I'm In With the 'In Crowd'
Remember the "In Crowds" in high school? Everyone knows what that is...the popular kids, the kids who sat at the "cool" table at lunch, the jocks, the cheerleaders, the outgoing kids who ran for every student election, joined every club...the kids who were in 'cliques'....
I was not one of those kids in the 70's... and I was certainly not on the polar opposite side, the 'nerds' or the 'heads' who only earned disdain...No, I was a "nobody" the first three years of high school...those kids you see in the hall and in class, who just past by like automatons, faceless, nameless, who never spoke up in class, never joined clubs...though I did play some sports, I was never in the "In Crowd."
There were many like me...it's not that I was totally friendless or anything, in fact I had a lot of good buddies in the same position, we would gather at lunch in the periphery. Some of us used to observe the whole social phenomenon...Joe Geminetti, he was one guy who was a huge A's fan and had a certain intelligence and insight that I appreciated, but he was also a bit dysfunctional.
And Tom Walker, we were schoolmates since Kindergarten, and we made home movies with his 8mm camera...Tom was smart...he had the whole "In Crowd" thing down back then...."Oh F*ck them! you mean I'm supposed to do or say this or that, just so I can be labeled "cool" ? Or like if I hang out with so-and-so, Jones is gonna say, "you're not cool, you're not one of us'....f*ck them!"
So that was a very good insight by Tom, even back then, good for him.
Even still, I had always looked at the In Crowd with a certain envy...In spite of my painful shyness.
Then things changed in my Senior year, I had a car! a 1972 Ford Pinto...One guy, Dan Matson who was a jock and in with the "In Crowd" was a hockey fan, and so was I, the California Seals, an NHL team in the 70's....So me, Dan, Scott Hall, and Bobby Novak went to the Seals game, and I drove...
After that I had an 'In' to the "In Crowd"!!....but it was too late, we were all graduating soon....
In later years, after working at different places, I have observed that work places are often like high school....depending on the size, sometimes very much so...the Cliques, the 'In Crowds', the jocks, the nerds, the heads, the rah-rah's, and yes the nobodys....and sometimes, yes I was In With the 'In Crowd!
Well the whole point about beloging to any kind of In Crowd is a natural thing, that... I believe it is hard-wired in all of us humans for 50 thousand years ..we want to belong, we want to be accepted in a group, we want to have something that we can contribute to the tribe...and it's good to have friends and family (obviously)...we just want to belong....
I was not one of those kids in the 70's... and I was certainly not on the polar opposite side, the 'nerds' or the 'heads' who only earned disdain...No, I was a "nobody" the first three years of high school...those kids you see in the hall and in class, who just past by like automatons, faceless, nameless, who never spoke up in class, never joined clubs...though I did play some sports, I was never in the "In Crowd."
There were many like me...it's not that I was totally friendless or anything, in fact I had a lot of good buddies in the same position, we would gather at lunch in the periphery. Some of us used to observe the whole social phenomenon...Joe Geminetti, he was one guy who was a huge A's fan and had a certain intelligence and insight that I appreciated, but he was also a bit dysfunctional.
And Tom Walker, we were schoolmates since Kindergarten, and we made home movies with his 8mm camera...Tom was smart...he had the whole "In Crowd" thing down back then...."Oh F*ck them! you mean I'm supposed to do or say this or that, just so I can be labeled "cool" ? Or like if I hang out with so-and-so, Jones is gonna say, "you're not cool, you're not one of us'....f*ck them!"
So that was a very good insight by Tom, even back then, good for him.
Even still, I had always looked at the In Crowd with a certain envy...In spite of my painful shyness.
Then things changed in my Senior year, I had a car! a 1972 Ford Pinto...One guy, Dan Matson who was a jock and in with the "In Crowd" was a hockey fan, and so was I, the California Seals, an NHL team in the 70's....So me, Dan, Scott Hall, and Bobby Novak went to the Seals game, and I drove...
After that I had an 'In' to the "In Crowd"!!....but it was too late, we were all graduating soon....
In later years, after working at different places, I have observed that work places are often like high school....depending on the size, sometimes very much so...the Cliques, the 'In Crowds', the jocks, the nerds, the heads, the rah-rah's, and yes the nobodys....and sometimes, yes I was In With the 'In Crowd!
Well the whole point about beloging to any kind of In Crowd is a natural thing, that... I believe it is hard-wired in all of us humans for 50 thousand years ..we want to belong, we want to be accepted in a group, we want to have something that we can contribute to the tribe...and it's good to have friends and family (obviously)...we just want to belong....
posted by Olias at 8:58 PM
1 Comments:
what a great post, dan!
Oh to know what we know now! Go to your high school reunion this summer and you will see exactly what became of the 'in crowd' and also of the 'invisables' and i would bet money that the "invisables" are in the lead today.
Thank you for your post!!
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