Outcasts by Choice

By Robert Ringer

It's always difficult to generalize, and I realized when I presented the five rings of The Games' caste system that there are several levels within each one — especially in the Nondescript Ring. Which is why the reader e-mail below caught my attention.

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I read your recent missive with great interest, expecting to see myself within one of the "rings" you described, and, in so doing, experienced a mild wave of nostalgia for my school days. But I found that my "ring" wasn't mentioned.

I would posit that there is another group within the rings, but in a way it is a separate ring that intersects with all the others at one time or another — an eccentric circle, a bit out of the ecliptic plane, as it were. But it definitely existed.

I would call that group the "Outcasts by Choice," people who either unconsciously felt or consciously saw the social stratifications as you described, and made an effort to transcend them by gathering in their own eclectic circle. Such kids were usually highly intelligent, creative, talented and aware, but often going out of their way to break established "norms," usually via unconventional dress or behavior.

In my day, late 60s-early 70s, we were the "freak" kids, mostly inhabiting the theater department, with some crossover to music and even speech. We questioned every premise fed to us, were early adopters of new music and dress styles, and were, back then, at the forefront of political activism, sometimes cutting class to attend a peace rally or Earth Day event.

Nevertheless, many of us graduated near the top of our classes. We published our own "alternative" newspaper — and we were shocked by how many "inner ring" kids actually read it!

Although we were perceived as being standoffish, and certainly not mainstream, we were largely accepting of others. We just wanted to be ourselves. Nevertheless, our mere existence often incited some of the more curious in the other circles to check us out.

A handful of "inner ring" kids would show up at our functions and parties, for example, because they could actually let their hair down with us. There was no social pressure to perform as there was within their own group. ...

These groups exist today. My own daughter was an "outcast by choice," simply because she found the people more entertaining. She's now in college, and I think she's becoming quite the fabulous individual as a direct result of that experience. — Thomas O.

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Thomas's insight is a good one. Whenever you try to put things into categories, there not only will be overlap, there will be some that don't fit neatly into any of them. He makes his point vividly when he says that the ring he was in high school intersected with all the other rings at one time or another.

This brought to mind three individuals at Brigadoon High who would have fit very well into the "Outcasts by Choice" ring that Thomas so aptly describes — classmates who transcended the other rings "by gathering in their own eclectic circle."

Lee Wellman, Ian Bechtel, and Jim Coleman hung out together at Brigadoon. Under my ring system, I would have to place them in the lower echelons of the Nondescript Ring. However, I don't have any recollections of their being bullied. I think it was more a matter of no one giving much thought to them at all.

Lee, Ian, and Jim were all nice guys, but only Jim had the slightest Game credentials that might have qualified him to intersect with the higher rings. He was a starter on the baseball team and pretty much a straight "A" student. Yet, he always seemed to be oblivious to The Game and the caste system it supported. I never saw any indication that he aspired to elevate his rank.

As for Lee and Ian, they had no Game credentials at all. They stuck with their own nonentity crowd of kids, many of whom didn't even go to Brigadoon. (Yuk — imagine hanging out with non-Brigadoon kids!) In fact, they formed their own club — The Panthers — and wore the club's black jacket, logo and all, to school.

While I don't think Ian was involved in any activities at Brigadoon, I do recall that Lee was the water boy for the baseball team. I can still vividly picture him trotting out to the pitcher's mound with a bucket of water and handing the pitcher the ladle so he could dip in and quench his thirst.

If you're feeling sorry for these guys - not so fast. In the next installment of this series, we'll see how things turned out in real life for Lee, Ian, and Jim - Outcasts by Choice at Brigadoon High.

Previous - Part XXVI, Life After Brigadoon: High School Graduation

Next - Part XXVIII, A Whole New World

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