When there was no shame in a "C."

We were cleaning out Sue‘s things the other day, and we came across some amazing photographs. It’s like everyone lived on a different planet in 1968. If only girls dressed like that now for prom. (Maybe Trump will make them.) But we also came across Sue’s high school transcript. My sister died at 74, so it has been almost 60 years since that hairdo.

I knew that Sue did not go on to Harvard, but I also knew that she was really smart. She had intellectual depths when speaking about books or the world, she was eloquent and witty and put herself through a community college not far from Harvard yard. But lo and behold, there was her high school record in front of us — with so many C’s! And a few D’s! I was quite shocked, and we laughed a lot about those D’s in “physical education.” Her daughters surmised that Sue probably just never went to PE class — which could be true.

But then I started thinking about it. This was 1968, and school was as different as those hairstyles. Kids were different. Parents were different. Teachers were different. And our society was very, very different. Children were not programmed into sports or afterschool activities or enrichment programs or ballet classes or really anything. We got up in the morning and we went to school. We came home and we went outside and played until it got dark or your dad whistled for you to come home for dinner. That was it. And when you went to school, you did what the teacher said or you “got in trouble.” You did your homework or you got an F. And if your work was at the same level as most of the other kids, you got a respectable “C.” That’s what a “C” meant: average work. There was nothing wrong in being like most of the other kids in your class. A “B” meant your work was slightly better than most of the kids in the class. And for the record, Sue got “B”s in English Lit every time. And an “A” meant that you truly excelled above and beyond everyone else sitting next to you. Getting a “C” was not a mark of shame; it was just that you were an normal kid doing what was expected at school. If you brought home a “C,” there was no punishment. There was no hand-wringing and frantic hiring of tutors. Your report card was acknowledged with a nod, and you went to school again the next day . Certainly no mom or dad ever showed up at the principal’s office the next morning to complain — that would be outrageous! Parents weren’t supposed to come to school. School was for (normal) kids.

So there Sue is, second to the right, probably with a headache from a night of sleeping with her hair rolled onto beer cans. Or maybe she ironed it — they did that too in 1968. I don’t remember her prom date next to her. My guess is he was academically normal, too, and no one cared, least of all Sue. What she did care about was being a good egg. I think she went with him to be nice because she has had MUCH handsomer boyfriends in the past. (Sorry, guy, whoever you are.) So when I flipped the transcript over and read the teachers’ comments, I was not surprised.

Sue is intent on being eligible for college despite her mathematical handicap [handicap!!] that she took Algebra 1 three times to get a satisfactory grade. Suzanna has a very pleasant and charming personality and the persistence to attain her goals.

Three times for Algebra, Sue????!!!! but A+ in personality, always. xo