I was born in 1958 and grew up in small town Minnesota at a time of significant change in the status quo for the social groups. The following are a few of the changes that I remember/noticed from my younger years:
When I was ~6 years old I asked my (Presbyterian) mother who the people going into the black tar-paper church/school were. She told me they were Catholic, were different, and I should stay away from them.
My older sister is 5 years older than I - she finished high school without ever being able to wear blue jeans to school - dresses with tights or nylons only. She became a special education teacher, later switching to elementary school teacher and tutor. When I asked her many years later why she chose teaching she said that it was one of the few options she felt were open to her.
When I was in 8th grade I remember being told by one of my classmates/friends that they had finally gotten electricity run up to their house, and she was now able to study after dark (via the one light bulb over the table in the kitchen-dining room). My father had commented a bit earlier on the fact that her "skinflint" father had finally had the house connected to the electric grid.
My younger sister by 2 1/2 years (ie 7 1/5 years younger than my older sister) entered 7th grade (the start of high school in my home town) being able to wear blue jeans. She became a microbiologist (BS) and electron microscope specialist (MS), later becoming 2nd in command at Hewlett Packard's material failure analysis division.
When I was in 9th grade my English teacher was required to quit teaching mid-year when it became obvious she was pregnant - and remain on leave for the remainder of her pregnancy - even though she was respectably married to the high school biology teacher.
My junior year (11th grade) was the first year that girls could attend our high school while pregnant. This was also the first year that we had a black family move into town - they were young and had no children yet so their was no integration problem at school.
My junior year was also the year that the high school hooked up to the Plato computer at the University of Minnesota - we had a typewriter/printer terminal that could be used to enter rudimentary Basic, FORTRAN, and COBOL programs, or play the Star Trek maneuver game.
In the 2nd half of my senior year (12th grade) 2 of the girls that had been pregnant in my junior year were given permission to bring their babies to school with them - as long as they did not disrupt class. Also by my senior year, the Catholic school had shut down and the Catholic kids had been integrated into our public high school. Lo and behold they were not any different (at least not in any way that mattered).
Also in my junior and senior years, the high school girls basketball team did very well, taking the state championship in my senior year (1976). Many of the townsfolk felt that the boys team(s) were (undefinably) not receiving their just due, and became resentful to the point that there were "Support Our Boys" protest banners popping up around town on people's lawns, and the girl's basketball coach was accused of being a dyke or lesbian (as were some of the girls on the team). 5 years later the girl's team(s) were a source of pride around town.
