We graduated shortly before the so-called "sexual revolution."  In this paragraph the mother of a boy and girl who would graduate in the mid 1960s looks around her at the Pavilion and worries for her daughter.  (From a letter I received when I was studying in England in 1962). I've left out the real names.

-----------------------  

The beachhead races this year and did it up gay.  The kids had a real good time.  Greased watermelon, and poles, the new tilting and metals for the winners.  I wish more time were spent creating memories and less time holding down hoodlums.  I know we don't want to be slaves to the youth but there must be a happy medium someplace.  There seem to be so many kids that just hang around the beach, they don't swim, sail, they just sit on the benches, smoke and neck.  Maybe they are lacking vitamins and haven't the energy to move but someone's going to get a bad burn playing with those two kinds of fire.  One tries not to plead innocent to everything the kids do but even as dumb as we were at 14 we knew that a little went a long way or else a girl was going to find herself in a situation where she had to make decisions and we were all cowards.

 I guess we didn't want to get in that spot.  I guess these kids enjoyed walking along sheer cliffs for kicks, but 14 seems a bit young to go around tempting fellows to take the plunge.  Maybe we are retreating to the old days where one was grown at 16 and old at 30.  I have a feeling that these kids will make a fool out of themselves at 40 trying to get back the years they gobbled up in a hurry, if the powers that be think women are bad now chasing the eternal pot of youth, I don't think they have seen anything yet.

 D---- is at camp this week and the house is like a morgue.  I am considering starting another because I don't think I could take this day in and day out for the next hundred years or so.  A house without a kid is ghastly.  She is getting rather handsome Wally.  Her teeth are practically back in her figure is starting to fill out.  She's 5 foot three and all legs.  I heard a couple of the lifeguards commenting on how that would be a honey in a couple of years.  This one views with mixed emotions, partial fear and pride.  I guess that's why we should have children around, you tend to die a little emotionally without them, they keep you so conscious of what you feel.

-----------------------