What were teens thinking 100 years ago?

Nearly 50 Lynbrook High School Class of 1923 graduates posed for a photograph taken 100 years ago.

In the photograph, nearly 50 students along with Superintendent Charles Vosburgh, on the left, and a couple of teachers, at the right. By comparison, there were 213 rising seniors for the Class of 2023.

There are a few observations and comparisons. First, look at the boys. None of them has long hair and about half have parts down the middle. Their clothing is quite uniform, with woolen suits and narrow ties all around. There is one rebellious sweater and a couple of independence-showing bowties.

The girls require a closer look. Short hair was the rule for them, too, with several wearing hair bands. The “Roaring Twenties” with its “flappers” had not yet gotten underway, so conservative ankle-length dresses with black stockings were the order of the day. Several of the girls are wearing traditional lace collars and a few others have the then-stylish “middy blouses” — sailors’ blouses with bows. A couple of rebels wore men’s ties.

The front entrance of the newly-built — in 1922 — high school deserves a look. Its decorative brickwork, the two symbolic owls topped with electric light globes, and the stained-glass transom are all gone now. They were a casualty of the creation of what must be the most boring entrance to any current high school on Long Island.

The people you see in the photo were in their mid to late teens in 1923, so all are long gone now. But if a reader can somehow identify anyone in the photo, the Historical Society of East Rockaway and Lynbrook would like to know. Visit their website at HSERL.com.

— Courtesy Art Mattson, Lynbrook Village Historian