On my first day of first grade the principal gave me a personal tour of the school, introducing me to all the teachers and letting them know who my parents were. I wondered why only me. Back in the classroom another girl was greeted with "I know you Nelson's and your tricks. I'll be watching you. Don't try anything." My mother explained this disparity. I had educated, professional parents; she came from the wrong side of the tracks. Decades later I ran into a former classmate who told me that everyone knew that I was the only one who would make it to college. Classism was alive in Beverly, Massachusetts in the 50s...
...And in Veazie, Maine in the 90s. This time my family was on the wrong side of the tracks or, in more popular parlance, trailer park trash. Kids from "better" neighborhoods were rarely allowed to visit Greystone peers for events as harmless as a first grade birthday party. I will never forget the school event at which a mom publicly called my beautiful, intelligent eight-year-old daughter a little trailer park trash and the other parents AND TEACHERS said nothing.
So in retrospect I'm amazed that I never read S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders when it first dropped or when Amber read it in middle school. This year, scouring yard sales for books to add to my emergency stash, I found a 1995 edition with bonus material by the author. Then serendipitously I ran out of library books. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter.
Ponyboy, Hinton's narrator, is an orphan. Because their parents died in a car accident, he lives with his older brothers. Darry, the eldest, works two jobs and does his best to parent his siblings. He's always on Ponyboy's case for one thing or another. Sodapop, the middle brother, is much more easy for Ponyboy to get along with.
The brothers are part of a larger informal family, the Greasers. They do their best to meet each other's needs and protect one another. This often involves rumbling with the Socs (short for Socials), the ultra privileged teens who view Greasers with contempt and animosity.
When Ponyboy and his close friend, Johnny, talk to Cherry and Marcia, girlfriends of Socs members, they are later jumped by the girls' boyfriends. The fight gets out of hand.
"'Johnny!' I nearly screamed. 'What are we gonna do? They put you in the electric chair for killing people.'"
The plot is intense as are the characters and their relationships. The unfairness of the Socs having more material resources, connections, and social capital than the struggling to survive Greasers is very infuriating. The Outsiders is an excellent thought and feeling provoking coming of age story for the more mature YA reader, as relevant today as when it was hot off the press.
On a purrrsonal note, I had an incredible Saturday. Eugene and I had an excellent breakfast at Governors. At noon we went to Amber and Brian's place for a family get together. Katie, Jacob, Adam, Brian's mom, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were also there. Brian had a great variety of pizzas 🍕--everybody's favorites. I contributed home baked cookies. We all had a great time together chatting and eating. Time spent with my children 💕 💓 💖 ❤️ 💗 is so precious!!! Then I went to a Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund event at my church. People had contributed items they no longer needed. People could browse and take what they wanted, extending the useful life of the items. The atmosphere was festive. People were so happy. There was such a variety of items: a racing bike, a weed whacker, a sewing machine (which I took home) , clothes, shoes, jewelry, kitchen stuff, games, books, home grown veggies, dozens of boxes of Girl Scout cookies, and so much more. People are asking when the next one will be. Hopefully soon.
A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in both events.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my Galaxy
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