The Class of ‘65
By Alan King

Last month I went to my 35th High School Reunion. The Xenia High Class of 1965 has come a long way since those days when we were sent out upon an unsuspecting world. We represent almost every profession. We have spread out over nearly all of the United States. Most of us have been married at least once. We have scads of children and bunches of grandchildren.
Many of us are already retired or semi-retired. We have a few that went into the military soon after high school, retired after 20 years and then got a government job and retired again from that; the so called “double dippers.” Others still seem to be trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up. There is a soberingly long list of us who have died from natural and unnatural causes.
When we were kids in grade school, we could pick up enough money for a nickel candy bar or a dime comic book or a bottle of Nehi grape by scrounging around the house or the neighborhood for a few pop bottles and taking them down to Sherm’s or Latimer’s Market for the 2 cents deposit. For 35 cents we could go to a matinee at the Xenia Theater or the Ohio Theater downtown. We even had a “bottle club” in my neighborhood for a while until my mom found out about it and told us that it was begging to go around to the neighbors and ask them if they had any bottles in the garage they didn’t want.
In the fall of 1956 when we were in the 5th grade, Elvis went on the Ed Sullivan Show and our moms and dads talked about it for days. We couldn’t see what the big deal was all about. We continued to ride our bikes and go to the pool as usual. Occasionally, we worried about dying a horrible death from an atomic war. In Junior High, we called the older kids with the DA haircuts Greasers. They hung out at the Candy Kitchen next to Penney's.
When we were in the 9th grade, they moved our class into a new addition at the High School building. Warner Junior High wasn’t completed and the old Central Junior High couldn’t hold all of us. Our class alone was nearly 500 students. The baby boom had hit the Xenia school system. East High School was closed down and integration was in full swing.
We were Juniors when we heard that President Kennedy had been shot. School was canceled for a couple of days and we watched the news coverage of the funeral and the investigation in Dallas. We saw the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby broadcast live on TV.
The Beatles first US album “Meet the Beatles” came out in January of 1964. At first there was just a vague rumor about a band that wore their hair long and uncombed. “Mop Tops” they were called. Before long the radio was full of their music. We played that album so many times that we knew what the next song was before the last one had finished. Our parents hated it. We loved it.
The British Invasion was on: The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Who, The Animals, Spencer Davis, Petula Clark, The Yardbirds. The after-game dances at the Y were never the same. The twist was out and the monkey , the frug, and the mashed potato were in.
By the summer of ‘64 when we had our senior pictures taken, a few Beatle style haircuts were starting to show up, much to the consternation and disapproval of school officials. All the old rules were starting to come unraveled. One of my classmates was constantly getting in trouble because he refused to wear socks. He even went so far as to shave his ankles and paint them white with shoe polish to try to sneak by. He re-introduced himself to our classmates at the reunion last month by saying he still didn’t wear socks.
We graduated at a time when America was prosperous and attempting to defeat poverty, racism, and the Communists all at the same time. We were in a race with the USSR to land a man on the Moon. Lyndon Johnson was president, the new Mustang cost under $2400, a phone call was a dime, minimum wage was about $1.50. My first apartment cost $125 per month.
The Vietnam War was starting to heat up by this time and we were beginning to doubt that it was going to be over before we reached draftable age. Some got married to avoid the draft. More of us went to college for a deferment. Some volunteered to go. A few went to ‘Nam and didn’t come back alive. The war went on and on and got less and less popular. By 1968 there were anti-war riots in the streets and on college campuses. My deferments ran out in 1969 and I joined the ranks of the drafted a month after Americans landed on the Moon.
We formed our political opinions among war protests, the Watergate scandal, the oil boycott, and runaway inflation. Savings accounts went from paying 3% to paying 16% but home loans went from 6% to 18%. Great if you were retired and living on your savings but tough if you were just buying your first home. During the 80’s and 90’s we raised our families and made our livings. A greater than average number of us took the “All you need is Love” message of our teenage years to heart and took jobs with some higher meaning. Teachers, mental health professionals, nurses, policemen, social workers. We meditated, recycled, and went organic. We infiltrated the system and we changed it for the better.
Now our generation is running the country. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore and many more of our leaders are all within a year or two of our ages. I understand where they came from and I believe them when they say that they want America to be a better place. Our only problem now is the same one we always have in America ... choosing whom to trust with our futures.

 Return to Xenia Twp. Articles
If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to e-mail: king1075@sbcglobal.net