There is a shortcut to the library through the neighborhood
and I was musing about my life in this neighborhood in that time frame. My son still lives in the family home. It used to be a neighborhood of young, upwardly mobile young families. I didn't work and I did volunteer things, went out to lunch with friends and played bridge one afternoon a
week. My husband had a lavish expense account and entertained out of town customers so we went out in the evening a lot.

This may sound like a great life. It wasn't. There was something missing. It was like that haunting song, "Is
this all there is?" I knew there had to be more to life
than being a Stepford wife married to the most conservative of Republicans.

I proceeded to get a government loan and go to college the year that Bobby started to Kindergarten. It was as though
a whole new world opened up to me. I was around people who
actually were able to think and to debate issues without becoming angry. I made new friends and explored new horizons. Needless to say, it was death to my marriage but
I have never for one minute regretted.

The war in Viet Nam was deplorable just as war is always horrible and makes sane people wonder why diplomacy fails
when so much is at stake.

Fifty years later, I look at houses where friends once lived. Our neighborhood is mostly made up of the elderly and diverse cultures. I enjoy it. Adrienne goes to school
with Chinese friends, Black friends and Latino friends. She is totally color blind and that is as it should be. It
could never have happened in the sixties.