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Above: Based on other images on the same role of film (a class trip to Yosemite) this picture (above) can be accurately dated to the first half of 1974. The TV studio buildings behind me clearly place me on the campus of Le Conte Junior High School.
Above and Right: These two black and white pictures were taken by my mother, and I recall that the one above was one of her favorites.
But if things looked bad on the puberty front, in this period (8th and 9th grades of Junior High School) I did have my photography. I recorded, and still have, hundreds of black and white negatives of Junior High School life in the mid-1970s, as lived at Le Conte Junior High School in Hollywood. This is possibly the world's finest collection of actual 14 year olds in the mid-1970s, observed by one of their own.
Above: It's not what you think... depending on what you are thinking. I'm donating blood at my father's laboratory.
Above: Eric balances on a pole supporting the W of the Hollywood Sign, circa 1973-1974.
Above: Date unknown, but probably around 1974 or 1975 |
Yes, Junior High School Really Is That Bad. I'm probably trying to smile without revealing my braces in the picture on the left. This is clearly a year of physiological transformation, if the pictures provide any evidence. In fact, as I review the photographic record what I find almost startling is the absence of a truly intermediate photo, although perhaps the two at the bottom of this page come close. It is apparent that in the space of a year my face and body was transformed quite radically from one form to another. It happens to almost everyone, but it is somehow startling, not only at the time, but even in retrospect.
Above: The original 1920s era Hollywood Sign, photographed circa 1973-1974. The sign was in my "backyard" and we often hiked up to it. I have an extensive collection of photos of the original sign before it was replaced by the modern fiberglass one.
Above: Even back then, depression was no joke. This photo and the one above right come closest to appearing to be "intermediate" between childhood and adolescence. Provenance - These two pictures are difficult to date, but the role of film includes our new Sheltie "Whiskey" and she looks to be a puppy still. Since we acquired her on returning from Europe in 1973, this picture would probably be from late 1973 or 1974. The picture to the left is from the same role of film. This role of film appears in my negative book prior to the Yosemite trip in my 9th grade year. So these two pictures are pretty definitely from late 1973 or early 1974.
Above: The original 1920s era Hollywood Sign, In the wind the metal banged and whistled. Now the original sign has been replaced by fiberglass and metal... this one was built of a wood frame and metal plates. Sometimes a plate would suddenly fall in gust of wind, decapitating an innocent kid. Really.
Above: Behind the Y of the Hollywood Sign looking out over Lake Hollywood, Hollywood, toward Park Labrea Towers (multiple white buildings in distance), Century City (far right) and the Pacific Ocean, circa 1973-1974.
Above: Kids walking by the L of the old 1920s Hollywood Sign.
Above: Probably my 10th grade portrait (1974-1975) academic year. This is clearly from the same beautifully awkward developmental stage As I lived through adolescence, of course it was hell, on multiple levels. But looking back now, in 2003, I feel great parental affection for this kid, and for this young man. Too bad I didn't know then just how good I really was.
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Above: Le Conte in 2004, 30 years later. Scott P. returned with with George L. to the scene of our early crimes at Le Conte Junior High School in Los Angeles and sent me this picture of the very space in which I stood, talked, and ate lunch in the early 1970s. My "home room" with Ms. Epstein was behind the windows on the lower right. From those very windows, in or around 1973 or 1974, one afternoon at lunch time, Dirk blasted the sound of Grand Funk Railroad's "American Woman." As young teenagers sat on benches and sorted out their awkward bodies and feelings "rebellion" was momentarily in the air until lunchtime music was shut down by the powers that were.
revised October 2004 |
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