The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is a 1985 film written, directed and produced by John Hughes.  It stars Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy as five high school students required to report to school on a Saturday morning as punishment for various rule violations.  

Initially, the five represent totally different social cliques that do not communicate with or relate to each other.  There was the popular girl (Ringwald), the hoodlum (Nelson), the jock (Estevez), the nerd (Hall) and the weird girl (Sheedy).  

The five do not know each personally, but think they know each other (and don't like each other) based upon the stereotypes of their respective social group.  However, after being forced to share the same space (school library) and face a common enemy (a very mean vice principal) for many hours, they come to see each other as individuals who share similar needs and desires.  At the end of the day, the nerd wrote, "What we found out is that each one of us is a brain (nerd), and an athlete (jock), and a basket case (weird girl), a princess (popular girl) and a criminal (hoodlum)."   

The Breakfast Club reminds me of my own experiences at Oswego High School in the early 1960s.  There were social cliques there as well, more than the five referred to in the film.  I was a nerd, but I didn't hang out with other nerds.  My social friends were those who were spectator sports fans.  Not jocks, just fans.

When I think of a popular girl at OHS, I remember Nancy Mott, varsity cheerleader, senior class officer, DAR award winner, exchange student to Turkey, junior prom committee, etc., etc.  And she was described in the yearbook as "an attractive brunette" to boot.  Nancy was the dream girlfriend for many boys, most of whom felt she was out of their league.  She wrote in my yearbook, "You deserve all the good luck in the world."  

To me, Dennis Paice could be characterized as a hoodlum during my high school years.  I steered clear of him.  I remember one of my female friends telling me she was afraid of Dennis.  The yearbook (I didn't ask him to sign mine) stated, "He doesn't need a knife to cut up."  Ironically, the hoodlum in the film carries a knife.  

Described in the yearbook as "one of OHS's best athletes,"  Eric Pollard was the quintessential jock.  He excelled in the three main sports in those days: baseball, basketball and (American) football.  In addition to that, what I was most jealous of was his self-confidence with girls.  In the yearbook, it said about Eric, "the shortest distance between two dates is a long line."  He wrote in my yearbook, "I think you are a swell guy even if you are a (SF) Giants fan."  We don't use the word swell like we used to. 

Donald Lewis is the nerd I remember most.  He finished seventh in our graduating class with a grade point average of exactly 90.  Donald came across to me as a bit arrogant.  He wrote in my yearbook that "You never would have made it through Mechanical Drawing (class) without me."  

As for a weird girl like in the film, I didn't know any, but there must have been at least one at OHS during my time.

I didn't have a Breakfast Club experience during high school, so by the time of graduation, I felt myself cutoff from many of my classmates who were in other cliques.  Too bad!