For All The Girls Who Waited By The Midnight Phone- Janis Ian’s Song “At Seventeen”

Lance Lawrence comment;

A lot of guys, guys like me at seventeen, hung around the midnight phone, forlornly hung around the midnight phone waiting, two or three hour waiting for that call that was supposed to come at eight for me to pick up some date by nine-if she was ready- if she was available-if she didn’t have a date with Harry and his “boss’ Chevy the pick of the liter in our working class neighborhood-if she didn’t have anything else to do-the next day’s excuses.

But this is Women’s History Month and while hanging by the midnight phone or being ugly in some fool’s blind eye may not be the highest priority for what anybody would call oppression at seventeen as the song presented here notes it does mean just that, means it big time with a bow around it. So listen up all you seventeen midnight by the phone girl dreamers-all you seventeen girl dreamers who worry to perdition about your weight, your shape, your “figure” and whether some benighted fool (or fools) call you ugly either to your face or behind your back. This song will tell you that you are not alone-and you will survive.  

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"AT SEVENTEEN"

By Janis Ian

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth...

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say "come dance with me"
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems at seventeen...

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: "Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve"
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly...

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debitures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen...

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me...

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: "Come on, dance with me"
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen...