My Teenaged Life: An Essay on Embarrassment Here’s something that’ll make your eyes pop: 50 years ago this month, I graduated high school. That’s a milestone to remember. Well, sort of remember. It was 50 years ago, after all. The things I do recall include typing class, with fancy-schmancy electric typewriters, and Home Economics. “Home-Ec” was mandatory for girls in 1976, which was sheer torture for the more culinary- and sewing-challenged of us who burned cupcakes on a regular basis and couldn’t touch electric appliances without them bursting into flames. Really—the cord of an iron I was using suddenly caught fire and only my teacher’s fast action of ripping the iron out of my hands and pitching the incendiary device into the sink saved the school from burning down. That’s a completely true story, one of the many high school disasters I fictionalize (and creatively embellish) in my 1976-set coming of age tale, My Bicentennial , written as Evie Kelley. The characters...
