun in our senior year book.

What I'm driving at is this: were the kids you looked on in high school as popular really popular or did you believe the myth?

Myth: cheerleaders are popular

Competing myth: cheerleaders are dumb

But, when you think about high school, more than half the membership of the National Honor Society was probably popular and the kids that had the most friends probably managed to make the Honor Roll at least once a year.