In honor of the 50th anniversary of South High School, Class of 1939 Minneapolis, Minnesota

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of
South High School,
Class of 1939
Minneapolis, Minnesota

It’s been a half a century,
50 years – how can it be?
It seems like scarcely yesterday
we said goodbye and made our way
out into the brave new world
with spirits high,
our flags unfurled.
Before we really had a chance –
at first it hardly caught our glance
but there it was,
a global war!
It changed our lives,
and even more
when we dropped the bomb there in Japan,
we feared the end of modern man;
and life went on, the war was won.
We soon forgot what we had done,
we seldom paused to contemplate
as we kept our date with fate.
We reached out for the GI bill,
we built our cottage on the hill,
or went to school, got a degree
and bought our selves a new TV.
We girls refused to give up slacks
we kept our jobs and left those tracks
that our daughters might seek out
and cling to rights without a doubt
that women had a lot to give
beyond the kitchen,
and to live in the shadows out of sight
was no longer just quite right.
We raised our kids
with help from Spock
and though we often were in hock
we kept our eyes upon the stars
and got ourselves a fleet of cars.
The milk and ice men came no more,
we got carpet for our floor
then there was college for our young
tuition costs and taxes stung.
Protests, Viet Nam and Hair
didn’t get us anywhere
but things never remain the same
and soon hippies, yuppies became.
We’re got our Social Security,
Medicare and our own RV,
camcorders, Xeroxes, tapes and fax
and catastrophic health care tax!
Who could dream of home computers
back then when we had zootsuiters?
We’ve got freeways, asphalt and gravel,
super jets, we’ve got space travel;
we fear our kids would not conceive
but after years we live and breathe.
Our grandkids were worth waiting for
and they’re the cutest, what is more!
Our lives are full, we’re golden age-ers
we’ve got pull tabs and can make wagers;
so we cheer for the orange and black
isn’t it great that we came back?

~ written by Lucille Falk Miller (c)1989

[Lucy was asked by her class to write a poem
for this 50th anniversary of the class of 1939]