IT"S BEEN A WILD RIDE!

Cotton candy, tilt-a-whirls, ferris wheels, marbles, baseball cards, rubberband guns, red-rover, kite flying, fort building, snow ball fights, chasing little girls with pig tails, hiding cigarettes and other found items...
It's been a wild ride!

High school hi-jinks, rumbles, schlitz malt liquor, cigarettes, sock hops, half-pints tucked in the pockets of cabretta leather jackets, girls with short skirts, black nylons, beehive hairdo's, gene vincent, santo and johnny, elvis presley, roy orbison, the beatles, the rolling stones, the beach boys, basement parties...
It's been a wild ride!

College in the 60's...make love not war, demonstrations, viet-nam, free love, good buds, kegger parties, long hair, granny glasses, hip huggers, appleseed necklaces, peace signs, lincoln park, chicago city police, the whole world is watching, psychedelia, woodstock, angelic hippy babes stoned out of their minds, carressing my body, gonna' change the world...
It's been a wild ride!

working in warehouses, taverns, pizza parlors, restaurants, factories, retail shops, construction jobs, biker bars...all the dirty, stinky, funky, "punch that time-clock kinda' shit nobody else wants to do...
It's been a wild ride!

Art galleries, groupies, fancy nightclubs, travel, book signings, please the crowd, phony smiles, promotions, art agents, literary agents, editors, gallery owners, itemizations, tax statements, stock market reports, re-investments...
It's been a wild ride!

Diseases, illnesses, funeral homes, obituaries, stock market crash, deaths of loved ones, sobriety, hope, forgivness, recommitment, emergence, wisdom...
It's been a wild ride!

Flowers, sunsets, cats, dogs, babies, wife, daughter, family, love, friendship, beauty, compassion, grandchildren, happiness, acceptance...
It's been a wild ride...amen.