War and Remembrance I had a moment of powerful nostalgia recently. It was the anniversary of the May 4, 1970, Kent State killings, when four students were fatally shot and nine were injured by the National Guard during an anti-war protest. As a feverishly devout 12-year-old hippie child, I was deeply affected by these killings, as was much of America. At the time, my dad – the radical, cool professor/minister – was preaching Sunday services at a little church in Harper, to which we drove once a week from our home in San Antonio, and he was passionately outraged by the massacre. On the Sunday after Kent State, my dad spoke out in church against the killings, telling the congregation how wrong this barbarous act had been and that God would have expected better of us. Or something like that. Well, the Presbyterian citizenship of Harper wasn’t much interested in such hippie talk, and when my brothers and I attended church with my dad the week after that, my dad was summarily fired. My brothers and I were devastated primarily because after church we were supposed to have had a picnic and afternoon fun on a nearby ranch owned by one of the parishioners. Needless to say, that little outing was canceled pronto, and we were shuttled home while my dad ranted and raged about the injustice of it all. “We are not supposed to kill our children,” he told us. It was a landmark moment in our lives, and things were never the same again. After that, I chanted with the Hare Krishnas, carried worry beads, watched Billy Jack, and marched against the war. The world was on fire, and I was dying to get burned. (So when I hear the dreadful John Mayer singing about “waiting for the world to change,” I like to get all sanctimonious and think to myself that at least when we were young, we tried to change it, rather than waiting for it to change by itself.) When James Michener‘s book Kent State: What Happened and Why came out, I was consumed by it. I read it a number of times and was especially intrigued by Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway who was famously photographed kneeling over the dead body of one of the protesters and screaming. On short order, I too became a 14-year-old runaway, and when I left, I inscribed my copy of the Kent State book to my younger brother, Bill, telling him that I hoped the book would mean as much to him as it did to me and then hiding it where he discovered it a couple of years later. I’d forgotten about that, and many years later, Bill told me about finding it and how moved he’d been by my bequest. So on May 4 of this year, he wrote me and reminded me of the incident; the memories came tumbling back. How naive and sweet it had all been in retrospect – so innocent in our belief that we could stop war. That night, in honor of the historic event, I put on beads and a shawl, lit incense, and played music by Buffy Sainte-Marie and Donovan. It wasn’t quite the same though; I think I was missing the fervid conviction that it would all be better someday and that peace would rule the Earth.
Alley-Catting The annual Top Drawer Couture event put on by Top Drawer Thrift for Project Transitions was a sellout success. It was pretty cute. Mix 94.7‘s Kitty was my co-emcee (we have a long history of emceeing fashion shows together). I predict that they will soon need a larger venue for their increasingly popular show. Yes, of course, I’d like to see better production values, and perhaps PT can explore finding some underwriting to this fresh and very local fundraiser… I went to Margaret and Frank Krasovec‘s home for a reception in honor of photographer Kelly Kirlin (www.kellykirlin.com). Kirlin’s underwater glamour shots are visions to behold – dreamy, ethereal confections that are by private commission – and her stunning fashion photographs leap off the page. The photographs were gorgeous, but it was the food that was so fab. Suzanne Court catered the event, and it is probably the eighth event I’ve been to that she’s catered. This dame is the whole package, a glamorous and beautiful woman; the food, presentation, and services she provides are just exquisite… The Arthouse 5×7 party is Saturday – you know I’ll be there and hope you will too.
This article appears in May 18 • 2007.