When I went to school as a kid...

[jorno67]

this is what I worried about
Kindergarten - getting home in time to watch Speed Racer
1st grade - that I wouldn't be able to watch Speed Racer (the TV station actually changed it to a later time slot and I stayed in school)
2nd grade - making new friends at my new school
3rd grade - nothing
4th grade - making new friends at my new school and getting beat up because of my race
5th grade - getting beat up because of my race
6th grade - making new friends at my new school
7th grade - making new friends at my new school
8th grade - girls
9th grade - making new friends at my new school and girls
10th grade - girls
11th grade - girls
12th grade - girls and what to do after I graduate

I feel so sorry for Kids who have to worry about life and death...
My path was hard at times - but nobody shot anyone at school.

[niyad]

1. back when I was in school, we had "duck and cover" and, in high school, worry about who was

going to get caught smoking or drinking on school property (oh, and my senior year, worrying which one of us was going to have to drive my VERY pregnant classmate to the hospital when she went into labor)

[bigendian]

2. All we had to worry about was the Bomb.

Not the kid next to us or a stranger dressed in black walking in the door.

[Journeyman]

3. There were a host of personal fears I had to deal with throughout my childhood. . .

But in Kindergarten through 6th Grade, we had regular exercises preparing us for a nuclear attack.

"Be sure to face away from the windows, children. The greatest danger in a nuclear attack is flying glass."

In the 3rd Grade, the U.S. President was shot dead. So I had a palpable feeling no one was safe in this world.

A couple of years later, Charles Whitman removed any confidence I had that schools were safe. That was also the year of the Watts Riots. Our home was on the border of the Curfew Zone. Strong memories.

Throughout high school, there was a steady stream of crazy incidences: knife fights, innumerable assaults, LSD slipped into the coffee and drinks of both teachers and students, and a bleak day when some guy walked into one of the math classes with a gun and neither he, nor two others, walked out again. And my older brother tells me it was far worse when he was there, when the gangs had a stronger hold on the neighborhoods.

I was in high school as well when National Guardsman shot students at Kent and the police opened fire at Jackson State. So yeah, there was little feeling we were safe no matter who held the gun.

And throughout most of this time, every evening we'd watch the news detail for us the distinct possibility that after we finished our schooling, we'd probably die in some jungle pit or rice paddy.

And yeah, there were girl fears back then, too. Those are probably universal and cut across all generations and borders.