Way OT: Were you cool in school?

[Skinny]

I was just listening to "Wake Up Time" by Tom Petty. There is a line in the song that says, "You were so cool back in high school, what happened?".

 

I was kind of a nerd, but got along well with everyone most of the time. I guess that still holds true today.

 

The "cool" kids played sports and talked about sports and went to parties. I didn't. Monday mornings often consisted of the kids talking about how drunk they got on Saturday night. I saved my drinkin' for college, baby!

 

And of course, being in concert band and choir wasn't cool! I was "forced" to be in band and choir from 5th grade until I graduated high school. I hated it then; now I wish I'd have tried harder. Same goes for piano lessons...

 

What about you? Were you cool? Popular?

[timwat]

Not cool. Not popular. Some things don't change from high school.

[Ken Beaumont]

It was the 70's I was too stoned to remember

I woke up one day at 20 yrs, and decided my "friends" were part of the problem. I left Michigan and joined the Air Force. I consider that when my life actually began.

[Bill H.]

I vaulted from "not cool" to "way cool" as soon as I formed my first rock band my junior year in high school. We started playing school functions and local dances almost immediately.

 

That experience made me who I am today - for better or worse.

[Tonysounds]

I thought I was cool.most of the rest of high school did not. Although as people have been reintroduced into my life, I have found that I wasnt as un-revered as I thought. I never really collected friends (its quality not quantity), and most people fall into the acquaintance category. Im lucky enough to call a few people from this list my friends. The friends I had in high school are still my friends today and we talk at least every few weeks if not more often. But I would never think the majority of my class thought I was cooleven though I knew I was.

[linwood]

You bet. I was in the marching band.

[Skinny]

You bet. I was in the marching band.

 

Our marching band kinda sucked. At least in comparison to a few years before me, when by older brother (a percussionist/drummer) was in high school. The band director that was there at the time was a former Marine and had the best damn marching band the school had ever seen.

[Adan]

I was going to write something about myself, but then started thinking through all the permutations and definitions of "cool," and my perceptions versus those of others, etc.. and then came to the conclusion that it would require a short novel to do this topic right. Ah . . . life.

 

Bringing it a little less OT, I would hazard the generalization that keyboard players are fair to middlin' on the coolness scale in high school. Certainly higher than the guys with bad hair cuts carrying trombones, but far from sharing the rarified airs of coolness enjoyed by the guitar players and drummers. In the end, there is justice, because guitar players are a dime a dozen in the real world. And drummers, well . . . 'nuff said!

[Skinny]

I should have added in my original post that, when I was a freshman in HS, I was 98 pounds, 5'1" tall, and had to sit on a pillow to drive in my car (driving age in SD is 14 - scary!)

 

I didn't grow until after my first year of college. Now I'm about 6'3", although still skinny, hence my username. I got picked on a little bit in school for being a 98 pound weakling. I used humor as a defense mechanism; I guess I still do. My middle brother was also short all through high school - he had short-man syndrome. Little smartass, he was.

[linwood]

You bet. I was in the marching band.

 

Our marching band kinda sucked. At least in comparison to a few years before me, when by older brother (a percussionist/drummer) was in high school. The band director that was there at the time was a former Marine and had the best damn marching band the school had ever seen.

 

Ours wasn't the greatest either. I was being funny there. When I think back though, I learned so much from my band director. I had him from 5th grade on. So much of what I do today I learned because our paths crossed and he took interest and showed me things. Great guy.

[ProfD]

Yeah, I was cool. But, not for being a jock or musician. Just based on personality. Even that is weird because I take pride in being antisocial.

[DanS]

Being a musician helped a little. Whenever we did a variety show, there'd always be a lot of stares & thumbs up from the girls & guys Monday morning. High school was very cliquish though, and I didn't fit in with any of the groups.

Like ProfD, I was (still am) on the anti-social side.

[Cygnus64]

I was how I am today: reclusive. Didn't have a lot of friends, didn't have enemies. Didn't do dances, games, the mall, pretty much did school from 8-3 M-F except for any music stuff. Made the football team in 8th grade in a big football town, so that gave me a grudging acceptance from the jock crowd in later years. Was a stoner, but didn't act like one. Dated an "A list" girl in 11th and 12th grade. If I achieved "cool" status, I was too indifferent to care.

 

OT: When I was a senior, I asked a freshman trustingly if I "reeked" of pot. He told the teacher. I picked on the kid. I wasn't horrible, I didn't fight him or do anything overtly dumb, but I just kinda harrassed him a bit. Eventually a teacher called us in and said "stop it" and I did. A few months ago, I found the kid (now 42) online and wrote him an apology letter.

 

 

[Adan]

Even that is weird because I take pride in being antisocial.

 

That is central irony of high school "coolness." Wanting it is incompatible with achieving it.

[Skinny]

You bet. I was in the marching band.

 

Our marching band kinda sucked. At least in comparison to a few years before me, when by older brother (a percussionist/drummer) was in high school. The band director that was there at the time was a former Marine and had the best damn marching band the school had ever seen.

 

Ours wasn't the greatest either. I was being funny there. When I think back though, I learned so much from my band director. I had him from 5th grade on. So much of what I do today I learned because our paths crossed and he took interest and showed me things. Great guy.

 

Sounds like the director I was referring to. My brother HATED school, and the director was the main motivation for bro remaining in school. One time he told my bro, "You're the best damn drummer I know!"

 

 

[Skinny]

A few months ago, I found the kid (now 42) online and wrote him an apology letter.

 

 

Now he can cross you off his "list".

[NoahZark]

I wouldn't describe myself as "cool" in high school, but I certainly took some pride in being able to hang successfully with a variety of crowds. I played football, so I could hang with the jocks. I took mostly honors classes and worked on the school paper, so I could hang with the smart kids. And I played in bands and did some theater, so I could hang with the artsy types. The only group I didn't mesh with was the drug crowd. Just wasn't hip to that scene. It was the mid-80s, and I guess Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" message was working with me....

 

Noah

[mate stubb]

I was known as "the musician". Played in marching, concert and stage band, accompanied choirs and musicals, and had a band. Played at most of my school dances instead of attending them.

 

I have run into a few classmates in the last few years, and found that they still remembered. So music was a way of standing out, but I didn't really feel cool at the time - just confident.

[Cygnus64]

A few months ago, I found the kid (now 42) online and wrote him an apology letter.

 

 

Now he can cross you off his "list".

He's now my "Facebook Friend". He was very appreciative and apologized too. It was the right thing to do, I had looked him up before but never found him until recently.

[Dana.]

I was too cool for school.

[allan_evett]

Cool in school ? Not my first two years: kind of nerdy, bit of a recluse, very small group of friends - none of us 'cool', and not too concerned about that.

Junior and senior year things changed, largely due to my involvement in the music / theater department. Was in the concert and marching bands (French Horn, and Trumpet); started playing keyboards, etc.. However my rather strange sense of humor, at the time, put a somewhat low ceiling on my 'coolness factor'....

 

[Joe Muscara]

I didn't think so. However, someone that I reconnected with on FB told me that me and a friend of mine "ran" the school back in the day. I wish I had known that!

[Outkaster]

No not at all. I played in a serious marching band that did fall field show competition in the fall. We were state champs twice. We also went and won the Boston and New York marching competitions in 1984 and 1985 of out of 1000 units. At that time being in music was not cool but I fought back once I was in junior year because a bully that thought he was cool and started shit with me outside the bandroom. Well I got some respect after that and I did not want to fight but kids are cruel. I always studied martial arts outside of school and not many people new anything about it because I kept it quiet. I was always thinking that what happened to me would not matter in 25 years and I was right. I remember going to my HS 20th reunion in 2006. People were still jerks and in their little clicks.

Being a musician is not popular but I have a separate income and bigger than most of those kids now, not that it matters. It is strange seeing them on facebook now. It was so long ago but not being catholic in a catholic junior high and high school was tough. I still think of it now once in awhile.

[Michelle ggurl]

Interesting question ... I don't really know if I was or wasn't. I had my close friends, got along with pretty much everyone else, felt lonely lots of the time even though I went to parties just about every weekend and was surrounded by my peers most of the waking day, except when I did homework (rare; figured out how to get it all done in classes and hardly took anything home) or practiced piano (at least a little everyday). Some kids thought I was a dork for taking piano lessons. Most others didn't care or thought it was cool that I could play. I knew the band kids and would sometimes play bass or keys in the band room at lunch, but by sophomore year I was partying and cutting school a lot. So unless goth-tinged angst and universal shallow acceptance is considered cool, I wasn't.

 

Funny thing about Facebook: I've reconnected with a LOT of my old classmates there ... never went to a school-sponsored reunion, but we've done a few FB-initiated BBQs where lots (in the hundreds sometimes) of people showed up, including their families. And I have to say, everone seems pretty cool, for the most part. We all grew up and recognize that. Sure, the people who hung together at school spend the most time visiting with each other at these events, but that's what you'd expect since they have a lot to catch up on. But I think the fact that the contact started on FB, where people are casually in touch continually, gives it a different vibe. I still have no desire to go to a school-sponsored function, but I get together with some of these old friends whenever I get a chance, which isn't often since we all have "grown-up" lives with families, etc.

[drawback]

 

I would like to personally thank Mike Smith, Alan Price, Felix Cavaliere, Matthew Fisher, Steve Winwood, Booker T, Billy Preston, Jon Lord and Ray Manzarek.

 

Before they showed up, there was a large black hole of uncoolness if you were a piano player.

 

 

 

 

[ksoper]

Definitely uncool. I played church organ. I also played percussion in the marching band, but we've already determined band wasn't cool. I discovered in my senior year, however, that I could entertain at parties by performing original songs about the high school faculty with obscene lyrics. We drank, stood around the piano, and sang filthy songs. Big fun.

 

But all the cool kids I knew peaked in high school. About four or five years ago one of the younger musicians on the bus made a remark about me being cool and how they hoped they were as cool when they were my age. Made my day.

 

 

[Moonglow]

Kind of like Noah, I was all over the place. I played baseball so I sort of could hang with the jocks (although at my school, football was the religion), I achieved good grades (once voted "most scholastic student") so the geeks liked me, I played in a band ("The Sixth Round") which resulted a degree of notoriety, and I participated in the talent show as a magician! While I occasionally dabbled in some illicit recreational activities, I never really went to a lot of parties. Overall, my popularity was probably slightly above-average. I couldn't really be classified, which I think confused people. So I mostly hung out with my two or three closest friends, and during my Junior and Senior year, my girlfriend Valerie.

[Jim Alfredson]

I haven't read the rest of the replies, but I'll just chime in with a hearty "fuck no" to answer the question. I was anything but cool in H.S.

[SK]

I just went to a high school reunion last week. It was... fun!

I was a pretty good student but I wasn't "all that conscious" in high school. More like 'a fetus with shoes' until my senior year, when I was catapulted to weird celebrity status and enigma of being a 'musician'.

[RABid]

I didn't think so then, but thinking back now... I think I had lunch at the cool table every day.

 

There was the 5'11" 250 lb black center of the women's basketball team. (nationally ranked)

Her gay twin brother.

The pretty, white girl next door type who had no clue how pretty she was.

The drummer who talked like a hillbilly, had a GPA under the radar, and always scored top of the class on aptitude tests. (Me)

 

In the 70's we were a strange mix. Now we would not just be cool, we would be a TV show.