Time Warp

Yesterday I put on my Extreme Retro Dress with the bright green and white background splashed with big hot pink and orange flowers and was applying Super Shock mascara in preparation for a little party in Stevil's backyard, and suddenly I realized as I belted out one of my favorite John Lennon songs, "Mother," along with the Musician Himself, as the CD played on my old Pioneer stereo in the living room, that I might have warped back in time about 35 years to 1972, when Shaved Fish was put out and other women were wearing little sleeveless numbers like I was, instead of just telling me how much they like mine.

Shaved Fish contains important political and social commentary. The playlist: Give Peace a Chance, Cold Turkey, Instant Karma!, Power to the People, Mother, Woman Is the Nigger of the World, Imagine, Whatever Gets You Through the Night, Mind Games, #9 Dream, Happy XMas (War Is Over)- Give Peace a Chance Medley. I don't have to tell any of you reading this thing today that we've come a ways but that a lot of this stuff still applies- or let's say "applies again." That's more fitting, I think, makes a more accurate statement. What's going on? Why are we letting ourselves back up? People, this is crazy, you know. Time to change all that.

I started wondering what was happening, exactly, on July 10, 1972, but it was time to leave. As it was, I was running so close to late, and then I had to stop and yap with friends sitting out on their front porches and riding their bikes, trying to keep cool on a hot summer evening, and I was late to meet the FFM. So, this morning, with all that time I afford myself at the table with Scutabaga, coffee, sunshine and a breeze coming in the open door and windows, here is what I have discovered was going on July 10 and July 11, 36 years ago:

On July 10, 1972, the Democratic National Convention, with George McGovern that year's Presidential nominee, opened in Miami.
Reported MIA in Vietnam:
July 10: Frank C. Green, Jr., of Waskom, TX
July 11: Kenneth L. Crody of Griffith, IN; Jerry W. Hendrix of Wichita, KS; Henry D. Lesesne of Florence, SC; Frederick J. Masterson of Oakland, CA; Robert I. Randall of Neptune, NJ.

Other stuff that happened in 1972:
Nixon ordered development of the space shuttle program; on my birthday the US and the People's Republic of China signed the Shanghai Communique; Vietnam War; Pioneer 10 spaceprobe was launched with the mission to explore the outer planets; the Goodyear blimp made its first flight; Vietnam War; the first mobile phone call was placed in NYC; Apollo 16 landed on the moon; the Don't Make a Wave Committee, founded the previous year in Canada, changed its name to Greenpeace Foundation; Vietnam War; Watergate; Atari was established; the US Senate ratified the ABM Treaty; Vietnam War; Mark Spitz won his seventh gold medal in swimming at the summer Olympics in Munich; a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors took place on the USS Kitty Hawk; Nixon beat McGovern for President; Vietnam War.

Stevil's party was nice. The weather was perfect; the conversation was light. Except speaking of Vietnam. Harold and Annie and Leah were there, fresh from a long trip to Vietnam. Harold recently sat out front of the coffee shop on an evening and talked to the FFM and me about orphanages and a high number of birth defects and how the US of A assumes no responsibility, though the timing and effects of certain chemicals are right... Yesterday Annie told me about her encounters with street kids in her recent travels throughout Vietnam, and how she and Leah, who is approaching 9 years old, want to go back for a couple months in the future to continue working with them. We discussed homelessness as a phenomenon that is highly visible in some places, like urban areas of the US, and less so in others, like rural parts of the country. But it's still there. We promised to keep each other in touch about our research and endeavors and then went back to banter.