What Really Happened to the Class of '65

by Michael Medved and David Wallechinsky

Book Overview

Published by Random House, New York, 1976, written by Michael Medved and David Wallechinsky. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394400747
• ISBN13: 9780394400747
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Dated but Still an Important Book

I bought my copy at a used book store and I didnt expect that this will become one of my favorites. TIME magazine featured the students of Palisades High.Ten years later,two men who remained friends after high school decided to write about their classmates as well as themselves (to be fair).They interviewed some of their classmates (those stereotypical personalities you know in high school like the Quarterback,The Popular Guy,The Nerd,The Bad Girl,etc.)and none of them expected the revelations about those people that they used to know.Most stories are quite tragic,probably because these people are trapped in all the expectations from other people and themselves. This book is very well written that a reader would end up as if they personally know these people.

Same Old Lang Syne

"What Really Happened To The Class Of '65" purports to be a sociological examination of the Baby Boomer generation's road to maturity, but what really is great about it is its candor and vivid accounts of high school life. The members of the class are a mix of different types recognizable in schools today: The star quarterback, the flirt, the joiner, the outcast, the slut. Of course, within those broad categories are individuals with complications and insecurities their smooth exteriors often hid. Kids work very hard at protecting their inner selves from scrutiny. Fortunately the older versions of these kids are all-too-happy to share the details of their class insecurity, sexual desires, and what they thought of each other. "I just remember her being sort of a snob, and I could never quite trust her," one female class member says of another. "She would be my friend one day, and the next day everything would change..." "He was totally sarcastic," goes a recollection of another class member. "I enjoyed his sense of humor, but a lot of people didn't. I know this because people used to ask me how I could stand to go around with him." You can recognize such characters from your own high school years. I know I can. I wish the authors did more with the "when they were young" element of the story. There's some recountings of favorite music and when President Kennedy was shot, but not enough. The focus, after various classmates give their snapshot portraits of each subject in turn, is often on what these kids grew into. The quarterback is now a New Age minister. The flirt is now a lesbian. The outcast now lives in Micronesia. Several have been arrested for drugs. It's here where the story becomes more specific to its time, the freewheeling 1960s and 1970s, and you get that sense of things coming apart unique to that era. There's still poignance in the stories, though, especially two. One, the school dreamboat, pursues an acting career with diminishing success and commits suicide. Another, the aloof dreamer, joins a series of movements and finally becomes a John Bircher, renouncing sex, movies, and society in general as he lives in his own dreamworld. "Ten years from today I expect to have written at least ten books which are far superior to anything a college or high school student sees in his literature courses," he tells the authors. I haven't done a search of the name "Jamie Kelso" on this website, but I sense that I won't find much if I do. At least he participated in one terrific book. The level of overall participation is the most remarkable thing about the book. All but two out of the 30 students profiled opted to be identified by their real names (the two not so identified wouldn't have been missed) and dish enough dirt on themselves and each other that you realize this could have only happened in the "Let-it-all-hang-out" era of the early 1970s. Though the book was a bestseller in its day, and even was the basis for a "Saturday Night Liv

My, how times have changed

Written in 1975, What Really Happened to the Class of '65 is a compilation of interviews with 30 members of the 1965 graduating class of Palisades High School. Most of those in question grew up in very affluent households and most of them, in the course of their interviews, seem to have an almost astounding ignorance of the fact that their teenage lives were hardly the norm. However, that's not a major problem or concern. Instead, what makes this book interesting is seeing just how much time has changed -- both in the ten years between their graduation and the book's publication and, even more so, in the decades after the book came out. On the whole, everybody in the book represents a certain type -- popular jerk, pretty boy, quarterback, nerd, bully, cheerleader, ect. However, in the course of some remarkably candid interviews, they're all given a chance to establish their own unique, for-the-most-part fairly likeable individual indentities. Reading it made me wonder what was really going on in the heads of those people I knew in high school who I simply assumed were bullies or jocks or cheerleaders or geeks and nothing else? It actually made me want to get in touch with people I barely knew just to find out who they were now.Most of the interviewees share in common an amazement at how much times had changed between their high school graduation and 1975. All of them, for the most part, are quick to point out that they're now totally different (read: better) people. Most of them, as well, sound like almost stereotypical creatures of '70s -- i.e., the quarterback becomes a bisexual, new age minister, quite a few have made fortunes of their own but still proudly wear their hair long and seem to believe they were personally responsible for ending Viet Nam and forcing Nixon to resign. While reading, I found myself wondering what happened to these folks once the '80s hit, much less the '90s. On the whole, you could imagine most of them probably voted for Carter in '76 and then spent the next decade pursuing the same basic life styles that they seem so quick to attack their parents for doing. Its a shame that Medved and Wallechinsky didn't follow-up on these people in 1985 and 1995. (Though Wallechinsky did write a sequel on his own, for some reason he decided to interview a new batch of people!) Of course, the most interesting change to be found amongst the people profiled is that of co-author Michael Medved. In the book, he almost practically boasts of how, once in college, he dedicated all of his time to "liberal politics." (Though, of course, he doesn't mention it, he was a friend to Clintons while at Yale.) Of course now, Medved is better known as one of the most outspokenly right-wing film critics out there. Many will enjoy this book for the nostalgia but for me, it'll always be wonderful proof that nothing -- be it your politics, your bank account, the length of you hair, or whatever else -- is ever as permanent as you might think.

What happens when highschoolers grow up?

The mid 60's was a very confusing time in the 20th century. Drugs were a new experience to be tried, the Vietnam War was about to reach its peak, and the new activity was rebelling against the older generation. This book tells about what it was like and how each person lived in those times. But it also relates the people and their stories to generations after it. The authors interviewed 30 people ten years after their graduation from Palisades High School in 1965. The interviewees are examples of every extreme; the quarterback and head cheerleader, the gang leader, the surfer, the intellectual and everyone in between. Interviews are not held in the usual question/answer form, but instead are written like a lecture or story as told by the interviewed person. This minimizes breaks and gives the reader a better feeling for each character so that by the end, you WILL feel as if you know all 30 of them.Each interview is different and similar in their own ways. Most male interviews mention avoiding the draft to fight in the War. Most women comment on their views of the housewife, and everyone mentions drug use. But in the same ways that they are similar, I found them to be different as well. A few found religion in their travels, while others only found poverty. Many of the stories are surprising, and a few are just as you would assume such a person would be 10 years later. But no matter what the outcome, they are all entertaining (except for Jamie Kelso's, but you can find that out when you read the book).This book gives an interesting, but true take on life. Those who were bound to fail end up succeeding, and those with the 4.0 GPA wind up owning a farm. It will give you a refreshed feeling after reading and most likely, make you curious as to the fates of those you once knew in school.

A fascinating account of the origins of a generation

Written in 1975, this book chronicles the lives of 30 or so graduates of an upper-middle-class high school in California (the class of 65). Each individual is allotted 4 or 5 pages that detail (mainly in their own words) their recollection fo high school and what they've been doing for the last 10 years. All I can say is that the rest is fascinating. What better way to analyzize a generation (or at least an economic strata of a generation) than slice a cross-section through it and see what oozes out. As a member of the class of 85, I found myself continually amazed by how strikingly different the experiences of these individuals were from my own and from those of my peers.This book is the closest thing that you'll get to answer the question : What really happened to the call of 65?