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Show Younger generation always headed dowj the editor's column K In 1962, some people thought the younger generation was going to you-know-wherc in a handbasket. I know because I read it in a book called "Teen-age Tyranny" just the other night, when I was visiting a friend who was too busy to visit. So I rummaged through the bookshelf. I could tell the book was old -- it only cost 50 cents. It's been a long time since you could get a paperback paper-back book for 50 cents. The book was published in 1902. That intrigued me. I was 11 then --just --just getting ready to become one of those teen tyrants. Actually I was already well into tyrant-hood. (I figure that starts at about three or four months, when the kid learns that if he or she bawls loud and long enough, the folks will do just about anything. Mine are all still bawling.) What worried the authors of this 1962 in-depth look at my generation? Pretty much the same things people are still worried about. For one thing, kids were growing up too fast, dating as early as 9 and 10 years old, with the blessings of their parents. I'm not sure if I lived in the same country as the people who wrote this book. I was 11 when this book was printed, and still hadn't been out on a date. In fact, if anyone had suggested I date a girl when I was 11,1 would have gagged in disgust. (Two years later it would have been another matter. I would have gagged from fear.) Not that the girls weren't interested. in-terested. They kept calling me up on the telephone. I kept hanging up. (Two years later, they had stopped calling. They never started again. So I called them. They kept hanging up.) This trend noted by the astute authors of "Teen-Age Tyranny" bypassed me entirely. But another concern of the authors did not. They noted that one sign of a rapidly deteriorating society was Ricky Nelson. On the other hand they Frank Sinatra, because altQf: had created similar reactions " audience as Elvis did, pra talent. And he was the same they were. Besides, the book66 about our generation, not il They had turned out all riBht 7" they. 8W'H Looking back, I'm not that teen idols had a whole lot t0 do how we turned out. Oh, sur ' listened to the music, and wenhn! mediocre movies they made I even used to go around act like James Dean, but I didn't ' feel it. And I liked Bob Dvlf music, I still do. But I never had hair cut like his was. 1,1 Today it's Madonna and Pri,. a little more extreme, to be sure all a part of marketing their inJ. But I don't see a lot of kids who really taken with these pJf beyond listening to their music , reading fan magazines. They make a lot of money bm . 20-odd years they'll be where idols of 1962 are now - jn produced lounge acts in Las VeJ evangalizing, showing up j, mediocre television series that baa. on washed up celebrities, or dead There were other concerns my generation expressed in ik book from 1962 - like our m occupation with sex. (Not mi mind you. We're talking about ; generation, here. Mine didn't sin' until two years later.) But they sounded to me like same old complaint that has Invoiced In-voiced for centuries -- basically the younger generation is going! you-know-where in a handbaskel. The amazing thing is, while wj; start that journey when we are laagers, la-agers, the generation never reaches the destination. On the whole, I thin'! the kids of 1962 turned out all right Now, the kids of today, that's another story .... that the Twist was being danced openly -- even by adults. Now the Twist was something that didn't get by me. I could out-Twist anyone in the sixth grade. (That's one of the reasons why the girls kept calling me on the telephone. Unfortunately, two years after the book was written, nobody did the Twist anymore. That's the reason why the girls quit calling me.) I don't know what the authors of the book would have thought if we'd been dancing the Monkey in 1962, or the Jerk, or the (gasp) Alligator, where the dancer got down on the floor and wiggled all around. (That one would stop a school dance in a minute.) Teen idols were another major concern in this book. The authors were particularly worried about Elvis Presley. But they criticized all of the Rock and Roll idols of the day -- Bobby Darin, Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Pat Boone (honest), and |