Grandma's House

I just read a few minutes ago that Archibald Cox passed away. I remember him so well, even though I was a teenager. The Watergate Hearings were my baptism into the world of politics. Of course, my folks couldn't figure out why I spent as much time as possible in my room watching the hearings. I knew, even then, how very important those hearings were. I knew history was being made. Of course, at such a tender age, and being raised in a house of Democrats, I was supposed to root for the prosecution. But I didn't really root for either side. I just wanted to be a witness. And I was. I saw the end of the Nixon administration, and I felt that things had changed forever. I suppose they had.

Not long before that, our senior class had to take those dorky tests the military gave every year. Well, thanks to spending a lot of time with my dad, I scored highest in my class on the mechanical portion of the test. An Army recruiter called the house not long after we got the results, wanting me to enlist. This was in 1974. I explained to him that, due to my scoliosis (curvature of the spine), I knew I would never be qualified or even make it through boot camp if I were accepted. He tried to change my mind! He even offered to set it up so the Army would pay for the extensive surgery it would take to fix my back. I told him thanks, but no thanks. I'd had the chance to have the surgery at age 13, and turned it down. Of course, back then the "cure" was a series of operations, over a period of 3 years, in which they would break my spine and reposition it, then fuse it in place. There's no way I could be remotely qualified to be in the Army, with or without the surgery. He finally accepted that, but he was disappointed.

I sometimes wonder how my life would have changed if I had done things differently. But that is something I do not dwell on; those are questions that can never be answered. So I do the best I can, keep a smile on my face, and try to put a smile on the face of others.