Go

The adolescents in the sixties consisted largely of two types until the hip era showed its ugly head. One type was exemplified by the tough girl who used "go" as a verb. That is "go"as a synonym for say. Not "now that it is time for my confirmation it is time to go my Hail Mary". Rather in the sense that teenagers describe verbal conversations involving parents, teachers, sisters, boy friends and others. Usually described in homeroom class by young teenage girls who had to run into class before the bell rang before they finished their cigarettes.

So my mother goes, "So you're going out again without finishing your homework".
And then my father goes, "You should be getting better grades".
Then my brother goes, "I aced that class when I took it two years ago".
And then I go, "Yeah but I didn't have my ass in my shirt like you did."
And then my mother goes....

Then there was her boyfriend, the underlying cause of the conflict in the preceding vignette. He was good at sports but couldn't get into varsity because his grades were too low. On weekends he managed to obtain beer from New York, where the drinking age was eighteen. He was best avoided in the rush from class to class. He couldn't, however, be avoided in gym class, which were arranged in an apparently arbitrary manner.



Of course, every school also had its "goody two shoes". This type was in the Honor Society, the Key Club, and practiced for his one varsity sport, perhaps tennis. These young people would go to good schools and be your bosses when you got older. They would generally be successful at the game of life, though multiple marriages would reduce their net worth.

The rougher boys had cars that they worked on. The "goody two shoes" had to borrow the family car.


With the social upheavals beginning in the mid sixties, a new crowd of hip intellectuals emerged in high school. Bound for good colleges like the "goody two shoes" and occasionally using go as a synonym for say (to show their street creds) they got good grades but were not trusted by their teachers. They were too hip for their own good. In tenth grade, I was basically a "goody two shoes" but had aspirations to join the hip intellectual crowd.