I volunteered at the Community Crisis Center on the Strip, back in the day.  Mostly we held hands with folks who’d taken something bad (we called it “talking them down”), answered the phone and generally tried to serve our subculture (not that we thought of it that way at the time).

One night around midnight, I left the Center through its back door, walking toward my MG Midget to go home, when I noticed an odd shadow.  I hollered out, “Hey! You! Behind the tree!”  A large and imposing man stepped out to say, “Who, me?”

“Yes!  Can you  help me?  It’s late and I’m a little scared that the boogie man might get me.  Could you please walk me to my car?”

And so he did.  And ordered me to lock my door.  And sternly announced, “Don’t ever do that again:  I AM the boogie-man.”

To which I simply replied, “Yeah, I knew that.”

I learned that night that folks tend to live up to what you expect from them.

I hitched innocently and safely all over the country, encountering people who are my friends to this day.  My late lamented godchild once remarked that he wished he’d been born in our time, it was much better then.  He was right.

Kent State changed everything.  We were gonna change the world, but hell, they started shooting at us!  But we did make a difference:  I recently participated in the Texas Tea Party.  Because of us, people know that you can come together peacefully for change.

In a sad way I’m glad to have mourned JFK, his brother, and Dr. King.  Talk about changing the world!  I think we have lived in the best of times.  I have buried way too many people, but oddly have no regrets.

 We made a difference.  What a legacy!

~Kate