First Boy Friend

This cute young fellow was my first boy friend. I was probably a junior in high school when this was taken. It would have been in the early 1940's and, of course, the war was probably at it's height. Rog had quit school and enlisted in the Marines and this was on one of his furloughs home. We never got together again after he was out of the service. It has been so long ago. I think Rog became a barber and I know he married a girl that went to our school also.

When I think back to my high school days, it was almost as if I were somewhat oblivious to the war going on. My dad was to old to go and my brother too young, so no one I loved was away. Teenagers in the 40's were not nearly as savvy as they are in this day and age. I feel that the major reason for that is television and the instant and constant communication of today. I don't think I ever read much of the newspaper back then except for Brenda Starr and Lil Abner. There was no television and the only time you "saw" any news was if you got to go to the movies once in a while and then you would get to see the newsreels. That would have been probably at the most three times a month. My, what a different world it was. Actually, we were conscious of what was happening - there were young men from the community who died in the war and that was so sad. Rationing was real - no new tires, meat and gas were rationed, sugar stamps, shoe stamps, and many items were not obtainable anymore. I think there were two cars - other than teacher's cars - that were parked at the school. The Fink brothers who lived in the country sometimes drove an old car held together with baling wire, and Buzzie, a good friend of mine in my class, occasionally drove his parents' car to school. One other set of brother's had a very old car they called "the Whippet" that they would drive sometimes.

I can remember V-J day in August of 1945. Between my junior and senior year, I worked in Peoria at Newberry's, a 5 and 10 cent store. Would take the White Star Bus every morning to make the approximately 20 mile trip between Rome and Peoria. That night instead of going home on the bus we usually did, some of us girls took the latest bus home. There was a huge crowd in the streets downtown - people were throwing baloons of water from building windows, it was mayhem and fun. That was just before my 17th birthday. Wow, eons ago.

From living with no bathroom, no telephone and going to a one room school, I have seen a multitude of changes both in my personal life and life all around me in the almost 82 years I have been alive. And I have no complaints!