On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

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Kids today can wear just about anything they want to at school – when I was at Somerville High School in the late 60’s and early 70’s, we had a ‚Äúdress code.‚Äù No jeans, or dungarees, as we called them back then. We were at the height of the ‚Äúhippie‚Äù era – all the boys had long hair and all the girls wore mini-skirts. Some of us even wore beads‚Ķreally! Those that could grow sideburns grew them.

We also had many things to be angry about – and at the top of the list was the war in Vietnam. There was always the underlying threat of ‚Äúif you flunk out of high school, you will be drafted.‚Äù Today’s school kids have the threat of not graduating because of MCAS hanging over them.

In 1967, Buffalo Springfield gave us the anthem: ‚ÄúFor What it’s Worth.‚Äù The exact words were: ‚Äúthere’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear‚Ķyoung people speaking their minds, getting so much resistance from behind.‚Äù

Back then we had lots of ways to speak our minds. Somerville High had a math club, a science club, glee clubs, the national honor society and lots of sports organizations. At some point, another student organization was formed‚Ķthey called it the ‚ÄúCommittee of Concerned Students‚Äù, or CCS for short. It was Somerville ‘s version of the SDS, which stood for ‚ÄúStudents for a Democratic Society.‚Äù It attracted not only the truly concerned students, but also the rabble-rousers and hangers-on – like me. My little longhaired, beaded and dungareed click would do anything to get out of class, so when the CCS was formed, we were ripe for the picking.

We even published our own newspaper called ‘The Inside Agitator.‚Äù I wrote a column that included some pretty vulgar stuff – one of the titles was: ‚ÄúI’m Sick Of This S- – t!‚Äù Thank God my father never saw it. Stephen Stills and the boys sang: ‚Äúthere’s battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong‚Ķyoung people speaking their minds‚Ķ‚Äù Yes, we spoke our minds, alright, but like I said, we’d do anything to get out of a class.

One winter, the furnaces were not working correctly at the High School, yet they expected us to continue to attend class – enter The CCS! We decided that if there was no heat, there would be no classes, so we walked out! I actually think we gave them two issues for the price of one, because we were angry about the dress code too. One of us (I won’t mention any names) sauntered into the main office and commandeered the public address system: ‚ÄúHey, this is ****** from the Committee of Concerned Students, everyone’s walking out of school‚Ķlet’s go! Down with the dress code! No Heat No school! Right On!‚Äù To which, a certain high-ranking school faculty member replied: ‚ÄúWait until I call your Father!‚Äù Ooohhh‚Ķnot that!

When we walked out, the cops, the press and a few TV cameras showed up. I remember turning my head away from a camera in case my parents were watching – I wasn’t afraid of the High School faculty, but I didn’t want to mess with my dad. I remember kids were actually jumping out the windows (on the first floor, of course) – it was great!

I don’t remember how long we stayed out, but it was one of the most exciting parts of my High School experience. ‚ÄúWhat a field-day for the heat. A thousand people in the street, singing songs and carrying signs, mostly say – hooray for our side.‚Äù Actually, it was a field day for the ‚Äúno heat.‚Äù Nan’s Sub shop across the street from the High School did better than usual that day. I’m sure some of you will remember some more details.

Buffalo Springfield sang it, and we lived it. ‚ÄúI think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound everybody look what’s going down.‚Äù  Yes, we went down the stairs and out the doors of SHS any chance we could get.

So what’s ‚Äúgoing down‚Äù today in 2008? Hopefully interest rates and my cholesterol.

Please e-mail your Project Star, Sunsetters and Somerville Players stories to jimmydel@rcn.com for an upcoming story.