Book Covers
Back in elementary school and through junior high we were required to put book covers on our hardcover textbooks. This was the late 1970s and early 1980s when New York City was slowly emerging from a fiscal crisis so the schools had very little money and couldn’t afford to replace many books. So we used older textbooks that we were required to protect from damage by use of a paper or laminated book cover. This requirement immediately divided kids into three types: those who bought book covers, those who used supermarket bags and those who ignored the rule. I suspect you could tell the future of any given kid by what category he or she fell into.
Let’s take the rule breakers for example. Those kids who just didn’t bother with the book covers. They probably wound up becoming criminals of one kind or another. I bet if they came from a family with a bit of money they probably wound up engaging in bank fraud or some other kind of white collar shenanigans (the Enron crew NEVER put covers on their books, I’m sure of it). You could tell the kids without covers just didn’t care. They knew the rules didn’t apply to them. Their folks wouldn’t ever punish them or listen to the school. Politicians, there’s another likely career path for the no-book-cover type.
Then you have the kids who bought book covers. These kids too crossed all economic classes (though remember, nobody was REALLY rich in my school since it was a NYC public school). The purchased book covers fell into two sub-categories. There was the “pop culture” type (you know, Star Wars, sports teams, whatever) which were typically used by spoiled kids whose parents gave them whatever they wanted as barter to get them to maybe pay attention in school. These kids probably grew up to be the sort of spoiled bumblers who make enough social connections to keep whatever career they have afloat (or perhaps sponge off their family). The other type was the aspirational type. The kids whose parents bought them covers with colleges on them. You know, Harvard, Yale, whatever. The kid is in elementary school and you have no idea how he’s gonna turn out but you’re already dousing him in Ivy League dreams. These kids either made it to those lofty educational institutions or they became hopeless drug addicts or wound up in the arts or broke their parents’ hearts some other way.
Finally, you had the kids who used paper bags. Or in my case, a long roll of brown butcher paper that was so long it lasted through a few kids’ book cover needs. The brown baggers were the realists. We weren’t ambitious or conniving. We didn’t think we were above the law. We knew, or rather our parents knew that sometimes the minimum effort is all it takes to slide by. And we continue to slide by day by day regardless of where we wound up in our careers. Just cover the damn book and get on with it. You won’t find a brown-bagger running a Fortune 500 company, but you won’t find one robbing a bank (in the blue collar or white collar fashion) either. We’re just sort of here. We’re the faces in the background of history. At the most extreme a brown bagger might be that neighbor who "always kinda kept to himself" until the cops show up, but that's rare. The Harvard book cover type is a better bet to have something like that happen.
Today I’m not sure how you’re supposed to tell who’s gonna wind up where. Do they even have textbooks in elementary school anymore? How are you supposed to tell where you’re kid is gonna wind up without a book cover? I guess there are other ways. Sneakers, for instance could be one. So is your kid wearing the latest Nikes? Hand me downs? Department store cheapos like the Traxx brand that K-Mart used to sell? Careful with that footwear choice moms and dads. You could be setting up your kid’s whole life.
Let’s take the rule breakers for example. Those kids who just didn’t bother with the book covers. They probably wound up becoming criminals of one kind or another. I bet if they came from a family with a bit of money they probably wound up engaging in bank fraud or some other kind of white collar shenanigans (the Enron crew NEVER put covers on their books, I’m sure of it). You could tell the kids without covers just didn’t care. They knew the rules didn’t apply to them. Their folks wouldn’t ever punish them or listen to the school. Politicians, there’s another likely career path for the no-book-cover type.
Then you have the kids who bought book covers. These kids too crossed all economic classes (though remember, nobody was REALLY rich in my school since it was a NYC public school). The purchased book covers fell into two sub-categories. There was the “pop culture” type (you know, Star Wars, sports teams, whatever) which were typically used by spoiled kids whose parents gave them whatever they wanted as barter to get them to maybe pay attention in school. These kids probably grew up to be the sort of spoiled bumblers who make enough social connections to keep whatever career they have afloat (or perhaps sponge off their family). The other type was the aspirational type. The kids whose parents bought them covers with colleges on them. You know, Harvard, Yale, whatever. The kid is in elementary school and you have no idea how he’s gonna turn out but you’re already dousing him in Ivy League dreams. These kids either made it to those lofty educational institutions or they became hopeless drug addicts or wound up in the arts or broke their parents’ hearts some other way.
Finally, you had the kids who used paper bags. Or in my case, a long roll of brown butcher paper that was so long it lasted through a few kids’ book cover needs. The brown baggers were the realists. We weren’t ambitious or conniving. We didn’t think we were above the law. We knew, or rather our parents knew that sometimes the minimum effort is all it takes to slide by. And we continue to slide by day by day regardless of where we wound up in our careers. Just cover the damn book and get on with it. You won’t find a brown-bagger running a Fortune 500 company, but you won’t find one robbing a bank (in the blue collar or white collar fashion) either. We’re just sort of here. We’re the faces in the background of history. At the most extreme a brown bagger might be that neighbor who "always kinda kept to himself" until the cops show up, but that's rare. The Harvard book cover type is a better bet to have something like that happen.
Today I’m not sure how you’re supposed to tell who’s gonna wind up where. Do they even have textbooks in elementary school anymore? How are you supposed to tell where you’re kid is gonna wind up without a book cover? I guess there are other ways. Sneakers, for instance could be one. So is your kid wearing the latest Nikes? Hand me downs? Department store cheapos like the Traxx brand that K-Mart used to sell? Careful with that footwear choice moms and dads. You could be setting up your kid’s whole life.
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