Mick Jagger & Me...

Right!

Driving back from Dallas, Texas during the height of the rush hour I'm questioning my decision to drive my son to meet a friend. The mega cup of coffee I've downed to steel my tired nerves for the drive back to Cowtown is causing me to grind my teeth and locking my jaws.

Time to crank up the RADIO...to the Lone Star setting with the old pounding Texas edge rock and roll. Out screeches ANGIE....Mick Jagger howling about some girl named Angie, about being without stuff, without money, without a place to be BUT "Angie we tried", he wails. Those were my days...The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Animals, The Doors....on and on...now called the classics.

So, am I a classic relic from the late 60's, an old hippie reminiscing with Mick about the days of wine and pot, a time of free love, peace man, and we will change the world generation. Where did the energy go? Have those idealistic notions of sociability disappeared or have the Love Generation capitulated to the politics of having it all?

Z.Z. Top thumping baseline keeps me moving west while my memories of younger days flowing just as hard and fast as the beat repeats. Through the cracked windshield, my mind flashes short pulses of video footage from my past. There I am, all 4'11" and 91 pounds in that tiny mini skirt walking across the campus quad to a peace rally. It's an all niter, sleep in with the stars above, Beatles music,"Hey Jude", cigarettes and other stuff and of course alcohol. It is Southwest Louisiana, home of the Ragin' Cajuns and this is the year that Playboy declared the university as the number one party school in the nation.

What perfect timing for a virgin catholic girl with only two dates under her belt to make her debut at a happening college? And did I mention, I was a Fine Arts Major....ohhhhhhhhhh the art people are suppose to be different, freaky and with it! Yes!

As for me, I was faking it most of the time and scared to death the rest of the time. Often I got into those situations where I had to do some mighty talkin to get that Cajun boy to bring me back to the dorm on time and to believe me when I said I didn't want IT! Really didn't! Somehow they thought it needed to be debated a bit or to run the clock out and make me late for curfew. So I did end up being campused a few times...arriving late, but I took the punishment rather than staying over night at a dates apartment or frat house! Go figure! I wanted to be in LOVE!

Love did come and go that year and so did my virginity at the age of nineteen. For me it was a gift for my future husband. That didn't happen! What did happen was a huge depressive valley that cost me a year of school, 1.7 grade point average, a rebound relationship, a baby, a marriage and two years later a divorce. My first heartbreak, stayed in my life for several years until a new one appeared with the beginning of 70's Disco Era but that's another memory drive down interstate 10.

the Queen wants to Boogie Woogie...