There were two times when something changed my life dramatically,
and I link to the stories I wrote about them
in August 2016 and October 2017, respectively.**
The first was going to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago:
Universe ablaze with changes
The second was going to California for law school,
instead of staying in Cambridge:
Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?
If I hadn’t gone to the Convention in 1968, I might not have become the political radical I was and am.
If I hadn’t moved to California in 1974 . . . I just don’t know . . .
it definitely would have been a different life.
There were two times, one in the '60s and one in the '70s, when something changed my life dramatically,
RetroFlash / 100 words (excluding footnote)
**Please read these two stories if you weren’t on the site back then, or you just missed them. They were on the prompts “Turning Points” and “The Road Not Taken” – both surprisingly similar to the current prompt.
Suzy
I have no doubt that attending the 1968 convention was life changing. Just watching it (along with the whole world) was life changing enough. And of course moving to California, I can also attest, was a whole new world. I would suspect no regrets.
Both major events and inflection points in your life, Suzy. I know that going to Chicago in 1968 has influenced you in SO many ways, even to this week – poll watching in Georgia. I admire you for the courage of your convictions.
Those are certainly huge and life-changing experiences/decisions. Even though 1968 was a traumatic election for many of us, and the overreaction of the police under the first Mayor Daley was terrible, it sparked activism in you and many others. I admire your trips to GA. While I still hope the Senate is won before the run-off, we cannot have Walker in the Senate. This lunacy has to stop.
Reading your tales of experience with 1968 Chicago reminds me of just how broad our radicalization spread. An open-minded person could have been inside or outside the convention hall then and realized how dire the circumstances had become. I’m in awe of your evergreen activism, Suzy.
Brilliant choices of your life changes, Suzy, and I much enjoyed reading your previous stories about them. (And equally brilliant of you to somehow convert such a momentous topic into a RetroFlash.) But we do miss you on the East Coast!
And, as always, a perfect song title title. And perhaps my favorite Bowie song. Thanks for this week’s earworm.
I remember reading both of those pieces, Suzy! And I think I’m pretty sure I included some of “Universe Ablaze with Changes,” in my book on the 60s, no? Your account of the ’68 convention was riveting. I was a senior in college then and was just starting to develop an interest in politics, although obviously — given my age — Vietnam weighed heavily on my mind.
Yes, Jim, you did include “Universe” in your book, on pages 36-38, to be precise. I was honored to have that and several other stories included in your account of Daily Life in the 1960s Counterculture.
I remember watching the news coverage of the cops beating protesters in ’68, and hearing my ostensibly conservative Republican Dad repeating out loud that this behavior by the police was just wrong and un-American. It really changed his views, which is a testament to his willingness to abandon prior beliefs in the face of new information.