He could send you into service in a rich man’s house, or give you over to the enlistment officer for a career in the military, or marry you off to a suitable mate. If you were a girl, it could be the first time you were allowed to wear your hair up, or to attend a party with dancing at a neighboring inn.ĭepending on your family’s circumstances, your father could sign apprenticeship papers that would take you away for years to learn a trade. Shift from wearing a babyish gown to breeches like the men, or perhaps it would be the first time you were permitted to ride a proper horse instead of a pony. If you were a boy of a higher rank, perhaps the most important first step would be your “breeching”, the
Youngest of all was Nell Gwyn ( King’s Favorite), who had found her first “protector” at twelve, and four years had become the most popular comic actress of her time. By the time she was nineteen, Barbara Palmer (demurely painted as a teen-aged bride, left) ( Royal Harlot) had already left behind her country upbringing, conducted passionate affairs with several different gentlemen, married, and become the mistress of the king of England.
Sarah Jennings (Duchess) was a maid of honor in Charles II’s court soon after her thirteenth birthday. In my three historical novels, the 17th century women who became my heroines were considered self-sufficient at ages that would astonish modern mothers. Old enough to go out in the fields to work for the day, instead of being kept at home to help with your mother’s chores, or, if you were a girl, the first time you were considered responsible enough to oversee the kitchen fire and midday meal. If your father was a farmer, that first step towards maturity could be the first day you were deemed School was seldom in the picture, especially school beyond the barest basics. While three years separates my own son (21) and daughter (18), they’re both excited about an upcoming first that they’ll share at the same time: voting in a presidential election.Īll of which made me think of the big events that marked transition in the lives of young people in the past, say, two or three hundred years ago. There are zillions of others, of course, from first solo in the ballet recital to first home run in Little League, the first sip of forbidden beer to a whole lot of other forbidden things that parents would rather not think about. Such are the milestones for modern American kids: first day of school, first boyfriend/girlfriend, first cell-phone and driver’s license. Looming ahead are college and jobs, first houses and mortgages, marriages and babies, and the whole cycle begins again. There’s a jaded, been-there-done-all-that air to this bus-stop, which is of course blown away by the speeding (waaaaaay over the limit), honking cars driven by lucky juniors and seniors, freed forever from bus-purgatory by drivers’ licenses.īut there are other rites still ahead for those seniors: SAT’s, prom, college applications, and graduation. These kids are barely awake, languidly texting as they wait, while one couple elevates their morning pulse with a tangled kiss or two. That anxious mom with a freshman daughter, slumped down in the parked minivan where she hopes no one will see her. They’re almost-big-kids, with their parents relegated to the next driveway, holding coffee cups instead of cameras.Īt the top of the hill is the stop for the high school bus, and there’s nary a parent in sight – except, perhaps,
They’re righteous and rammy and slugging one another with abandon. Yes, it’s the first day of kindergarten, an American rite of passage if ever there was one, the first bona-fide step away from home and towards adulthood, or at least as much adulthood (i.e., solo trips to the restroom) as can be credited in five-year-olds.įarther up the street, at the bus stop for the middle schoolers, it’s a slightly different story. Labor Day’s done, and now comes the annual ritual at the school bus stop across from my driveway: tiny children with Elmo backpacks, brand-new sneakers, and too-short haircuts, hopping up and down with excitement as their moms try not to weep and their dads record it all with the family video-cam.
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