Alan Sivell's A Boomer Life

Senior year, I made the Dean’s list. I finally became the student my parents and teachers had been telling me I should have been all along. I was loaded up on English and history classes to finish my major and minor and those classes required my two strengths: […]

Hampden-Sydney had a great track record of booking musical acts before they burst onto the national scene. One year, the then little-known John Denver played at homecoming. Shortly after, he became the well-known John Denver. The previously well-known Chuck Berry who had large catalog of hits in the […]

As a kid, I dreamed of getting a magic lantern and rubbing it to awaken the genie who could grant my wishes. Not surprisingly, I never got that magic lantern. But when I was 10, I got a magic box. It didn’t come cheap. It cost $10. I […]

Extracurricular activities had been my thing in high school. Hub of the action, the yearbook proclaimed. I had expected that would be the case in college, too. But, at Northeastern, it didn’t work out that way. There were no sports, clubs or organizations for me. Early on freshman […]

I was going to turn over a new leaf at my new school. Study first, then socialize. But I couldn’t help myself. During my first semester at Hampden-Sydney, that old leaf stayed put. I had never heard the term “road trip” before I moved south. I had grown […]

When school started, the fraternities started their pledge drives. All the frat houses were open every night after dinner and you could go by and meet the brothers. I had done this at Northeastern, pretending to be someone else. This time I went as myself. Harv and I […]

The city of Boston was so vibrant, its pulse seemed to beckon me every time I stepped outside. That was a problem. I prioritized exploring the city more than exploring my studies. I went to my classes, yes, but rather than going to the library afterwards, I went […]

Irving Kravsow wasn’t wrong in his assessment of my skills at that time. It was the seeming finality of his words that made the message so cutting. I was a 19-year-old with one semester of journalism classes under my belt. He was used to dealing with seasoned, adult […]

My education for sophomore year had started earlier that summer.  That’s because Northeastern only offered dorms for first year men and then they were unleashed on the city to find their own room and board. I had spent just nine short months removed from the safety and security […]

I drove down Farmington Avenue shaking with excitement and nervousness. I was heading to an interview for a paid, three-month co-op job at the Hartford Courant. The only thing that could have topped this interview would have been one with the Yankees. I’d been reading the Courant since […]

At the end of April and during the first two weeks of May, 1970, my life felt like the crescendo at the end of the Beatles’ song “A Day in the Life” when there is this crazy whirl of noise and music that spirals up in energy, pace […]

I was a “love it or leave it” kind of guy when I left for college. I was proud to say I was a reactionary. “Better dead than red” I had written on the binder I carried around senior year. It should have contained notes from my classes […]

Until college, I had no idea that freedom could be associated in any way with the word school. In high school, the piercing tremolo of the electronic school “bell” controlled our lives. It rang almost two dozen times each day, the first blast signaling it was time to […]

I headed off to college about as unprepared as anyone in the history of heading off to college. When I got my class schedule, I was surprised you didn’t have to stay in school all day like high school. I didn’t realize that your time was your own […]

Senior year, I lost a fight to a guy on crutches. And it’s worse than it sounds. He wasn’t even standing during the fight. I was. It started because I was in charge of the student lounge, previously an unused, first-floor classroom on the science wing which became […]

The first time I tasted beer was in my grandmother’s kitchen. We were down from Connecticut in her front-to-back row house in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn on Easter Sunday. I was 4. I had mixed emotions about going to my grandmother’s house on holidays. I loved my […]

It was a seemingly innocent remark. But with it, early in our senior year, our new school president, John Abraham, set in motion one of the hottest social events of the year. John was at his locker, exchanging his books from the previous class for his books for […]

Last summer I wrote the first 17 chapters of my blog. A couple of those chapters dealt with Bethani, my first serious girlfriend. Since I’m plumbing the depths of my memory and I’m doing the writing, the stories are told from my perspective. But over the winter, going […]

Senior year started off going my way. I was recovering socially after the breakups with Bethani and then Annie. I survived the final football camp of my life. I had made the starting team and that meant something: getting presented at the beginning-of-the-year, all-school assembly. We were announced […]

The coaches could clearly see I was no running back. I had no speed, no athleticism and without glasses, could only see to the end of my arm. I did have talent for gaining weight so I was moved to the offensive line. That was fine with me. […]

The summer of 1968 – after my junior year – had been a good summer. Most of it was spent working at Lincoln Dairy where I got a lot of attention from all the college waitresses who had tried to reform Page, and I had a fine time […]

The exhilarating week of Boys’ State was over. Going head to head with some of the best and the brightest high school students in Connecticut gave me the confidence that I could compete in their world, if I applied myself. And the glamour of dancing with Bethani at […]

The relationship crisis with Bethani was resolved and the junior prom was behind us. I was feeling good. It was spring. It was baseball season. Then 3rd quarter report cards came out. Bethani, of course, got all As. I got three Cs, a D and a B in […]

(I skipped over a few chapters, a few stories and my entire senior year to publish this chapter during the 50th anniversary week of Woodstock. Chapters 18-23 will appear at a future date.) It was another one of Bob’s schemes. In the early summer of 1969, just after […]

The fact that our high school had a ski club says a lot about the town we grew up in. Not that we were like the nearby prep schools such as Miss Porter’s or Avon Old Farms. They had Kennedys and their ilk for alums and an actual […]