SAD AND DEPRESSING?

In a personal history that I came across recently, I wrote "Ninth grade was the one that I enjoyed the least."  "The whole year was depressing."  I'm not quite sure why I wrote this because these comments are followed by a recap of some of the fun things that I did during that school year.  The only clue given about my depressing ninth grade year was this "I didn't have as much fun as other years.  I guess I was expecting to much that I didn't get.". I have no recall what those expectations were.

This is what that sad and depressed ninth grader looked like.

She also looked like this.

  I wrote that I had good teachers and that my favorite was Mr. Wood, my geography teacher.  I apparently almost hated my English teacher because was we "just didn't get along".  I was happy that I was made a Musette that year. But it seems as though the highlight of the year was the ninth grade prom.  I must have been on the decorating committee for the dance because in this history I wrote "I helped to make a mural for it.  I was sorta of proud of my first effort of drawing Venus.".  I wonder what the theme of the dance was if it required a mural that included Venus.

I went to the Prom with Jimmy, a boy from the ward.  We double dated with my best friend, Norene, who also went with a boy from the ward.  Jimmy must have been at least 15 because he had a driver's license and access to a car. Back in those olden dates, you could get your driver's license at 15. My date to the prom was the first date I had where a parent didn't have to do the driving.  I remember Jimmy picked me up in either an Oldsmobile or Buick that was painted two-tone blue and white.  It also had huge fins. I felt pretty grown up. 

Now it may seem shocking that at fourteen and a half, I was allowed to date and go on the date in a car.  Back in those olden days, the church didn't have the hard fast rule that teenagers shouldn't go on a date of any kind until they were sixteen.  I never dated anyone steadily at that tender age.  But Jimmy wasn't my first date as I went to a ward Gold and Green ball with a young man in ward the previous winter. 

I finished up the ninth grade with promotion exercises held in the school gym.  Quoting from my personal history "It was all very formal and saddening.".  "Next step, senior high, YORKTOWN HERE WE COME!!".