I just returned to Chicago from a trip down the west coast.  Adding to the usual amount of sporadic shooting and hassles hippies and psychedelic VW microbuses got, I picked up a heated debate on a Newport, OR radio talk show.  Newport is on the coast highway.  You have to pass through.  The locals didn’t see it that way.  They wanted roadblocks on both sides of town to keep the freaks out.  Hippie vehicles...

According to the ad on the back cover of my comic book I could get a working model train for selling only 12 boxes of Christmas cards.  It didn’t occur to me that selling them in a Jewish highrise could be a problem.  They opened their door to a four foot kid, sweating beside a four foot carton of cards I pushed in and out of the elevator.  They felt sorry for me, probably because they thought I was an idiot. ...

The SIU Acid Queen was exotic and bizarrely out of place in the supermarket checkout line, helplessly trapped in unrelenting white fluorescent.  The cashier was uneasy.  “Three fifty six.” “The chicken is still conscious,” she replied, “It’s screaming.”  The cashier called security. I followed the Acid Queen out.  “Taj!” She turned sharply.  I felt her eyes pierce me all the way to the back of...

Welcome home! BoomerFlashbacks is where those of us lucky enough to grow up in some of the most exciting, changing, amazing times can share stories, thoughts and photos. We were born into the afterglow of the “War To End All Wars.” Rock and roll didn’t exist. The economy was booming. Everybody loved America. Nuclear power was to provide electricity too cheap to even meter. Once we got rid of those evil commies we’d...