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1973 – The Surprise Engagement Connie, Jane, and Dottie - hiking around Cohoes Falls I t was 1973, the year the Watergate Trial began, the Vietnam War came to an end, and the year of the Roe vs Wade decision. It was the year Vice President Spiro T Agnew resigned over tax evasion, the Alaska Pipeline Bill was passed, and the speed limit was reduced to 55 mph. In sports, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the battle of the sexes, Secretariat won the triple crown, and a guy named George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees for a measly 12 million dollars. Notable movies were American Graffiti, The Sting, Enter The Dragon, The Exorcist and Woody Allen's Sleeper. Music of the year included Pink Floyd's “Dark Side of the Moon”, Led Zeppelin's “Houses of the Holy”, The Who's “Quadrophenia”, Elton John's “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, and Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On”. Gas was 40 cents a gallon, the average income stood around 12K, the median

HVCC, Physics, and The Boys Club Boys and Girls Club in Troy, NY Life was good. I was out of the Air Force and now living in Watervliet in the Albany area of New York. Dottie had moved up from Long Island after Labor Day and enrolled in the Public Administration Masters Program at SUNY, Albany. I was attending Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) in Troy. I was enjoying being back in school and happy to to be learning things of my own choosing. I had never been a particularly good student. I got OK grades but never fully applied myself. I would learn things that were of interest to me quickly but the rest I tended to do just enough to get by. I was never motivated to get good grades. I was a solid "B" student in High School mostly because that's what it took to appease my parents. Now I was ready to start learning and be part of an environment that encouraged this. The military was wary of and discouraged you from thinking for yourself. Both in b

1972 – Back to Long Island and on to Albany Camping with Dottie It was 1972 and this would be the first presidential election that I would be able to vote in. Richard Nixon was nearing the end of his first term of Presidency and early on it looked like Ed Muskie would be the Democratic nominee. Muskie was on top of the polls and looking like he might have a decent chance to unseat Nixon. But then the “Canuck Letter” came out, supposedly written by Muskie, containing unkind remarks towards Canadians followed by stories about his wife having a drinking problem and being a racist. Of course during the Watergate Investigations it was discovered that these accusations were false and were spread as part of Nixon's “dirty tricks” unit, but that was a little too late. George McGovern would end up being the Democratic nominee. He was a long shot to begin with and then with the Eagleton mess it made the Nixon re-election a slam dunk. At this point I was pretty discourage