Coming of Age - 1967

          I think I was coming of age in 1967, the year I turned 14. I was desperately looking to get out of New Jersey, and get back to the South. The closer it came to time to leave for Atlanta to begin the ninth grade at Woodward Academy, the more excited I became. During the summer that year, the energy was up everywhere… positive and negative. I had never been anywhere except New York and New Jersey, but the visit to Georgia the year before was what turned the tide on my decision to be elsewhere. There was a life and a big world out there, and I, like most youngsters, wanted to get involved. That year was one of counting the minutes, not just the days until being able to head south.

          FM radio was not yet the norm, so all of the hits of that day were being played on AM radio. I would sit on my grandmother’s house, next door to mine, and listen to a little transisitor radio all afternoon during the summer of 1967. I still have that radio as a memento in my workshop. The music was that of The Doors, The Beatles, The Mamas & The Papas, Procol Harem, and others - all now legendary artists. Since 1967 was being referred to as The Summer of Love, Scott McKenzie’s, “If You’re Going To San Francisco”, was up on the charts, and presented a utopian impression of the happenings then on the west coast, which at this time in my life, the moon seemed closer.

          I had had it up to here with the town I grew up in. It, to me, was a decrepid place full of punks and losers, although summers do tend to render pleasant memories of the beach, the amusement parks, and the attractions on the Jersey Shore.  Only 30 miles away, in nearby Newark, where I was born, riots were raging on as racial tensions escalated, and as tempers were pushed to the snapping point by the near 100 degree temperatures.

          In early August of 1967, I was finally able to head south. I spent the month before going to boarding school visiting my aunt and cousins. It was a great time.

The big step in my life now was the day I stepped into that school uniform and entered high school.