When I was twelve

I didn't have an easy time when I was twelve.  In school, I was the sensitive kid who was expected to ignore the meaner classmates. But I got angrier and angrier, and around this time I started getting into fights.

At this time I saw The Sword in the Stone, the Disney animated movie of T.H. White's book about King Arthur's childhood under Merlin's tutelage.  That movie meant a lot to me because I identified with the young hero. (I also liked the slapstick remake of The Three Musketeers that year more than I expected.)

This was in 1974, at the time of the energy crisis, when gas stations attracted long lineups of hoarders anticipating shortages. In the long run, the energy crisis was actually the best thing that ever happened to the Western world, because it got people serious about conversation, at least for a while. (Shame that the lesson got unlearned in the '80s!) What if they'd rationed gasoline, as some people wanted to do?  It was also the year of Nixon's resignation speech, which I heard on a car radio in a Cape Breton Campground.

And it was the year when Mikhail Barishnykov defected from the Soviet Union in Toronto.  We saw the Bolshoi Ballet tour he'd abandoned a few weeks later in Nova Scotia:  they had to change the program, and Mother's said they seemed demoralized.

That was the year of the college fad of streaking (running around nude). One hit single was the depressing song "Billy, Don't Be a Hero." And I recall hearing some funny Cheech & Chong routines on the radio.

I also failed a swimming course that fall, which was very discouraging.  I should have quit it, but I didn't want to be a quitter!