Getting Knocked Up in College
In Patti’s memoir Just Kids, readers can get a glimpse of just how different her life might have been under different circumstances. In 1966, when she was about 20 and going to Glassboro State College, she was studying to be a teacher. But then she got pregnant by a 17-year-old boy whom she described as even more immature than she was.
Patti Smith with her mother. Photo by George Rose / Getty Images
Patti went through with the pregnancy, had the baby, but decided to give it up for adoption. She explained that she was a “lower-middle-class kid” whose family had no money. There was simply no room in their little house to add a baby. There were already four kids, including Patti, who lived there.