I learned mostly to never smile as a defense mechanism most of the time in Junior High and High School in the 1950s and 1960s

Why?

Because if you smiled as a young man in Junior High or High School then you were considered to be weak and could be picked on or rolled down the hill in trash cans or put upside down in the toilet with poop in it head first. If you didn't smile basically you were saying to all other young men: "If you mess with me I might kill you or at the very least maim you."

I was always very protective of the young men and young women around me because I was always tall for my age. So, I often could protect people (both boys and girls) and get away with this. But, if gangs who carried switchblades in their boots were around it was a different story so then you had to either go somewhere else or call the cops to survive those situation in the 1950s and 1960s in Los Angeles.

I can remember a race riot at one of my girlfriend's high schools and I was waiting for this girlfriend and it was maybe 1 pm or so around lunch time. So, all of a sudden she runs in the door panting and barefoot without shoes on. I said: "What happened?" and she said: "Oh. There was a race riot at my high school and I had to run to stay alive and not get beat up or knifed or get killed."

For the Los Angeles or even Long Beach area this was not an unusual thing to happen in the 1960s or 1970s.

So, this is partly why I never smiled in public most of the time and only in private with family or friends or girlfriends. It said to people: (whoever they were). "IF you mess with me you better kill me or I will kill or maim you."

People left you alone if you had this attitude and were big enough and strong enough to pull this off in reality.

However, my father sat me down at age 12 and said to me after I grew from 5 foot 2 to 5 foot 10 in one year: "Freddie. You are so big and strong and you have a temper. So, if someone gets your goat you are going to kill them and no one is going to be able to stop you. So, from now on you have to be the adult in the room in every situation."

This was one of the best things my father did for me because I took him very seriously and I avoided fight after fight where someone might die by listening to what my father told me that day.

It takes two to tangle and if you don't want to fight or kill someone then don't. It's possible to be so terrifying that people won't ever mess with you to begin with.

However, as time went on being potentially physical was less and less useful especially in college but I never stopped mostly not smiling in public because of this habit pattern in the 1950s and 1960s.