'90s man will be a new Mr. T: tough, tender and traditional

   The day before New Year's, I found myself
driving along Palisades Park in Santa Monica
as the sun was beginning to set. What timing,
my friend and I thought as we pulled over.
To see a sunset on the last day of the year
and watch nature's curtain close on the end
of the 1980s seemed fitting.
    Standing on wind-blown bluffs overlooking
the Pacific, we watched the sun dip gracefully
into the ocean. We could overhear other wit-
nesses to this 5 p.m. show saying some of the
things we were thinking. Hope was in the air.
   A crowd of people laughed as a small child walked by saying rather loudly, "Goodbye, Mr. Sun!"
    I thought of all the other things I was saying goodbye to. I sadly said goodbye to Samuel Beckett, Gilda Radner and The Los Angeles Herald Examiner; I applauded the waning of Ronald Reagan's "Me Generation," and a nuclear world. I bowed to the democracy movement in Eastern Europe and the rebirth
of hope and trust on the planet.
    I took a moment to remember the men we loved: Goodbye "Mr. Sensitive" Alan Alda, so long "Baby Face" Don Johnson, hit the road Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen.
    I asked my pal if he was a man of the '80s
or '90s.
    "The'90s," he said.
   That made me wonder. What kind of man would that be?
    Here's what our '90s guy said:
    The sensitive man is out. The '90s men have learned that you can be as insensitive as you want as long as you do half of the housework.
    He'll treat women like women at home and like people in the workplace. But he'll never forget her femininity, no matter where she is.
   Men aren't going to get away with just
being a pretty face. Hunks are out. Women want men with brains. Toward the end of the '80s, even "Mr. Macho" Sylvester Stallone
was donning those extra-large, intellectual-
looking glasses. You know, the kind only
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Darcelle Infante is a Daily Breeze editor.


smart, nerdy guys in high school wore.
   The '90s man will care more about the environment. He will still chase after the     almighty buck but he won't be quite
so greedy.
    Part of the reason he'll be interested in saving the environment while still
making money is because he'll probably be married and have, or plan to have, children. The '90s man will be getting back to
traditional values, already having proved
he's a "sensitive guy."
    This decade's he-man won't be a physically fit fanatic like the '80s man. After perpetually pounding the pavement and lifting large loads of metal weights, the laid-back '90s guy has realized he doesn't have time to stay in
shape so he'll just settle for eating less.
    He'll eat less because in the '90s--more
than ever before--it's "not how you feel, but how you look that counts."
    This decade will bring tons of instant food and time-saving devices because all of the
'90s men, with their respective careers and families, will be trying to cut corners to save time. In fact, saving time will rate right up there with making money for the next
decade of men.
    I thought that "Mr. '90s" had covered a lot
of bases. But just to be sure he hadn't left anything out, I decided to poll other people.
Participants were asked to describe and
name the quintessential '90s man.

    Here's what the women said.
   * A return to traditional macho values. Actor Kevin Costner.
    * Strong and traditional. Actor Mel Gibson.
    * A real sense of consciousness about his
fellow man. Less greedy. More moral and environmentally concerned. More sincere. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
    * More abstinent. Probably an Alcoholics Anonymous member, a father, a husband. He'll be sweet and sensitive, lacking in masculine traits. Playwright Sam Shepard. Actor Kevin Kline.
    * Greed, greed, greed. The '90s man isn't through with materialism. He'll still be raping the environment without giving full thought to the consequences. Like actor Michael Douglas' character in "Wall Street."
   Here's the men's forecast for the '90s.
    * Will talk and act with real morality. The yuppie period of scratching just for yourself is over. He'll be idealistic, more politically involved. Newly elected Czechoslovakia President Vaclav Havel. Singer Jackson Browne.
    * Sort of wimpish. President George Bush.
    * Space macho. Furturistic, leading us into 2001. Mel Gibson.
    * As sensitive as we are, there's even room for more sensitivity. Comedian Robin Williams. Spiritual leader Dali Lama.
    * More futuristic with a '60s kind of commitment. More settled down but realizing he still has to be on top of it--on the ball. Looking toward family. Aggressively looking for life and more control of his own. Actors Dustin Hoffman and Sean Connery.
    This survey was conducted by myself. It has a very large margin of error. Participants were promised anonymity. But despite the unscientific way in which it was conducted, I got a kick out of the results.
    About 80 percent of the '90s men sounded like my kinda guy.
    But the survey left me with one more question: What will the '90s woman be like?
Lockers are a school tradition well-worth saving
   The war on drugs has claimed another victim.
The latest loss isn't as precious as a human life but it's something that makes life, at least for thousands of students, a little less of a load. Three Long Beach middle schools have joined the ranks of a growning number of California campuses that have locked up lockers and thrown away the keys.
   Drugs and violence are being blamed for the policy. Last year a gun was found hidden in a locker at Jefferson Middle School. That was enough for at least one principal to justify the decision. Adminstrators and teachers also worry that students use the lockers to store drugs. Apparently they doubt that kids "Just Say No," the advice given by former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
   Principals at all three schools--Jefferson, Franklin and Lindbergh--reportedly are
pleased with the experiment, which may expand to 11 more district middle schools.
The metal monsters already are a thing of
the past in the Pasadena and San Bern-
ardino unified school districts and in San
Diego County.
   Gone are the cacophonous sounds of clanking, banging doors that once resonated through the halls. Gone are the alluring flat-gray surfaces just begging for graffiti.
    Custodial costs apparently have decreased, and teachers report students are actually getting to class on time now that they're not twaddling by the lockers.
    In fact, just about everybody seems to be pleased with the decision except for the kids--and who can blame them?
    I went to school during forced integration in the South, when there was no lack of violence. Every other week rumors of race riots would spread around the school, and I can tell you that a few chains and knives were known to
be stored in the lockers. But our school administrators were not malevolent enough
to cart away the metal boxes.
   After all, we had just hit the big time.
Lockers are one of the small perks that students look forward to when they graduate


from grade school; a rite of passage. A friend of mine told me that she and her classmates used to bring carpeting and pictures to decorate their private areas with. Lockers were special, "like something that was all
your own," she said.
    I began wondering why schools didn't bar the boxes in the drug-plagued 1960s or '70s. Did officials care less about students' safety? Were drugs more accepted then?
    I doubt it. It's more likely that educators could recall a time when they too gathered around lockers with their friends and exchanged gossip, letters and I.D. bracelets. Mabye they remembered planning parties, playing tricks and pulling punches. Many
young men and women were coaxed into
their first date during locker talk. And
perhaps educators realized that lockers also contribute to the learning process; serving
as a sort of town hall for teens.
    School hallways are safe meeting places
in a world where all of our children's hangouts are being taken away. Yesteryears' soda shops have been replaced by malls. Gang activity has made many teen clubs and arcades dangerous places.
    Parents fear letting children wander the streets, drive in cars or, in some areas, congregate in their own front yards. The
world has become a scary bullet-riddled
place with nowhere for kids to go to talk
about their fears.
  
   Teen-agers need supervised areas to meet in, and schools should be able to safely provide them. After all, one gun in one locker does not mean every kid has his or her own terrorist arsenal hiding behind closed doors. If a child is going to do drugs he will find a place to stash them with or without lockers.
    The three Long Beach principals even admitted that overall, drugs and weapons have not been a serious problem on their campuses. I have the feeling that officials initiated the lockout because they're just tired of the locker mess.
    If you ask me, their decision sounds like a case of hall-way robbery. The students think so, too. Not only are kids robbed of their social outlet but they also have to carry their books from home to school and from class to class, which is a heavy load.
    San Bernardino school officials weighed students' textbooks and found that kids were toting an average weight of 12 pounds and could be schlepping as much as 26 to 27 pounds if they carried all their books.
    My advice to the other 11 schools that are considering wiping out this age-old academic tradition is: DON'T DO IT!
    Don't place one more burden on the backs of these young scholars, don't let a few bad apples spoil the opportunity for good teen-age memories, don't lock up the boxes and box in the kids. Provide safe meeting places. Find an alternative before you ban lockers.
    And here's another suggestion: Administrators and teachers at all of the schools that have already barred the lockers from campus should be required to carry 27 pounds around on their backs for an entire school year.
    The administrators should be stripped of their offices and the teachers of their lounges. If today's educators can't remember their own locker experiences, it will give them a chance to share in this generation's plight.
   I bet that'd teach 'em a lesson.
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Darcelle Infante is a Daily Breeze editor.