The Worst Summer Ever Was 1975

Robbed of my livelihood

It was the summer of 1975, before my senior year in high school. I had so many hopes and dreams that did not come to pass. I was looking forward to the job I had held two previous summers, but it was not to be. While my brothers and cousins earned money from June until August, I was at home because my great-grandmother, Florine, began having fainting spells.

She passed out and wet herself twice while I was home alone with her, which was frightening. There was no 911 and no local rescue squad, to come right away. My only option was to try to wake her up and get her to the living room couch. Each time, when she came to, she didn’t remember what had happened.

My mother and grandmother Liz decided it would be best for me to stay home and take care of her rather than go to work. They didn'task, they just told me. My mom earned overtime to give me spending money and enough for school clothes, but it wasn’t the same.

Missed opportunities

The two previous summers, I had excitedly ridden the Greyhound bus with my cousins from the county into the city to shop at the Lerner store for school attire. We used the layaway plan and felt so grown up.

I had money to help with groceries and to buy snacks and cat food and go to the hair dresser. Senior year meant prom, and I wanted money to purchase tickets and a dress. My mother couldn't give me the same amount that I would have earned, so I was disappointed.

It felt lonely knowing that every other teen between 14 and 18 in the neighborhood was working at the local elementary school. Our job was to clean the building and prepare it for the fall. The girls also took turns answering the phones in the office, which was fun. I cried over the missed opportunities.

Additional disppointments

I was also stressed because every time I walked to the store or the post office, I worried my great-grandmother might have another spell and die before I returned home so I began running both ways and was out of breath when I got back to the house. No teenager should have had such pressure on them.

I was also disappointed because there would be no church picnic that year. It was the one anual summer event I thought I could count on. This was not how I envisioned spending my time out of school. I was also heartbroken about having recently broken up with my boyfriend Vinny.

Another guy, JJ who had kissed me a few times during the previous school year and told a mutual friend he wanted me to be his girlfriend. I don't know why, but he never officially asked me to go steady. I was wondering who I would ask to senior prom and worried that I might not have money for a dress, and accessories.

Rewarded with silence

During the afternoons, if I called JJ or another guy friend, my great-grandmother would become angry. She never said a word, but she wouldn’t talk to me until bedtime, which was awkward. I had turned 17 in June, so I didn’t understand her attitude.

Years later, I learned that she had married a few months after her 18th birthday and that my grandmother was born about ten months later. I realized she had been dating at my age, so what was her problem with me? I had missed out on earning money to stay home with her and was rewarded with silence.

I didn’t get any relief from Monday until Friday, until my grandma Liz came home from work around 4:30 in the evening. This was when I was finally free from the pressure of watching great-grandma Florine.

The hits keep on coming

I had hoped to learn to drive that summer, but I couldn’t get to the high school for lessons. One afternoon at the end of June, I saw my 15-year-old brother driving my mom's car, with her in the passenger seat, and I ran to my bedroom and cried. She trusted him with her car but not me, and I was the oldest.

I felt like my mother thought I was inept and did not want to bother with me. This was the worst summer of my life. Without a job, no boyfriend, my mother's indifference, being frightened for great grandma and not learning to drive, I was devastated.

The Hustle, a lack of curves and death

Additionally, I wasn’t good at learning the latest dances. During the summer of 1975, Van McCoy's hit "The Hustle" was played everywhere. Everyone was dancing on American Bandstand and Soul Train. At local events, I stood against the wall, too afraid to join in because I could not learn the right moves.

I had grown from 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 6 inches, but I only weighed 96 pounds and wore a 34A cup bra when summer began. I exercised, tried to eat better, and hoped that by the time school began, I would have more curves and be beautiful for my last year in school.

I even purchased a product called Weight On to help me gain weight My money was wasted because both the liquid and wafer forms tasted so bad that I couldn’t use them. August came, and my great-grandmother Florine passed away from congestive heart failure a few weeks before school began.

This was not the summer I had planned, but it was the one I received. When school started in the last week of the month, I still weighed 96 pounds and wore an A cup bra. I only had a few new outfits, very little money, and still hadn’t learned to drive. I also heard through the grapevine that JJ had a real girlfriend, and I felt crushed. The summer of 1975 was not kind to me.