Urlain, J. C.

English

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22 MANUSCRIPTSThe BeachMarilyn QuillenCLOSE your eyes and picture a lonely beach. Relax and allowyour mil:d to wander, .tc:uch_inghere al'l.d there for an instant, butnot settling on a definite Image. Th111k, to yourself, of utterpeace, and your mind will begin, of its own accord, to assimilatemore concrete ideas of this lonely, lovely place. In my own reveriethis is more of a state of mind than an- actual picture, yet, at thesame time, it is a definite place.Stretching before me for miles is nothing but sand, air, and sea.The land curves gently out to my left, out into the ocean. Somewherethere is a point, obscured by the ocean spray, which is the land'sfurthermost penetration into the sea. I am walking slowly towardthat point, with no sense of urgency, for I know that ultimately Iwill reach it. My approach disturbs the denizens of the air, causingthem to wheel and dip with raucous cries, only to settle farther ondown the beach. Unmeaningly I drive the gulls before me until theborder of their particular part of beach is reached, and they doubleback over my head, far beyond my reach. The air is fres~ wit? atang of salt that is good, and the wind is the essence of this thmg,this feeling of peace.The beach almost assumes the identity of a person, so varied are~er moods. In the early morning she basks in the sl!nlight as onelies ~bed upon first awakening, deliciously. contemplating the f~rth-commg day. Then the beach is suffused 111 a sort of golden light,and pillars of clouds are mirrored in the still water. Her mood thenis l~assive, awaiting the middle of the day when everything takes onan intensity, The water becomes restless as the tides come in; the airloses its golden tint and heat waves dance endlessly of f into thedistance. As noon passes into evening, everything seems refreshed.The breeze from the water comes alive once more, speeding the~l1essag;e of approaching twilight. On many such days the beachIS a fnendly place-indeed, a friend.Everyone has a place in which his thoughts must be pondered,and the bea~h IS SUC? a place for me. Mundane things are brushedaway as easily as grams of sand. There I am at peace.liT .. Th Teen-age - e ermJ. C. UrlainIWI:S tw.elve an~l impressed---or rather, astonished. Turkey: mymind pictured It. Boys, my ~ge, walking the streets with winsomeharems and corpulent chIldren-their own! An incrediblespectacle.MANUSCRIPTS 23~Y ?unday school teacher: my mind goes back to him. Wemet III wmter, on a Sunday. My hand was hot and wet and limp;we shook hands. He said, "You are a man now. Shake like a man."But I. ':"~~ only twelve. "In Turkey they are married and have re-sponsibilities by twelve. You are a man; and I will treat you likea man."He did.He was a dynamic man. He was a Carnegie man. As soon ass?meone would walk through a door, he would grab his arm and tellhim how nice his tie looked-even if it was a drab olive and hadnoodle soup spilt over it. He had been a salesman: he sold Bibles.I-Ie would knock at someone's house and show the family where theBible predicted the automobile. The people bought. He was adynamic man.His dynamics brainwashed me: to me Turkey had the right idea.I even considered giving up Little League. Too Juvenile. At twelvethey were married in Turkey. I was astonished.Now I am mature: I am eighteen years of age. I am not assusceptible to dynamics as I was at twelve; and my attitude haschanged: let the fools get married at twelve and have responsibilities.I shall probably remain a bachelor; and people will whisper when Ipass them on the street, "My, he is over thirty. I wonder why henever married. Does he drink?". As you have probably guessed, I have never reached manhood,which fact speaks rather deprecatingly of the ef forts. of Sundayschool teachers and Turkish precocity. I am what IS termed a"teen-ager."I have always abhorred the term "teen-ager." It reeks of middle-class dullness. It is a term that skips over the rough surfaces ofindividuality and glides complacently over the smooth facets of con-for~nity. To think that everyone within a certain age group can bedefined by one single term is abominable-at least to me. It IS a termthat ordinary people use when talking about ordinary "young people.""My daughter is a typical 'teen-ager'," a proud, dull housewife tellsher neighbor. "Stop, you thievin' teen-ager," an irate grocery manyells after a figure retreating into an alley.Just what do people mean when they use the term "teen-ager?"What connotation do the majority of people attach to the word?Before I give my conception of the present-day meaning of the term,I must first state that by "people" I mean those of the hU1?~r: racewho have sufficiently accumulated enough adult responsibility towant to disparage the juvenility of younger thinking. This categorydoes not include all adults, just as "teen-ager," as used today, doe-snot include all of those in their teens.Recently, I met a man, a grocer-or, more properly, a fruitsalesman. He has an accent, which is nothing unusual for fruitsalesmen. But I have trouble understanding a person with an accent24 MANUSCRIPTSand am fortunate if I decipher one half of his speech. Put a cigarin his mouth and my ciphering score drops to one fourth.My friend the grocer smoked cigars-.big black ones.; he w.asalmost incomprehensible to me. So I let him do the talking whileI smiled knowingly. After a while he stopped, took his cigar out ofhis mouth, and said : "You don't believe me, do ya? God, I wish Icould take ya around and show ya some stuff . You don't knowpeople. Son-God, I wish I could take ya around.""God, I wish I could take you around." I was young. I wasinexperienced. Mr. Cate, the fruit salesman, told me as much.Inexperienced. To be a "teen-agel'," this is the first qualification-tobe inexperienced. But one may say, I think that the teen-agel' oftoday is too experienced. He has too much freedom and ti~ne ~obecome experienced in. But what this person actually is saymg ~sthis: the modern teen-agel' is one who, in his inexperience, is suscepti-ble to temptation. This is the second qualification to be a "teen-ager"-to be susceptible to temptation.While a youngster is in his pre-teens, he is often thought to betoo young to fall prey to grave temptation. But as he enters his teen~,Satan beckons. The odd fellow with the pitch fork becomes publicenemy number one. And he has help: the automobile, the liquor, thepretty girl with the pony-tail. Life becomes a complexity of tempta-tion for the teen-agel', and if he reaches twenty without mishap, heis one out of many.Therefore, I think that when people speak of the "teen-agel',"they mean a person between the ages of thirteen and nineteen whois so inexperienced that he is amenable to temptation-a person whois much more inexperienced and amenable than anyone in any otherage group. This is what the "people" mean. "People" who speakof the "reckless teen-agel'," "the impolite teen-ager," "the 'thankless'teen-ager." People who speak not of the bright teen-agel', but of thebright youth; not the promising teen-agel', but the promising youth;not the gentlemanly teen-agel', but the gentlemanly youth. The term"youth" seems to represent good qualities; the term "teen-agel',"bad qualities.I do not say that the above always holds true. I do say, however,that the above connotations are predominant ones for the terms. Thisshould not be so .. Since the term "teen-ager" is applied to a certainage group, and smce it has the connotations of inexperience andtemptation, all persons in this age group are thought to be inexperi-enced and temptable. The term has reached that stage of hypocrisyin which it can damn a group and still remain uncensored.vyhen p~ople ~an judge a person's works and acts, not by the ageat which their deviser accomplishes them but by their innate quality,they will have come a long way. I am waiting for the day whenpeople cease to gasp at Grandma Moses. .

Teen-Age -The Term

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Teen-Age -The Term

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