Don't you wish it was 1971 again when life seemed good?

The Penguin thinks so.

when life seemed to really hold the promise of the future.

First in DC for the MayDay riots and then when I got home to NH, for possession of a submachine gun, which any fool could have seen didn't work. I happened to know a guy, Mark Wefers, who went to North Vietnam with Jane Fonda and said a few unfortunate things. So they wanted to get me to rat on him. I got beaten up, my head shaved, transferred from jail to jail every 18 hours or so, etc. Wefers had nothing to do with it, and after 11 days, I finally saw a magistrate. Not a judge, a magistrate. He got lippy with me and I went over his desk after him. I basically said, the longer you keep me in jail, you cunt, the more I win in damages. He tried to have me charged with assault but the grand jury said, he was right, and laughed the whole thing out of court.

Mark Wefers is now an activist lawyer working for the poor in NH. We were right, they were wrong. Period.

I heard of a guy who got into trouble with the BATF for possession of an old Thompson he found at the bottom of a river. The damned thing had rusted together, the receiver was inoperable, but they still threatened the hell out of him.

I wish I had stories like that to tell people, but I've never been much of an activist. I have gone to jail, though, but not for anything so noble. Just for being a punk.

RFK and Martin Luther King had been assassinated just a few years before; Kent State in 1970; Nixon was president and Vietnam was still raging. Tough times, IMO.

Though I have to say, now is worse.

But then that just makes me mindful of how many regrets I have.

Actually I do wish it was 1971 again and my mother had divorced my father and re-married a nicer man. But I'm sure you don't want to hear about the soap opera that was my life up until about two years ago.

thats when i started having sex regulary... :)

And was almost drafted and sent to Vietnam. Thankfully, I flunked my Army physical twice and earned a 4-F classification (Medically Unfit for Military Service).

Those small computers..



Cool cars:



Cool fashions:




Anti-war:

that was my favorite year. you weren't a senior trying to set an example, and you weren't a lowly freshman or sophomore. it was fun fun fun. i lost my virginity that summer, too!

my mom died.

I got a 99 on my Iowa Test of Basic Skills and was never able to replicate it - much to the annoyance of my school administration. Maybe I switched test papers with Martin, just like Bart.

It was a long hot summer - we didn't get air conditioning for another year.

I'm not wishing for 1971.

I spent the first half of that year swimming in embryonic fluid and during the second half I had serious issues with incontinence.