The Cliques

My high school classmates, like the stereotypical students from The Breakfast Club, fell into several groups, types, or whatever you want to call the students who gravitated to each other for whatever reason. Each group had its leaders and those leaders kept the groups together.

There was a group of audio/electronics/photography geeks who were fascinated by the workings of different types of speakers, sound boards, video cameras, etc. They were the ones who ran the announcements, took photos for the newspaper, and videoed all of the school's events. They knew every nook and cranny of the school and were known to play practical jokes with the school's PA system.

The drama kids were their friends, as they often hung out in the auditorium together for school plays and concerts. The drama kids lived in the bowels of the auditorium. They knew every hiding place to make out...and they did. Stories of secret trysts leaked out every time a play was in production.

Jocks, both male and female, were always in the gym and locker rooms after school and during study halls if they could get passes. I was a jock, plain and simple. It was thrilling to throw around a basketball instead of having to be quiet in study hall. My friend Marilyn and I would go to the gym whenever we could. It was a great place to check out the guys, who were very often shirtless, and admire the views. To see and be seen...that was the objective.

The cheerleaders were another clique. They were always practicing in the hallways in cold weather and outside in the grassy areas around the school in nice weather. They stuck together like glue and always went to the girls' rooms en masse, reciting the latest cheers and singing bawdy songs. Practice, practice, practice...check the make-up and hair! Must be perfect! I was actually a cheerleader my junior year...probably the most unpopular cheerleader of all time...who never ever had a date.

The jokers...practical and otherwise...were always plotting some new prank. My favorite prank was when someone let 2 chickens loose in the school lobby. My friend Marilyn and I were on our way to the gym when we spotted them. Suddenly, the vice principal, who was pretty wimpy, ran out of the office and tried to catch them. They squawked and ran all around, too fast for the short VP, eluding capture. At that moment, the door to the girls' locker room opened and the 6 ft tall girls' gym teacher strode out, reached out for the chickens, and one at a time shoved them out the lobby door. It was one of the funniest things I had seen in my high school career!

Lastly, the nerdy, engineering/math/science geeky kids...the guys with pocket protectors and pens and the girls who didn't care as much about their appearance as much as they cared about trying for med school. Despite their appearances, they were some of the funniest kids because they knew how to laugh at themselves. Their intelligence made them natural comedians and I was a proud member of this group. I never thought of myself as funny but somehow my brains helped get me into this group. We have all been successful since then...some of us became engineers, some are IT gurus, and some of us became research scientists.

Despite snail mail and phones for communication over the years, we are now beginning to reconnect through Facebook...and finding out that we are those same kids all over again.

The Breakfast Club

Last night I watched "The Breakfast Club" with Claire Danes, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, and Emilio Estevez. I have seen the movie before. Once, all the way through, and other times, I walked through the room while my kids were watching it. I must have been in a thoughtful mood because the pathos of the situation hit me hard. All of a sudden, I was back in school, facing all of those classmates with their very different personalities. Just like the students in detention, I felt the vulnerabilities that we all have, hiding deep in our psyches. I remembered the times when I felt humiliated for various things...not having expensive clothes, not having a winning personality, being a bookworm, being tongue-tied around boys that I liked...and I was suddenly that girl again. All of the old feelings came flooding back and I was sucked into the movie like I was part of it.

I knew all of the characters intimately. Every class has them. I thought of the people in my own class who were the people on the screen. The boy whose own homelife was so destructive that he had to bully others to make himself feel good. The nerdy kid who couldn't handle criticism or not being the best academically. The affluent girl who seemed to have everything but the love of her parents. The athlete who had to be the sports king to please his parents. The weird girl who hid behind her outrageous outfits and hair so her personality quirks didn't show. If I had to pick one of the personalities in the film, I was the nerdy kid. Being smart was an anchor around my neck. I wanted to be smart but I also wanted to be accepted for being that way. Most high school kids did not understand that.

So, I felt all of the emotions portrayed in the film. And what a film...just as important today as when it arrived in the '80's.