Re: Patrick Read Johnson's 5-25-77
I don't remember the term "geeks" really being used in 1977. It was all "nerds" due to the Happy Days craze.
"Geek" was the word of choice where I grew up, in the 'burbs of Philadelphia. No one said "nerd". I remember this specifically because in '79 some of my buds and I planned a surprise "Geek Day" at school, where we were all supposed to dress up like geeks. Only Tommy Hummel and I had the guts to go through with it. If I can find the photo, I'll post it. But suffice to say, we were decked out in floods, white socks with beat-up dress shoes, pocket protectors loaded with pens, glasses with tape at the bridge, and greasy hair parted on the side. lol
Our teacher, Mr. Nelms, after looking Tommy and me over like we were idiots, asked us and the class if we knew what a geek actually was. We said no, and he informed us that it was the name of the guy at the carnival who bites off the heads of live chickens. lol
At any rate, Tommy and I played the part, staying in character the whole day, and the rest of the kids and some of the teachers, had a good laugh at our antics. While this was '79, not '77, we had been saying the word, "geek", for several years. And in spite of the popularity of Happy Days, the word, "nerd", was not used by us kids--it was considered old-fashioned.
The Wook