Ahh Youth!

Ahh Youth! was Originally Posted on April 1, 2014 by lavarock

A friend posted a link to a video on Facebook, more of a link to a text video with music (In the Still Of The Night). The video reminds us of things we did as a child BEFORE cellphones, video games and the internet. It covers such things as jump rope, hide and go seek, having parent stand on the front porch and whistle when it was time to come home for dinner, etc.

Yes, it brings back memories for many people, just not for me.

Oh I had my share of memories but they were a far cry from those most people have. You see, I was “institutionalized”, errr, let me re-phrase that, I went to private school when I was young. The private school was a military academy and although tv shows and movies make it sound like a prison, it wasn’t like that. Well, not too much

From age 12 to 18+ I attended a school in the country, not far from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. You may know the area as somewhat near where the fictional “Walton’s Mountain” was, although that would have been a bit further west of us.

Many buildings and barracks were set next to a country road, a small town and cow pastures. Not a lot of places to get into trouble. Just 665 of us sent to a private school, some for different reasons. Some were there to get better grades, some were sent there because they were unmanageable and some, unfortunately, because their parents didn’t “need” them around the house. Perhaps the parents were travelers, or getting a divorce or whatever.

Some attendees were from foreign countries, some had parents who were diplomats, some were related to actors or actresses and many came from all walks of life. Some parents struggled to afford to send their boy there and some had no problems at all.

Because we all wore uniforms, the differences between our families financial status and so on was eliminated.

Some kids started as young as 5th grade and it didn’t matter how young your were, many were away from home for the first time. Many were homesick the first few days, some longer. For those at the very young age there was a housemother who would help care for the youngest. She was available to talk to, she helped them along the path to becoming independent.

Grades 5-8 were kept separate somewhat from the older kids who were attending grades 9-12. This was similar to junior high and high school being separate schools with different teachers and different goals. At times both schools would merge for parades and to eat, yet were still segregated in different areas just because it made sense. There were different teachers and officers for the two groups. That is not to say that an officer for the upper school could not correct a junior school cadet, however they kept in mind that the junior school cadet may not have the maturity that the upper school cadets had at the same time.

So what you had was kids being sent to a school far away (often many states or countries away), being corrected and taught with a military slant of learning. The students (cadets) learned to march, to say “sir” and “ma’am”, to respect authority (even if that authority was younger than themselves). They were expected to conduct themselves with pride and to follow rules and learn consequences for their actions.

This particular school had a religious background, however religion was not the main point of the school. You were taught that there was a balance in your life between some higher power and yourself. If you were of alternate faiths there might be options for you to attend local churches, etc.

So what are some of the differences between this type of life and what you might have had as a kid?

You might have received an allowance for doing chores. You parents might have called you from the porch for dinner. You might have skipped school sometimes. You may have heard kids in the school disrespect their teachers. You may have been a member of your schools sports team.

We had things a bit different. We would all wake up to a bugle sounding, get cleaned up, dressed and then stand in formation. Soon we marched into the mess hall where we quietly sat down. There might be announcements for the day and then breakfast was served. We did eat! bacon,cereal, eggs, toast, jam, grits, biscuits, juice, milk, water and coffee.

After breakfast we returned to our rooms and made sure they were clean. They might be inspected while we weer in class.

Class was most of the morning with a short period for chapel.

The lunch procedure was similar to the breakfast procedure.

After lunch we might have a short class, have drill formations or be left to entertain ourselves. During the later part of the year we would have Sunday parades for the parents.

We were luckier than most when it came to activities. We had an olympic-sized swimming pool so there was diving and swimming lessons, there was weightlifting, football, basketball, baseball, riflery, tennis, golf, track, and many other physical activities. There were the literary associations, book club, radio club, model plane club, drama club and the list went on. One of your teachers might me your club sponsor.

Oftentimes we would lie out in the sun at the “beach” while the younger kids might play “mumblety-peg” (a game with a small pen knife). Some of us would grab a board game and go sit in the PX (a malt-shop type place) with the jukebox blaring a song and us drinking soda from the bottle. Games such as Stratego and Battleship were common.

If you were in the lower school, you would get an allowance handed to you after standing in line. I seem to remember that when you were in the upper school, you would just send home to Mom and Dad and await a letter in the mail.

We would head back to the barracks and get ready for dinner. Again with the formation and marching!

We then had 2 hour compulsory and supervised study hall.

Twice a week we had an opportunity to see movies. The lower school was required to go but upper school might be allowed to stay in the room and skip the movie. Still, many of us went anyway.

We then got ready and went to bed.

While it may sound quite different from what you had as a child, many of us are glad that we had the experience. I have met people from many other countries, and some of these people I went to school with I am still friends with 50 years later! How many friends have you had for 50 years? Even a few of the teachers are still around, although they are retiring. Some still live near and visit the school. The reason some teachers are still around is that many of them came right out of teachers college and were only perhaps 10 years older than some of us.

The school started an alumnae association the year I graduated and although many military academies have closed down, this one is still going strong. It was founded in 1898 by the way. Yes there are new buildings and in fact they recently removed many old barracks and replaced them with a giant state-of-the-art building wired with internet and VOIP telephones.

Many notable people and athletes have graduated from the school and many have said that they are who they are today because of the structure and discipline they learned while there. Yes, Congressmen, Actors, Olympians, Air Force General, Heisman Trophy winners and slackers like me