1978

1978

Woodbine Avenue

Overbrook

Philadelphia, PA

My age: 22-23

School- I started a graduate program at St. Joseph’s University.  I went at night.  My professor was terrible and one day she came to class, crying.  She was just named Adjunct Professor of the Year and she was moved to tears.  I couldn’t believe it and decided if she is the best, I wasn’t interested in this program.

Work-  I was hired as a credit collector for After Six Formal Wear.  That was one thankless job.  Many people do not like to pay their bills.

Music- Disco music was bumping in to Rock and Roll on the radio. In the bars, disco was played because it was so danceable for people.

• "Shadow Dancing" Andy Gibb
• "Night Fever" Bee Gees
• "You Light Up My Life" Debby Boone
• "Stayin' Alive" Bee Gees
• "Kiss You All Over" Exile
• "How Deep Is Your Love" Bee Gees
• "Baby Come Back" Player
• "Three Times a Lady" Commodores
• "Grease" Frankie Valli
• "I Go Crazy" Paul Davis
• "You're the One That I Want" John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John
• "Lay Down Sally" Eric Clapton
• "Miss You" The Rolling Stones
• "Just the Way You Are" Billy Joel
• "Hot Child in the City" Nick Gilder
• "Love Is Like Oxygen" Sweet
• "It's a Heartache" Bonnie Tyler
• "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" Queen
• "Baker Street" Gerry Rafferty
• "Can't Smile Without You" Barry Manilow
• "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams
• "Dance With Me" Peter Brown
• "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" Meat Loaf
• "Take a Chance on Me" ABBA
• "Sometimes When We Touch" Dan Hill
• "Last Dance" Donna Summer
• "Hopelessly Devoted to You" Olivia Newton-John
• "Hot Blooded" Foreigner
• "You're in My Heart" Rod Stewart
• "The Closer I Get to You" Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
• "Dust in the Wind" Kansas
• "Short People" Randy Newman
• "Use ta Be My Girl" The O'Jays
• "Our Love" Natalie Cole
• "Love Will Find a Way" Pablo Cruise
• "An Everlasting Love" Andy Gibb
• "Love Is in the Air" John Paul Young
• "Goodbye Girl" David Gates
• "Slip Slidin' Away" Paul Simon
• "Disco Inferno" The Trammps
• "On Broadway" George Benson
• "Come Sail Away" Styx
• "You Belong to Me" Carly Simon
• "Here You Come Again" Dolly Parton
• "Blue Bayou" Linda Ronstadt
• "You Needed Me" Anne Murray
• "Count On Me" Jefferson Starship
• "Baby Hold On" Eddie Money
• "Hey Deanie" Shaun Cassidy
• "Summer Nights" John Travolta &; Olivia Newton-John
• "What's Your Name" Lynyrd Skynyrd
• "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" Crystal Gayle
• "Because the Night" Patti Smith Group
• "Every Kinda People" Robert Palmer
• "Copacabana" Barry Manilow
• "Running on Empty" Jackson Browne
• "Whenever I Call You 'Friend'" Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks
• "Sweet Talkin' Woman" Electric Light Orchestra
• "Life's Been Good" Joe Walsh
• "I Love the Nightlife" Alicia Bridges
• "It's So Easy" Linda Ronstadt
• "I Can't Stand the Rain" Eruption
• "We're All Alone" Rita Coolidge
• "Hollywood Nights" Bob Seger

Movies

• California Suite
• Coming Home
• Grease
• Heaven Can Wait
• Interiors
• Midnight Express
• Moment by Moment
• Oliver's Story

Books
I was reading a lot of JD Salinger and a variety of Japanese writers from the 40s and 50s.

Travels

• I went up to the Boston area for the first time. I loved those coastal towns.
• I had friends in NYC so I would visit them on weekends this year.
• My friend, Sam, lived in Pittsburg and a group of us would descend on Sam's mother's house and spend the weekend.
• My visits to our beach house were limited to the weekends.

News Events-

• The pope came to Philadelphia and I couldn’t get enough of this wonderful moment.
• Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords in an effort to secure peace between the two nations. The Nobel Peace Prize was then awarded to Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in October.  I dont knoIw why CI 
• NASA unveiled the first group of women astronauts. The group included Shannon Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn Sullivan, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, and Sally Ride. The women enrolled in astronaut training and completed it in 1979.  
• The first Garfield comic strip debuts in U.S. newspapers. Created by cartoonist Jim Davis, the comic strip focused on the life of a lazy and often sarcastic cat named “Garfield.”  And I think this guy is somehow related to my brother-in-law.
• The US Senate ratified the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The treaties guaranteed that the United States would hand over control of the Panama Canal back to Panama by the end of 1999. And I wasn't even aware that we controlled the canal.
• After nearly 30 years The Volkswagen Beetle stops production having manufactured 20 million cars.  These were great cars for new drivers on a budget.
• The Japanese car Imports account for half the US import market following the energy crisis and increase in fuel prices that fuels demand for economy cars.  And our USA made cars did nothing to address this concern.
• Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer. When this mandate was issued, many of us laughed at how ridiculous this law was.
• Serial killer David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.  I was surprised that he didn't get the death penalty.
• The US stops production of the Neutron Bomb which could kill people but leave buildings and infrastructure standing. We are so awful sometimes.
• The first Susan B. Anthony Dollar is minted on December 13th.  The coin was too big and got confused with the quarter and no one liked to carry this coin. 
• Indira Ghandi faces fraud charges in India. 
• Roman Polanski flees to France before he was to be formally sentenced for rape and other charges against a child. He hasn't been back in the country since then and he is still unwelcome.
• The People's Temple religious cult, founded by Jim Jones. He commanded his followers to drink poisoned punch, many of them willingly drank the poison but there was also evidence that several had to be forced by other followers and armed guards. There was a death toll of over 900 people, more than 300 of them were children. Jones was also found dead of a gunshot wound. 
• There were 3 Popes in just about one month. Pope Paul VI died. John Paul I became Pope from  August 26th, 1978 and died just 33 days later on September 28, 1978. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II .
• The world's population is estimated at 4.4 billion  people.
• Karl Wallenda, founder of the Flying Wallendas, dies after falling off a tight-rope. 
• 98% of all American homes have a television .  I am one of the 2% who do not have a TV.
• The first test tube baby is born in England a girl Louise Brown, from  in vitro fertilization.  I thought this was creepy.

Family and friends

• Sharon, my sister, graduated from college. She moves back home which make life a bit more bearable for me.  Now I have someone to complain with me about the fact that we are college grads and we have to live with our parents.
• Now that I was working, my visits to the beach were limited to weekends.  That was an adjustment.
• It is an adjustment to go from lots of college friends to trying to make new friends with my work colleagues.
• I don't have a car so I have to bum rides from friends, hitchhike or take the bus through life.
• I went to Time Square for New Year's Eve. It was cold, crowded and exciting.

Dachau Concentration Camp- 1978

1978- Dachau, Germany

I am 23 and traveling through Europe with a friend.  We are in Amsterdam, leaving Anne Franks’ house and I am moved to tears with the injustice of the world and the courage of one young girl.  

“What should we do tomorrow”, my friend asks?

She wants to go to Switzerland to see the beautiful Alps. But now I want to go to Munich to Dachau, the concentration camp.  That is more than my friend can bear so we part company and catch up to each other in a few days.

I board a midnight train and make my way to Munich.  I spend the night reading Anne Franks diaries. By the time I arrive in Munich, I am exhausted and sadden.  My eyes burns and now I am sorry I have wandered off on my own to search out such misery.

I make my way to this beautiful town of Dachau and find a pastry shop.  In conversation with one of the locals, a pleasant woman, about 60 years old, she offers tourist sight for me to see.  “And I hope you haven’t come to see that dreadful camp.  There are so much more beautiful things to see in my country than that.”  I don’t respond because it is just easier for both of us.  But I wonder if she lived here during that time and did she know what was going on?

I find the camp and spend the day in bewilderment. The inhumanity is beyond comprehension.  I cant take it all in.  Nothing makes sense to me and I want to forget this place.  Just then I hear a man call to his wife, “over here, love, come take my photo by the oven.”  He stands perched against one of the crematory ovens, smiling as if this photo just might be his Christmas card photo.  I want to forget this place and he wants to make it a photo opportunity. I leave, angry with him.

The Hafbrau House- 1978

The Hafbrau House
Munich, Germany
Summer 1978

I was kicked out of the famous Hafbrau House in Germany for standing on a table with six men.  We were joyously singing the Canadian national anthem.  The bouncer quickly came over to our table and shouted, “Nin, nin.”  I thought I was being funny so I responded, ”He wants to hear it nine more times.” Now I was singing even louder.  With that, he grabbed me by my legs and lifted me off the table.  I was shoved out of the place.  

And I can tell you this:  that is the last time I ever go to that place.

Crimes of Inhumanity

1978- Dachau, Germany

I am 23 and traveling through Europe with a friend.  We are in Amsterdam, leaving Anne Franks’ house and I am moved to tears with the injustice of the world and the courage of one young girl. 

“What should we do tomorrow”, my friend asks?

She wants to go to Switzerland to see the beautiful Alps. But now I want to go to Munich to Dachau, the concentration camp.  That is more than my friend can bear so we part company and catch up to each other in a few days.

I board a midnight train and make my way to Munich.  I spend the night reading Anne Franks diaries. By the time I arrive in Munich, I am exhausted and sadden.  My eyes burns and now I am sorry I have wandered off on my own to search out such misery.

I make my way to this beautiful town of Dachau and find a pastry shop.  In conversation with one of the locals, a pleasant woman, about 60 years old, she offers tourist sight for me to see.  “And I hope you haven’t come to see that dreadful camp.  There are so much more beautiful things to see in my country than that.”  I don’t respond because it is just easier for both of us.  But I wonder if she lived here during that time and did she know what was going on?

I find the camp and spend the day in bewilderment. The inhumanity is beyond comprehension.  I cant take it all in.  Nothing makes sense to me and I want to forget this place.  Just then I hear a man call to his wife, “over here, love, come take my photo by the oven.”  He stands perched against one of the crematory ovens, smiling as if this photo just might be his Christmas card photo.  I want to forget this place and he wants to make it a photo opportunity. I leave, angry with him.

1994: Cape Town, South Africa
  I was in Cape Town, South Africa in the early spring of 1994, just a few weeks before the election to end apartheid. There was lots of optimisms and tension in the air. We went to one of the township housing settlements for the blacks. Hundreds of people lived together in very confined areas. Living conditions were deplorable. here is hope that the election of Mandela will bring an end to these deplorable conditions.

As I was standing on the dirt road, a group of kids were playing around me. They were having fun and kicking up dirt. An old man came up to them and yelled at them. He waved his cane at them. They immediately stopped and ran away. 

My guide, a young black woman, asks me, “Do you know what he said to them?” I had no idea. I shook my head no. “He told them to stop kicking up all this dust around you. He said they should be more respectful towards you because you are a white person.”

2005: Viet Nam, The American War Museum

I am in Viet Nam, visiting the American War Museum. The country is celebrating 30 years since the end of this war.  I have always been drawn to this war.  Why were we ever there? What did we hope to accomplish? Would I ever fight in a war? What great atrocity would have to be committed to motivate me to take up arms against another human being?

The last soldiers sent over there would be my age now.  They would be men who have had their children and are now slipping into the role of grandparents.

I notice a photo of an American taken in 1970; he must be my age now, maybe even older.  He is bare chested, smoking a cigarette and he is holding something with one hand, he is grinning, ear-to-ear.  I look closer and he is holding the head and upper torso of a Vietnamese man. The rest of this body been blown away. Our soldier holds this head like a trophy, like a hunter who has just snagged a buck.  Of all the destruction I see today, this photo haunts me the most and I wonder what this man would think of his photo now, 30 years later.

2005- Cambodia- The Killing Fields

The headquarters for the Khmer Rogue is a grade school in Phnom Penh.  Picked with the full intention of making a mockery of the people, their school, a safe haven for children, was the center for torture for intellects.

Even though so much of the torture took place here, I am a little numb to my surrounds as I roam from room to room.  I sort of block it out of my mind, just to cope.  I am still thinking about the photo of the American soldier.

But when we step outside and go to the Killing Fields, I look up and see the monument that reaches to the skies. It is filled with the skulls of hundreds and hundreds of victims, and at that moment, life just becomes too real.  And when I think it can’t get any more gruesome, I look down at my shoes and see splinters of bones protruding from the soil and I feel bombarded with inhumanity. Thousands of people are buried beneath my feet and I am walking on them with no clear understanding of how massive this gravesite is.

2008- Auschwitz, Poland

Jim and I are on a train, making our way to Auschwitz.  “I wonder if this is the actual route they took”, he comments ever so somberly.  “I wonder how much they knew what going in to here. What were they thinking when they pulled up here?” His tone is unusually pensive.

The setting is just as horrible as the concentration camp in Dachau. So the harse reality doesn’t slap me in the face the way it did for Jim. But the exhibit of the solders’ socks made with the hair of the prisoners seems particularly cruel to me.

Jim is very quiet as we all are. We walk around in silence and try to figure out how to even respond to all of this ugliness.  Just then, our silence is broken.   An older couple approaches us.  We are standing by the execution wall where the prisoners had to stand and be shot or watch others as they are executed.  The wall has an ugly history, one of murder, shame and grief.

“Excuse me, would you be so kind?  Would you take a photo of my wife and I in front of the wall?” he asked ever so cheerfully, oblivious to the thoughtlessness of his request.

The thought of cheerfully posing in front of this horrific wall offends me as it does Jim.  He looks at me and I look back at him in disbelief of this disrespectful gesture. 

“No”,  Jim answers, “No, we won’t” and we walk away.

2012- Dachau, Germany

I am in Germany, visiting friends with my 20 year old nephew.  William wants to go to Dachau but he is afraid this interest in this bleak moment of history for Germany will offend my friends.  I assure him that they view this time as a very sad moment as well and they won’t be offended.  So we go off on a cold, wet, windy, snowy day.

William tells me we can wait for another day, for better weather.

“No, let’s go today and get the full effect. Let’s try to imagine how awful this place was for them on a cold, snowy day.”

We got to the gate and I told William to take the time he needs. 

“When should we meet?” he asks. 

“When you have had enough,” I tell him. We part company at the entrance and I don’t see him until the end of the day, when the museum is closing. 

Since my visit, almost 25 years ago, so much more documentation has been added, so I stayed inside the museum and read every letter, every directive, every memo, every newspaper article displayed.  And after all of that, I still can’t get an inkling of understanding as to how one man could have convinced so many people to prey on the spirit and souls of so many innocent people. 

I am numb by the time I run into William.  He is wet and cold and dumfounded by the day’s experience as well. On the train ride home, I ask him what he thought of the gas chambers.

“What, I didn’t see them.  Where were they?  Damn, I didn’t see them.”

Later in the evening, we mention the chambers again and again, he laments that he missed them.  It’s as if this journey is now incomplete in his mind.  There are unanswered questions.

“Then let’s go back tomorrow to see them.” I offer.

“No, that’s ok.  We don’t need to do that.”

But I can tell this oversight is bothering him.  So I convince him that we should go back so he can see what he needs to see.  “Take the time you need to soak in this horrible moment.”

I go with him to the chambers.  It’s a big cement room with shower faucets up too high on the wall.  There are several entrances and both of us don’t dare to actually step inside the chambers.  It’s too ugly, too scary, too sad.  We stand in silence for some time and then he says, “Ok, I’m finished.” And we leave.

New Year's Eve- Times Square

New Year’s Eve- Time Square- 1978

My first year out of college was fun and freeing but it was also confining.  I loved being an adult now.  And having an income, as meager as it was, was so liberating.  But being responsible and confided to a 40 hour a week obligation did require an adjustment to my free spirit.  It limited my spontaneity.  It required me to get to bed at a reasonable hour each work night.  I had to iron my blouses now.  And panty hose ate up too much of my expendable income.

So my free time was cherished and I tried to make every minute count.  So when I got an invitation to spend New Year’s Eve in Time Square, I jumped with excitement.  Yes, I wanted to bring in the New Year at the most happening spot in the world.  Yes, this was one cool idea, an adventure worth bragging about.  “Yea, I was in Time Square on New Year’s” I would tell people nonchalantly as if to convey, where else would you expect me to celebrate the New Year.

So I packed a backpack and hopped a train to Penn Station.  I made my way to my friends’ apartment.  It was a one bedroom apartment and three of them shared the place.  The twin sisters shared the bottom bunk and Judy had the top bunk.  There was a fold out table in the kitchen.  And when the table was out, it blocked the door to the bathroom.  So if someone had to use the bathroom when we were eating, we would all have to get up, grab our plate and grab one of the bowls of food as well.  And someone dropped a leaf of the table.  And we all rearranged ourselves to let the other person out and then we waited until she finished in the bathroom.  And then she came out and we rearranged ourselves again.  And none of us cared about this inconvenience because that is the price you pay to live and play in this great city.

So now it was time to make our way down to Time Square.  Someone asked “how much money are you bringing.  How much money should I bring?  Should I bring it all?”

I offered a bit of caution.  “Only bring as much as you can afford to lose.  I’m not bringing my train money with me.  There are going to be lots of pick pocketers in the crowd.”  Well, you would have thought that a great prophet had just spokes because my line was quoted several times in the next hour as we all got ready for the big event.

It was cold and we bundled up and then drank too much blackberry brandy.  We had convinced ourselves that this drink would keep us warm, which it didn’t.  It only served to get us drunk quickly and then we had to go to the bathroom which was not available to us.  But this major inconvenience did not curb any of our drinking.

Crowds had already gathered.  The streets were crowded. Stores were crowded.  And excitement filled the air.  And my group of friends strutted through life with a sense of coolness that we thought we had earned.  Watch out Manhattan, we had arrived.

We made our way to Time Square and we were sandwiched in amongst thousands of people, most of them very, very drunk.  People were smoking pot.  Hustlers were luring drunks in to their card tricks and taking their money.  Merchants were selling knock off bags and scarves and hats.

We found a group of guys who shared their whiskey with us.  And after a few shots, some of us were trading shots for kisses.  And this arrangement seemed to be agreeable with all of us. We were having a good time.

The ball was going to drop in fifteen minutes and that is when a fight broke out.  I looked to my left and four or five teenage boys were rolling on the ground, wrestling each other.  The crowd forced an open gap to get out of the boys’ way.  The boys shot up and startled to run.  And then I felt someone push me and I heard the woman beside me scream, “Get him. He took my necklace.”  The woman was hysterical.  The boys had eyed her beautiful, expensive multi-diamond necklace just a few minutes ago and then they faked a fight as a way to distract all of us to pull off this perfectly executed robbery.  And I had just noticed her necklace, just moments before it was stolen. It sparkled so much under the street lights that it caught my attention. And now it was gone.

Now this woman wanted me to run after them and get her necklace back.  She was shaking and bordering on shock.  I told the woman that I would go find a police officer.  But I was not going to risk my life over this woman’s diamond necklace.  That’s why you have homeowner’s insurance.

When I didn’t move right away, she turned to the others in the crowd and demanded, “Go get them.”  But like me, no one complied.  But a police officer did arrive on the scene and he moved the lady out of the crowd.  But her anger and her disappointment in us lingered in the air.

I don’t remember watching the ball drop.  I was still absorbed by the robbery.  I couldn’t believe the thoughtlessness and selfishness of the robbers.  And I couldn’t believe the arrogance of the victim.  She was in this large, unruly crowd in her beautiful full length mink coat.  Her neckline was purposely exposed on this cold night and she proudly displayed her diamond necklace with 20 or 30 diamonds worth thousands of dollars. And then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone.  And then she expected complete strangers to risk their lives to get her necklace back. And when we didn’t, she became angry with us.  And as I stewed over these last few minutes, I found myself becoming more and more angry with her.  She chose to call attention to herself.  She chose to display this beautiful necklace to this large crowd of the rich and the poor, the haves and the have- nots.  And the have- nots saw it and went for it.  She didn’t deserve it.  But she was careless and ostentatious and now she is the victim. But really, we were all victims because a cloud of anger and regret hung over all of us as others cheered for the end of one year and the hopes of a new year.