Were you part of the popular crowd in high school?

Yes, it was common for the XC captain to be home coming king.

Yep. Despite not drinking and such. And not best grades but easiest efforts for above-average grades. Juggled sports, job, school and socializing.

Turned nerdy after high school, make probably only top-10% money but had a great ride so far (going towards 40).

I'm definitely the "anecdote king".

Applying endurance is key, and no reluctance to do base work.

And to have a longer-than-short-term attention span.

isdkdsrjjf wrote:

Yep. Despite not drinking and such. And not best grades but easiest efforts for above-average grades. Juggled sports, job, school and socializing.

Turned nerdy after high school, make probably only top-10% money but had a great ride so far (going towards 40).

I'm definitely the "anecdote king".

Applying endurance is key, and no reluctance to do base work.

And to have a longer-than-short-term attention span.

You were never popular. I promise, NEVER!

Some lunatic wrote:

Yes, it was common for the XC captain to be home coming king.

At least where I am from, the home coming king is never really what you would consider a "popular kid." It is usually a kid that is kind of a nice guy but also a bit of a dork.

If you're cool, you go to prom for about 5 minutes before you head to the field party.

Yes, i won all of the popularity contests in school.

It's not hard in a graduating class of 30. All you had to do to hang with the popular crowd was not be weird or a druggie. To be higher up within the ranks required athleticism and at least mediocre looks. Then if you had that and weren't a jackass to people you get made prom king.

thatt guy wrote:

Yes, i won all of the popularity contests in school.

It's not hard in a graduating class of 30. All you had to do to hang with the popular crowd was not be weird or a druggie.

Which is weird because in my class of 392 over 95% of males smoked pot. The soccer and tennis teams were notorious for getting high before games and they were essentially the core of the popular crowd.

Nope as an urban youth we tended to band by neighborhood rather than HS. Of the 3 dozen or so core group I bet we had 16-18 HSs represented. We were pretty inclusive our oddballs were our oddballs and we protected and defended them...razzed the crap out of them ourselves... but any outsider suffered a cruel fate of they bothered one of our own.

class color = tie dye wrote:

thatt guy wrote:

Yes, i won all of the popularity contests in school.

It's not hard in a graduating class of 30. All you had to do to hang with the popular crowd was not be weird or a druggie.

Which is weird because in my class of 392 over 95% of males smoked pot. The soccer and tennis teams were notorious for getting high before games and they were essentially the core of the popular crowd.

A sub group of the popular crowd smoked occasionally. Before games would have been a no-no.

inna ciddy yoot wrote:

Nope as an urban youth we tended to band by neighborhood rather than HS. Of the 3 dozen or so core group I bet we had 16-18 HSs represented. We were pretty inclusive our oddballs were our oddballs and we protected and defended them...razzed the crap out of them ourselves... but any outsider suffered a cruel fate of they bothered one of our own.

The kids in your neighborhood went to 16-18 different high schools? Seriously?

Had about 300 in our class. The most popular were basketball and football players and cheerleaders, but they also had to be humble and smart. Hung out with lots of them and we were all pretty much friends, but I was never considered among the most popular. At best a 20% or 30% ranking if there were such a thing.

No, and I wore my exclusion from the popular crowd as a badge of honor. Never strive to be popular, ever.

no I was not in the popular crowd in hs

but funny story - a genuine member of that crowd just visited my city and we went for a run - it was a very strange convo because everything had switched - in HS she was the queen and all...but now I was clearly doing far better in just about every way.

So I'd say something jokey about how one reason I loved my city is that it is like revenge of the nerds...and she took it as a criticism of her.

and she said she was a little mean in hs.

anyway - it was a strange encounter but brought back so much of the weirdness of hs.

everything flips so completely once we become adults.

"a genuine member of that crowd just visited my city and we went for a run"

In order to evaluate your story, can you explain the series of events that caused this to happen?

lkae0=934 wrote:

"a genuine member of that crowd just visited my city and we went for a run"

In order to evaluate your story, can you explain the series of events that caused this to happen?

tough crowd but ok

facebook - she's a strong and dedicated facebooker and we've stayed in touch that way. We were both on the xc team in hs and cheered each other on for races etc the last few years, along with other people who are still running. She let me know she was visiting my town and we set up a run.

Was never really in the "in" crowd, although I could get to a party or two. I did notice that as I started getting better race results and name on morning announcements, I'd catch a good job or good luck from random people here and there.

In a class of about 450 I was never in the popular crowd. In my high school, that sort of status could be achieved only by virtue of perceived wealth and obvious good looks. I was average looking, at best, and the only money I had was earned from a paper route.

That said, I managed not to be completely ostracized by the "in" crowd. Despite not being a big-shot football or basketball player myself, some of the guys who were on those teams also ran track and were able to respect me for my slightly-better-than-average ability. I also had a pretty hot girlfriend and people (correctly) assumed I was getting laid, so the popular guys could appreciate that fact and the popular girls were curious enough not to look down upon me.

Yes, I was popular plus I could start the juke box by hitting it with my fist.

I went to my 10th reunion with my girlfriend who became my wife and also 25th. Her perception was that people liked me. As a soph I pretty much felt like an outcast, but my friends were among the smartest in the school. Not necessarily the most popular but respected. That rubbed off some and by the time I was a senior I became more outgoing.

One thing, I didn't drink in high school and almost everyone did.

fishface wrote:

inna ciddy yoot wrote:

Nope as an urban youth we tended to band by neighborhood rather than HS. Of the 3 dozen or so core group I bet we had 16-18 HSs represented. We were pretty inclusive our oddballs were our oddballs and we protected and defended them...razzed the crap out of them ourselves... but any outsider suffered a cruel fate of they bothered one of our own.

The kids in your neighborhood went to 16-18 different high schools? Seriously?

NYC late 50's early 60's.

We still had boy's only and girls only HSs and a very strong Catholic HS sysrem- with various flavors of Catholic Mariots, Jusuits Christian Bros, Sisters of this and that as Katharine Ann Victoria K. always answered Sisters of the Perpetual Bleeding Hands Of Mercy Academy ;)- I remember that from 55 years ago- last time I watered the plants--- not so much.

The Catholic girls in the group who went to girls onlys went to Cathedral, Marymount, St Vincent Ferrer, Scared Heart, Dominican Academy-oh Sweet Lorraine, St Jean's, Cathedral and Sacred Heart were represented in my friends. And there were many more. On the public side girls Catholics included went to Julia Richmond.

The new Cardinal Spellman was co-ed opened while I was in HS

Regis, All Hollows, Hayes, Fordham Prep for the Catholic guys

The Public side had Special Test Schools Bklyn Tech-me, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant. Vocational Schools off the top of my head; Haupt went to Manh Technical or was it Machine&Metal Trades with John Carlos on 96th , HS of Printing, SS John Brown the HS ship for merchant marine or USNavy training. HS of Aviation but I did not know any one who went.

Bonnie Bedelia or was it her sister Candice who went to Professional Children's school. Felice and her partner Erika got kicked out of Spence, Dalton and a couple more for the BIG MONEY $chool$.

The Keller twins went to Jewish Theological Seminary HS or whatever it was called.

We had Ben Franklin and HS of Commerce-me again- as regular enrollment HSs offering both a Commercial diploma- secretarial and business accounting type stuff and a Academic diploma. If you were college bound- only 15-20% of kids then (before the draft)- you tested for a State Regents Diploma.

So yeah my off the top of the head was accurate for schools but my group was larger because I had a group of friends from the Skating Club and by propinquity the Figure Skating kids at Wollman Rink that was even more diverse than the neighborhood gang since they came from all over the city. - and not included in the school list.

Yeah my core group was bigger than I thought... plus it was before the pill lots of little brothers and sisters to account for too.

So amend that to two dozen HSs.

Now that was a trip down memory lane...