At 17
I was listening to the radio today as I headed to Wal-Mart and I heard a song that I once identified with. "At 17" by Janis Iam. It was a big song back in 1975 as I graduated high school. The verse said "At 17 I learned the truth, that love was meant for beauty queens, high school girls with clear skinned smiles who married young and then retired". I laughed as I heard the song today. I turned to Matt and said they ought to do a follow up song called "At 37", where you could really see what happened to those beauty queens and the high school girls with clear skinned smiles who married young and the retired.
I have my own thoughts and observations on this at seventeen I was so insecure. I was afraid to leave home. I was supposed to go to Romney, after high school. They said I could come and do some post graduate work. Get some skills I didn't get in high school such as typing, maybe improve my math skills ect. It was all set up and fall came, and I didn't go. Then I thought I would go to Appalachian Bible College. My mom took me there for the interview After reading the catalog, I didn't like being told how to dress. It wasn't that I dressed all that bad, I was a modest shy girl. I loved to wear long skirts, but I liked my jeans as well. I didn't like the fact that they told you what type of music you could listen to or what church to attend. There are some thing that I still have a problem with, but a young person need disciplne. I just stayed at home in my own little world. At that times I was dreaming about being on the radio. I stayed home from September to February. I got really sick in November. My tonsils got infected and had swollen up to be the size of golf balls. It took me a while to recover from that illness. Meanwhile Dan Blaney had made arrangements for me to come to the radio station and see him and then I went to the vocational school to meet with Dick Calloway. I had no idea if I could do radio. My mom wasn't even sure. All Mr. Calloway said was time will tell.
At seventeen I would not have known how to handle love. I don't even have a romantic relationship until I was twenty one. I was a little slow. in that department. In 1985, the year that the class had their ten year reunion, I ran into one of my classmates who was working at Stone & Thomas. As we talked about classmates, we talked about the high school girls with clear skinned smiles. One in particular had gained a lot of weight. She had gained about fifty pounds and had went through a divorce. As I told Matt some of those who thought they were special found out that real life is not like high school. Nobody cares who your parents are. Some people will latch on to you for what they can get. If they did they song called "At 37", I learned the truth at 37 it doesn't really matter how you look or what you do. You learn a lot about you. By the time I reached 37, I had figured out that trying to make myself over for a man was useless. They would have to take me for what I was. I developed this "what you see is what you get attitude". I did fix myself up dressing well, but if I wanted jewelry, I ordered it. If I wanted to go somewhere I went. I didn't wait for someone to take me. I read the book "Why Do I think I am Nothing Without a Man". If a man was going to be interested in me, he was going to work at it as hard as I was. No more waiting by the phone or calling to see if we could do something. That worked with Matt. He was the kind of man who didn't want a clingy person at all. He wanted someone he could talk intelligently with , a person who read books.
At seventeen I learned that I really didn't know anything about anything. I had just enough knowledge to be dangerous. I was just a deer in the headlights at seventeen. I wonder what Janis Ian thinks of that song. She proberly goes to the bank and cashes the check from BMI she get every month on royalities the song has made and never thinks about the impact that song had on insercure people like me that were seventeen at the time.
I have my own thoughts and observations on this at seventeen I was so insecure. I was afraid to leave home. I was supposed to go to Romney, after high school. They said I could come and do some post graduate work. Get some skills I didn't get in high school such as typing, maybe improve my math skills ect. It was all set up and fall came, and I didn't go. Then I thought I would go to Appalachian Bible College. My mom took me there for the interview After reading the catalog, I didn't like being told how to dress. It wasn't that I dressed all that bad, I was a modest shy girl. I loved to wear long skirts, but I liked my jeans as well. I didn't like the fact that they told you what type of music you could listen to or what church to attend. There are some thing that I still have a problem with, but a young person need disciplne. I just stayed at home in my own little world. At that times I was dreaming about being on the radio. I stayed home from September to February. I got really sick in November. My tonsils got infected and had swollen up to be the size of golf balls. It took me a while to recover from that illness. Meanwhile Dan Blaney had made arrangements for me to come to the radio station and see him and then I went to the vocational school to meet with Dick Calloway. I had no idea if I could do radio. My mom wasn't even sure. All Mr. Calloway said was time will tell.
At seventeen I would not have known how to handle love. I don't even have a romantic relationship until I was twenty one. I was a little slow. in that department. In 1985, the year that the class had their ten year reunion, I ran into one of my classmates who was working at Stone & Thomas. As we talked about classmates, we talked about the high school girls with clear skinned smiles. One in particular had gained a lot of weight. She had gained about fifty pounds and had went through a divorce. As I told Matt some of those who thought they were special found out that real life is not like high school. Nobody cares who your parents are. Some people will latch on to you for what they can get. If they did they song called "At 37", I learned the truth at 37 it doesn't really matter how you look or what you do. You learn a lot about you. By the time I reached 37, I had figured out that trying to make myself over for a man was useless. They would have to take me for what I was. I developed this "what you see is what you get attitude". I did fix myself up dressing well, but if I wanted jewelry, I ordered it. If I wanted to go somewhere I went. I didn't wait for someone to take me. I read the book "Why Do I think I am Nothing Without a Man". If a man was going to be interested in me, he was going to work at it as hard as I was. No more waiting by the phone or calling to see if we could do something. That worked with Matt. He was the kind of man who didn't want a clingy person at all. He wanted someone he could talk intelligently with , a person who read books.
At seventeen I learned that I really didn't know anything about anything. I had just enough knowledge to be dangerous. I was just a deer in the headlights at seventeen. I wonder what Janis Ian thinks of that song. She proberly goes to the bank and cashes the check from BMI she get every month on royalities the song has made and never thinks about the impact that song had on insercure people like me that were seventeen at the time.
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