When It Was All So Easy

Barbara, 1968

Was there really such a time? A time when it was all so simple, when you could take a few moments before class began and just talk? And you weren't going steady, you weren't even dating. You were just there, 9:00 every day, for 50 minutes and then gone, gone on to another group of kindred spirits, mostly friendly, mostly happy.

Mostly.

In a few weeks it would all end. School would be over, as would childhood. War would take away some, booze and dope and car crashes take more and for a few- a missing gene would stop a young heart's beating.

But not this day. Not this day in spring, a day with no worries, only smiles.

A smile for the camera. A smile for a lifetime.