Racing Paul Newman, Westport, CT 06880- Summer of 1969

“IMPORTANT STATEMENT: I absolutely do NOT support anyone, any kids or any teenagers doing any of the harmful activites that I have described, nor do I support anyone engaging in any illegal or harmful activities, substance abuse or breaking any laws... traffic or otherwise? Some teenagers do some really immature stupid reckless things and I have described many of them.

SAY NO TO DRUGS. DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE. OBEY ALL TRAFFIC AND SAFETY LAWS. STAY STRAIGHT AND SOBER, DRIVE SAFELY AND GET A GOOD EDUCATION."

DO NOT STEAL. DO NOT LIE. DO NOT PUNK OR PRANK A TOWN.

Some folks mentioned have chosen to remain notorious, others anonymous, and others may have chosen an alias. Those priviledged to have been there are the only ones who know for sure.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"BIG CLARIFICATION: I must make it absolutely clear that when I use the term racing Paul Newman on the back roads I do not mean racing in the sense of kids challenging each other to see who can go faster. I mean racing in a sense of bored teenagers driving around seeking thrills in the middle of the night, and a car would come from behind out of nowhere to drive along side our car several seconds... long enough to see who all was in the car... to see if his son was in the car... and then be gone again in a flash.

We had to look quickly to be able to identify who was driving, and we had to be even quicker and be in a fast car to try and keep pace with or try and overtake the car... which I don't recall might have happened but once cuz it didn't go on for long at all and the car escaped by turning down a side road. But we double checked on a couple occasions to see the identical car in Paul Newman's driveway and the car hood over the engine was warm to touch.

With myself not having grown up around a present loving father, and so many absent affluent parents in Westport, CT so many kids did not really have a dad around much, much less such an involved dad so it struck me so deeply to see such a famous father putting so much at risk to go out and actively look for and try and save their beloved child who was getting caught up in the reckless times of growing up in the day in the summer of 1969. Of all the kids I knew who were going through those changing times of growing up, Paul Newman is the only father in Westport that I remember who was going out searching for their kid like that. (I sure feel scared and sorry for any drug drealers he may have ever caught up with!)

As I became to learn what God was about as a loving father loving his son, I was reminded of Paul Newman as a living example of a father and his great love for his son.

And then after the horrible tragic accidental loss of Scott, and the phenomenal empire that Paul Newman built to reach out to help so many other children served as another living example to me of how mighty and awesome of a father that God is, and the incredible miracles and programs, children healed and helped that resulted and sprung forth as a result of a death of a son.

But anyway, in no way do I want to imply in any way whatsoever that Paul Newman was out drag racing teenage kids on backroads to see who can go faster... because frankly, usually it was no race.

Because usually it was like a phantom car that would suddenly appear from behind and drive up along side long enough to be able to identify who is who, and we were left in the smoke in the distance unless our driver floored the gas pedal.  What memories of a lifetime many years ago!"

From some comments left on a Westporter website..

John Kyle - 1970
Wednesday, 03/03/1999
06:38:32

I remember cruising the Post Road from Main Street, to the old Ice Cream Parlor, to Big toppe, and all the way to Mcdonalds in Fairfield.....and then back....and forth....all night. Also, remember when they closed (the formerly) open campus in 1969? You had to have a pass to leave. so we would find someone with a pass, and pile as many people as possible in their trunk (the cars were BIG back then)...Especially Karen Maddox' Oldsmobile 98. How about the old Student Lounge in back or Bldg 9? Blackjack was played Vegas style, and mucho money was lost and made. Or, skipping school, "stealing" dad's car from the RR station, and making a day of it? think I was the only one to ever get caught. Dad's boss died, and they sent his office home early. SO, as I was driving the old VW down Riverside Ave to return it to the station about 3PM, what should happen but....One of Westports finest swerved in front of me, and jumped out with gun drawn yelling "Halt, or I will shoot". I thought it was a joke, until I noticed my dad sitting in the patrol car. (the car had been reported stolen. Well, the memories go on and on...

John Kyle - 1970
Friday, 05/07/1999
11:12:13

Yes, you are speaking about the Remarkable Bookshop, one of my favorite all-time places, now gone these past few years. Main street is gone now, the only place I can recognize is the Pizzeria, with Mel and Joe. And I hear Klein's is closing to become Banana Republic. I guess this is progress, but I prefer to remember it as it was in the sixties and seventies. I willbe visiting this month, and always wonder what other landmarks will be gone.

John Kyle - 1970
Friday, 06/11/1999
03:14:03

Mary, check your email, the house you are referring to was the Gilchrist's, I think. And Dan Woog, sorry I didn't have time to get in touch last month, the time just got away from me, and the visit was just too short. I agree, the Big Toppe ruled, I worked there in 69 on the grill, with Pam Martin on the cash register. And Ummh, the ribs really were something to behold, and will never be beaten. Got to spend time at Compo last week, and it never changes. Always restful, and enjoyable. Class of 70....we are planning the reunion for next summer, so contact Viviane Pommier if you want to be included

John Kyle - 1970
Saturday, 11/20/1999
19:59:10

Thank you Dan and Sue for the moving memories of that very traumatic era in our lives. I think that November 1963 was a defining period for all of us old enough to remember it all clearly. I was in the 6th grade, in Highland Park, Illinois (just before I moved to Westport). I was in the library when the principal announced over the speaker that Kennedy had been shot, and dismissed school for the day. Kennedy was the only president I had ever known, and was a real hero to me (and still is). It was impossible to believe he was dead. The vivid memories are...all the adults weeping, and the round the clock TV coverage. The funeral....the widow, children, VIP's, the horse-drawn caisson, the little boy's salute (and now he is gone too). And then the sight of Oswald being shot, probably the first real-life murder ever caught on TV. All of us must remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we felt and reacted during those days. I look foreward to reading other's recollections.

Thom Pedersen - 1970
Sunday, 07/18/2004
07:15:43

if someone were to ask me to remember something that happened a week ago or a month ago i would draw a blank stare and have to strain to recall that particular thing but to remember shit that happened 35 years ago seems like yesterday. everyone remembers vassens and going to pc or vista but what about the hashish trail or vectors, lee's dam, beach parties at glendinnings, car eating forrests, ye old bridge grill? i remember closing that place lots of times. then there was carmen who used to sell smokes, wild bill creberri who directed traffic on riverside, ron malone. climbing the power line towers toasted. luckily none of us got toasted. ahhh, what a life

Thom Pedersen - 1970
Friday, 07/23/2004
19:48:00

any one remember playing buck buck in between classes and lunch?

John Kyle - 1970
Friday, 05/27/2005
17:25:48

OK, I just found this site (thank you Firinn). Wanted to add to the the memories of going over the border back in the bad ole days,

Once apon a time, many of us liked to visit Portchester...the Rialto, the Stumble Inn....we were all like 16 then. One of my most vivid memories is...

Getting wasted at Rialto....and racing home. I had a 69 Road Runner 383, racing against Denise Berry's Buick 454...I had Mary Ann Bolger next to me (she loved speed), Jill Rayburn and Geoff Schnake in back....Dave Mahoney was driving Denise's moms 454.

We made it from Portchester to WPT in like 11 minutes, and ran all the tolls at over 100 MPH

Thom Pedersen - 1970
Sunday, 11/12/2006
03:43:04

does anyone remember playing back alley????????????

Thom Pedersen - 1970
Sunday, 11/12/2006
16:27:52

wow, gallaghers, i've been there. just trying to remember where it was. i haven't been in wspt since the bi centennial. that was the time of my life. i got kids and all that but like that song used to go......... those were the days my friend

Thom Pedersen - 1970
Saturday, 04/19/2008
21:29:20

I remember Carmens, he was a small old Italian guy with a moustache. Always very nice. As I read everyones memoirs memories just keep popping in my head. Remember the Liverpool and Platypus that sold English clothing and Bills Smoke Shop that had great hotdogs at the counter? Listening to Alison Steel the night bird on WNEW? Howard Stern before he made it big? I think that was the station. What about Ron Malone the narc? Fuzzy? Officer Crabari directing traffic on Riveside. Chez Pierre? I remember when I was growing up in Westport you had to be 21 to buy booze and eveyone knew the quickest way to get to Vista to buy stuff. Then when I turned 21 Connecticut lowered their age to 18. It figures. Now I hear it was changed back a long time ago. I remember buying beer at a liquor store near Kliens and keeping it wrapped in a paper bag thinking I was slick. What else would I be drinking wrapped in a brown bag stupid?! I remember hanging by that little park by West Lake. West Lake had excellent egg rolls. I'm sorry to keep on hearing about friends dying. I guess our time is running out. Never stop enjoying life. Do something you've always wanted to do. Patch up old friendships. Keep in touch. Love,Peace and Happiness...

Wendy Ahrensdorf Powers - 1969
Saturday, 07/05/2008
11:07:09

I remember meeting at the Ice Cream Parlor in the back parking lot to find out where the parties were or just to hang out. We would sometime drive my Corvair around in circles with the steering wheel cranked all the way to the left and someone would hang onto the hood of the car and see how long they could hold on. No one ever got hurt. But, just goes to prove how the frontal lobe of the brain of a teenager is NOT full developed when they are out looking for thrills. And we all lived to talk about it!

Ana Pedersen Unum - 1972

Friday, 08/22/2008
11:08:07

Oh the memories! That leather shop was Cribben Leather! What were the 2 dress shops in town? Ann Taylor and Lord and Taylor?

Who remembers Marcel Marceau performing at assembley at Kings Highway? And of the awesome concerts at Staples... Taj Mahal with a 3 piece tuba section at Staples? Louis Armstrong performing at Staples?

Going to Woodstock? Skipping school to see Allen Ginsberg at the Black Panther rally on the New Haven Green? The peace March on Washington, and the weekly peace protesters gathering and standing with peace signs on the Post Road in front of the church?

Who remember our classmates local band the Festival of Friends, and camping up at St. Anslems to do the opening act for the Friends of Distinction at the JFK Coliseum in Manchester NH, and getting a police escort out of town cuz it was the first time hippies or black people had performed there?

Who remembers late night racing Paul Newman on the back roads as he was looking for his son, and when Paul Newman gave an anti-drug assembley at Staples ?

And Emerson Burr at the Fairfield County Hunt Club? Big Top, Carvels, Caldors? Yea the library park, Compo beach, the ice cream parlor, loombugging in the car-eating forest, the parties...

Man those were some times...

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Friday, 08/22/2008
12:08:23

Oh yeah...and the Staples class trip to Hartford to talk to Art Garfunkel about politics? Those were cool times.

Wendy Ahrensdorf Powers - 1969
Friday, 08/22/2008
12:08:23

Ana - there was Best & Co on Main Street and Brooks Hirsch on the Post Road. Bradlees . . The Fairfield Store in Fairfield . . Ed Mitchell Men's Store on the Post Road in Westport . . Lester Lanin's night club for kids - the Nines Club . . Westport Pizzeria (still there isn't it?) . . Westport Foods on Main Street across from Kleins Stationary Store . . Maneros Steak House . . The Clam Box . . the giant lifesavers packages on the front of the LifeSavers factory on the road going towards SoNorwalk . . Pepperidge Farms was also down there and always smelled SO good . . Sly and The Family Stone playing at, what was it, the Cottilian or Evergreen Ball . . one of those . . Isabel Eland Lingerie on Main Street . . the white bare foot prints on the driveway into and out of Staples . . the fake Bonnie and Clyde style bank robbery in Westport (who were those guys who did that?) . . Golds Deli (still there) that had the best NY cheesecake anywhere . . I remember Dr. & Dr. Doctor optometrists . . 4th of July fireworks at the beach . . 'posing' at McDonalds in Fairfield (older cars that were restored backing into a parking place to see and be seen) . . Sherwood Island State Park beach where the lifeguards used to do the 'heal toe' method of covering up trash instead of picking it up . . so many memories! Well, back to work . . . the 60s were a memorable (and turbulent) time in our lives. Oh, in closing . . . faking out the narcs in 'needle' park next the library was always an interesting pass time for some of my friends. Those were the days.

Ana Pedersen – 1972

Friday, 08/22/2008
06:08:29

Wow Hi AC! You have brown hair right? Glasses? Really nice sweet guy? I think I do remember you... I sure DO remember your name. (Would somebody please send copies or email me a copy of the graduating class of '72's pictures?) I DO remember when we were volunteers in the Open Line crisis/rapline days!

Isn't the blonde guy who you are refering to named Eric, one of the founders of Open Line? I don't remember his last name off hand but could probably find it. I was one of the leaders. I dated him for a short while (about a month) but not long enough to learn if he was a sociopathic or not. whoa! wow. wassup?

I was so stunned to learn that Geoff Ferguson went off and murdered a house full of 5 young guys in Redding! My brother Thom sent me the article about it from People Magazine. We had all partied together with him at our house, and car partied with him.

I am doing great... u can google me: Ana Unum if you are curious 2 c what i've been up to and add me on Facebook.

Do you remember musicians Alan Borden (class of 69) and Steve Clark from the Open Line days? Steve Clark also worked at Big Top for a while as a fry cook. (what else? That's about what everyone did who worked there! lol) I married Alan Borden way back when and changed our last names to Unum, got divorced but we are still great friends and Al recently moved to the Seattle area here in the Pacific Northwest where I live on Whidbey Island. (South Whidbey Island is just so much like what growing Westport was like in those old days.)

Al Borden taught Steve Clarke how to play sax and Steve Clarke successfully went on to become the sax player for the J Giles Band and lives in the midwest somewhere I think.

We had many parties and rap sessions at our kitchen table at my house in those days/years. Eugenie is doing great and she would probably love to hear from you too. She is still single (and looking), works for social services and living in central California. All of my blood brothers and sisters are alive and doing very well. My sister Tamara has become a successful artist, and she, her husband and her family live on their almond and horse ranch in central California. I am sorry to say that our “Mama” passed away a month ago from cancer.

Back in those days in Westport we were all a big loving "family" of over 200 brothers and sisters! lol That was soooooooooo awesome! There are so many friends from those days I would love to hear from and would love to touch base with. It is so awesome to hear from you. So fill me in... what else is new with you? This is such a cool way to reconnect!

Who admits they ever walked into Caldors? Lol I don't. Lol! Hey Jeff N., I've still got the $10 4 U that I owe U from that time U, SteveS, my sister, and I hitchhiked all that way up to Craftsbury, VT for the Fiddlers Concert and got there a week too early! Man, who remembers going to the Atlantic City Music Festival concert 2 weeks before Woodstock and going to Woodstock? Tulio Ferri's yellow VW bug with a Porsche engine in it his father built... ME taking out his daddy's new caddy, DM putting remote control airplane jet fuel in his mother's car to make it go faster? Lol Those were some wild funny times! lol

Ana Pedersen – 1972

Friday, 08/22/2008
07:08:21

Wow Wendy... I still have matches w/the matchbook cover from the Westport Pizzeria in a box of momentos somewhere! I DO remember the white footprints outside Staples H.S., and so many of the things you mention! Lol! Needlepark! LOL! ROTFLMAO! We be bad in those days! Lol Shake up the “establishment” a little bit! I've still got a pair of cool wide band prescription shades from Dr. Dr.'s My older sister Eugenie P used to babysit for them! lol

I used to design and make clothes and stuff out of leather patches for Cribben Leather. I also used to babysit to earn funtickets. So I am not sure what you are talking about the fake Bonnie and Clyde bank robbery... oh Wendy.... R U calling me out on something notorious?!

I used to babysit a couple young girls for the attorney Lawrence Kanaga and his wife. I made the mistake of letting some friends know that I was babysitting there and they decided to show up to party! Namely JH, TE, his cousin WV, and ME in ME's daddy's caddy. They proceeded to raid the liquor cabinet, and go through the house taking Mr. Kanaga's huge sailfish trophy from his home office wall and through the door sideways so the long nose sword and tail broke off, and an old inoperable WWII souvineer Bonnie and Clyde type Thompson machine gun.

I was able to get the swordfish back before I got them out of the house before any little children woke up. I tried to patch the fish trophy the best I could and hang it back on the office wall, and topped off the liquor bottles with water before the Mr. and Mrs. Kanaga got back home and they never suspected a thing. I was too embarrased and ashamed at that point to tell them what happened.

Well, a week or so later WV told his mother that he and his friends had stolen a Bonnie and Clyde style machine gun and were playing around with it. WV's mom called the Westport finest Police, who called Mr. LK, who checked his home office wall and sure enough the crime was discovered and solved, and the machine gun was recovered and returned... but the headlines in the Town Crier blared “Machine Gun Robbery!” lol I think JH's name got mentioned in the paper because he was the only one that was not a minor... he was 16. No one got hurt or anything, nothing or no one was robbed at gunpoint... not close. The Kanaga's never pressed charges on anyone nor asked me to babysit for them again although I did apologize to them.

Is this the notorious fake Bonnie and Clyde machine gun robbery you refered to! Lol What an amazing memory you have! Yea, there was some hell raisin' too goin' on in those times! lol What memories! (Thank God my son never went through that phase. That I know of. lol)

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Friday, 08/22/2008
10:08:00

Those Were The Days
by Mary Hopkin

Once upon a time, there was a tavern
Where we used to raise a glass or two.
Remember how we laughed away the hours,
Think of all the great things we would do?

Chorus:
Those were the days, my friend!
We thought they'd never end.
We'd sing and dance forever and a day.
We'd live the life we'd choose.
We'd fight and never lose.
For we were young and sure to have our way!
Di di di di…

Then, the busy years went rushing by us.
We lost our starry notions on the way.
If, by chance, I'd see you in the tavern,
We'd smile at one another and we'd say,

Those were the days, my friend!
We thought they'd never end.
We'd sing and dance forever and a day.
We'd live the life we'd choose.
We'd fight and never lose.
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days!
Di di di di…

Just tonight, I stood before the tavern.
Nothing seemed the way it used to be.
In the glass, I saw a strange reflection.
Was that lonely woman really me?

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days!
Di di di di…

Through the door, there came familiar laughter.
I saw your face and heard you call my name.
Oh my friend, we're older but no wiser,
For in our hearts, the dreams are still the same.

Those were the days, my friend!
We thought they'd never end.
We'd sing and dance forever and a day.
We'd live the life we'd choose.
We'd fight and never lose.
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days!
Di di di di… [big finish!]

Ana Pedersen - 1972
Saturday, 08/23/2008
12:08:09

I am laughing so hard remembering the old days and “needlepark”. Has anyone ever actually witnessed any kids shooting up junk outside their classroom windows at Staples? Or was only evidence of a needle on a windowsill found? Were not only the “narcs” punked and owned, or but has the media been punked and owned by our class all these years as well? Lol!

Where are witnesses who actually saw kids shoot up heroin? But beware that killer reefer madness... lol Wendy, I think I might know some of your friends you are refering to! I remember a girlfriend D who sat there one time on a library park bench with a huge antique glass and metal horse syringe next to her with a needle big enough you could caulk a bathtub with it! LOL!

The dumb “narc's” eyes so popped out of his head when he saw it, you'd a thought he would've fainted! LOL! (I'd sure love to know if D ever became a vetrinarian like she dreamed.) I don't remember if the “narc” was offered a shot or not before he ran away! Rothflmao!

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Sunday, 08/24/2008
02:08:38

Wendy, Didn't John Kyle have a Corvair too?

Wendy Ahrensdorf Powers - 1969
Sunday, 08/24/2008
02:08:38

Nope! I had a 1968 blue Corvair Corsair. I used to lend it out to people all of the time. Little did I know that Timmy Mastrolillo was my Guardian Angel and made sure everyone who took it out brought it back clean and they had bought me gas. John Kyle, Timmy and I used race our cars on the CT Turnpike going to the Savaran Inns at the rest stops off the turnpike to drink coffee and talk for hours. If we did not go there we went to the International House of Pancakes on the Post Road near to Topps. I loved that Corvair!

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Monday, 08/25/2008
09:08:09

OMG! I did a LOT of partying in YOUR car when John Kyle was borrowing it! What a trip! WOW! LOL! Much of the driving around and car partying of the summer of '69 I took part in- took place in your car! We would also do the donuts in the parking lot behind the Ice Cream Parlor... LOL not too much racing in your car, I think there was an agreement or something, and John was the only one who would be driver. He sure was an awfully nice and fun guy... tho I remember one time in particular one night coming back into Westport from the direction of the Merritt Parkway, driving way way too fast for conditions... it must have been fall or winter, and your car was packed with kids 6-8... so many kids that I had to sit on someone's lap, and John hit a patch of ice on the road and your car went into a spin. Your car did a complete 360 degree spin within seconds... a blink of an eye... and skidded and ended up back in the drivers lane at high speed and John still in control, and there had been oncoming traffic.

It was like a miracle that we survived or nothing worse happened. I specifically remember we were all in a blue Corvair and that Corvairs are amazing cars. I remember contributing for gas and panhandling for change at Big Top to put gas in your car to go driving around in it. Wow... is that where I learned the habit of cleaning and refilling the gas tank whenever borrowing a friend's car? Wow, if that doesn't beat all!

John Kyle was a “brother” and would hang out at our house pretty regularly. Back in those days kids knew that our house was a welcome place they could go to, to sit around and rap about stuff, sometimes all night rap sessions, and crash if need be (and party when my mother was at work at night as a teletyper for the Bridgeport Post.) When a social worker asked my mother for a list of who all this extended “family” of “brothers” and “sisters” who might come to our house to “rap” or “crash” might be, way over 200 names and signatures were gathered/petitioned. Lol! That was so funny! I guess it was almost like group therapy at times too. That was before the Open Line crisis and rap line was started.

I think it was summer @1970 my family moved from Westport. All five of us kids in my family had been in the Westport Schools District for over 7-8 years... 5 schools for me so the list of friends I remember is long... I don't want to start listing cuz I'm afraid to leave any friends out.

You may not know ME, I think he would be in the class of @'74. He was about 13 or 14 at the time, and had been taking his daddy's caddy out since he was 11. He was so short at the time that he had to sit on top of a couple of New York City phone books to see over the dashboard. The “machine gun robbery” escapade I refered to never made the front page of the newspaper. I have no idea of what happended to any of those guys but would sure be curious to find out.

Wendy, by “our” class I refer to the Staples High School classes of the true hippies in the hippie days, especially the summer of '69. lol “Our” collective class that helped change American history in so many ways. (And I also mean our collective class who continuously sent the narcs on the wild goose chases looking for needles and heroin “epidemics” whenever they would come spying and snooping around to see who was smoking under the trees in the library park. LOL That was sooooooo funny!)

I remember the name DT, yes. JS, don't remember off hand? TG, yes, as I recall was a hottie a lot of girls had a crush on. RT, yes, great guy and hottie. TM, was another popular guy that if I recall correctly that my girlfriend D went out with briefly. Didn't he die? Drown tragically? BR does not ring a bell? Wasn't your brother R another hottie? Was your brother on the shorter side in junior high? I think he is the one who wanted and bought a Hell's Angel's jacket I had copied and made for him from a denim vest and felt in junior high for a couple days until his parents forced him to return it. What year did R graduate?

I remember LL and her parties were supercool... as were the A family, A, D, S.. where'd S go? LY, D W, M, LO, TR, JN, SF, MT, AC, EZ, Emil God of Wind... so many cool people from those days.

Wow Wendy... your blue 1968 Corvair Corsair played such a part of my good memories from that time. We must have car partied or at least met at one point or another. That is so amazing! Your 1968 blue Corvair Corsair was an awesome car! What kind of car did John Kyle own? wow

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Monday, 08/25/2008
10:08:41

Disclaimer I should probably make it VERY, very, very clear that D's huge horse syringe had nothing in it and she did not use heroin... it was just to scare and fake out the narcs (classmates who were snitches) and lead them on wild goose chases... and the sneaking smoking that took place under the trees in the library park was kids smoking cigarettes and/or pot... lol

D's grandfather had been a vetrinarian or something as I recall, and D inherited some antique vetrinary equipment when he died. She has been one of the coolest people I've ever known.

She befriended me when I had no one, and was someone I could talk to and I idolized her. I would hang out with her whenever I could...she was kind, had dreams, goals, worked, and had an amazing relationship with her mother.

She let me borrow her syringe a few times to play with, and I would pull the prank too.

Ana Pedersen - 1972
Monday, 08/25/2008
01:08:59

Disclaimer #2: Plus, heroin use was NOT allowed and did NOT take place at my family's house during any of the pot and alcohol parties while my mother was at work... and nobody in my family was into heroin... it was primarily pot and alcohol parties sitting around listening to music and rapping(talking), laughing, goofing off... Some of us had experimented with acid, mescaline, hashish, speed, etc. My mother did the very best she could to keep a clean house. Our friends were welcome to come over to sit around and rap, hang out, and there was always enough room on the sofas or floor for someone kicked out of home, or too drunk or too high to drive safely to have a safe place to crash(sleep) for the night.

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Monday, 08/25/2008
04:08:04

Loombugging was getting a series of 2 or more cars driving late at night without headlights... nothing but the radio and emergency blinkers on dark back country roads with no street lights, preferably winding or hilly roads and no other traffic... the darker the better to see just a long slow procession of blinking strobing lights in the dark... kind of like a long slow strobing/blinking centipede in the dark winding along the road. Emergency blinkers were a relatively new feature on cars... as was FM radio.

(Stereo speakers in cars was not available yet. Only the luckiest kids got their very own stereo record players.)

So say for a bunch of classmates in a bunch of cars to move a party from Compo Beach to Hells Hole or Devil's Den, the procession of cars would turn off their headlights and loombug with just emergency blinkers on the way over. Hippies were commonly the carloads of loombuggers listening to music, smoking a joint and getting stoned between point A and point B. We would try and see how far we could travel without anyone having to turn headlights on for oncoming traffic or to see the road better. As you say Wendy, this furthermore goes on to prove how the frontal lobe of the brain of a teenager is NOT full developed when they are out looking for thrills, and no one ever got into a wreck loombugging in your Corvair and otherwise. Do you remember loombugging?

The car-eating forest was a great winding hilly wooded area with few houses that was great for loombugging except that it had shallow ditches along the road.... just deep enough for a tire to spin out in a rut of mud or snow and get stuck.

This was long before cell phones, and if a car went into the ditch and we couldn't push it out meant that driver and passengers would have to hitch a ride back to a phonebooth or home and explain to mommy or daddy why they daddy brand new caddy is stuck in a ditch in the woods out in nowhere and a towtruck has to be called to tow it out.

What were the rules to buck buck other than a chain of high school kids bending over with their arms around the waists and hips of the person in front of them anchored by a kid bent over with his arms anchored around a tree or something solid... and another group of kids taking turns running and jumping and using the other end of the chain of kids to vault leap frog style and see how far up the chain they could vault... and all the successive vaulters would do the same thing to see how many kids could pile up on top of each other on the chain of kids before the chain was broken into a big pile-up of kids on the ground? Sometimes those piles of teenagers got quite long and large and several layers of kids deep before the chain broke! There were competitions.

Kids would be crowded changing classes and someone would yell out "buck buck" and the kids who played would suddenly drop their books and stuff to be either the groups of kids who were the chain underneath, or the group of kids who would vault and pile on top to try and break the chain. And then make it in time for the next class. Girls in mini-skirts had to move out of the way fast to stay out of the pile-up. What wild times!

Ana Pedersen - 1972

Tuesday, 08/26/2008
12:08:21

The reason I have come out so openly with some of these explanations and memories, at tremendous personal risk is because I have seen some websites about Westport's history that make mention of rumors of serious drug problems back in those hippie days in the late 1960's, early seventies and that reflect poorly on Westport's fine history and great people, so maybe it is time to maybe clear up some rumors and put some rumors to rest and rewrite that bit of history for the town we grew up in and so love while we still can.

So I think it would be a shame if any of our collective class of hippies deliberately deceiving, faking, punking, and owning the narcs (classmates who were snitches) into thinking that there were much more serious drug problems than there actually were by leading the narcs on false goose trails looking for imaginary heroin, in order to divert them from hanging around kids smoking pot(marijuana) in any way causes to reflect poorly on Westport's fine history and does a disservice to our fine town. I know I regret my part in it if such is the case.

Westport has a long fine history and tradition... I don't know that drug use was any better or worse than was anywhere else going on in the country at that time.

I do know that Westport was incredibly progressive for that time and a pioneer in history to be the very first in the entire area and one of the first hotline programs in the entire nation to step up and embrace the problems teenagers were experiencing head-on and support the creation of Open Line, unlike the majority of other communities that denied the existance of such issues. Open Line was a free telephone talk line of supervised trained teenage volunteers helping other teenaged classmates who could call at anytime of any day or night to talk(rap) anonomously about any issues.

Erik Russ was one of the creators and was the first to run OpenLine.

Any teenager in the Westport school district area could call the Open Line number 24/7 and be connected immediately in touch with any of a staff of teenage volunteers (classmates and former classmates) to talk confidentially about anything and receive a caring ear to listen and information, referrals, and resources... and receive crisis counseling, suicide hotline intervention, substance abuse counseling and drug overdosing information services, etc. and other common teen issues, emergencies, and insecurities of the day.

Open Line was a program that successfylly existed long before 911 or any of the social services available today and was a precurser that eventually evolved into some of the social programs existing to address the same issues today. Open Line began in the early spring of 1970.

Ana Pedersen - 1972
Tuesday, 08/26/2008
01:08:28

Paul Newman came and did a drug awareness prevention assembly at Staples HS. I have always thought of Paul Newman as an example of what God is like, and of God's love for His son and a fathers great love for his son... of how Paul would race around back roads late at night looking for his son, and the humongus empire Paul Newman has built to help so many other kids since then. Who remembers meeting Paul Newman at the Staples assembly? What a great incredible man... a legend!

I have always thought of Paul Newman as an example of what God is like, and of God's love for His Son and a fathers great love for his son... of how Paul would race around back roads late at night looking for his son, and the humongus empire Paul Newman has built to help so many other kids since then. Who remembers meeting Paul Newman at the Staples assembly? What a great incredible man... a legend!

(I was told by the owner of Cribben Leather on Main Street, Jack Cribben that Joanne Woodward bought a floor length multicolored patchwork leather cocktail/evening skirt that I designed and made. Wow.)

Ana Pedersen – 1972

Tuesday, 08/26/2008
01:08:28

The Open Line crisis/rap line operated from under the YMCA in downtown Westport and a couple dozen of trained caring teenagers were involved in manning the phones to be there to listen or help other Westport classmates make it through our teenage years. That was awesome!

There was a restaurant in town just outside downtown that was called La Crepes. There was a boarding house on Elm Street where musicians would gather and jam (play together). Several local bands played concerts on Jesup Green. All of Westport still had the 06880 zip code from when zip codes were introduced. There were kids skimboarding the waves at Compo on homemade skim boards in the 1960's. Who remembers horseshoe crab races? Who remember polar bear swimming in the water in winter? I did! lol Those Were the Days My Friend... We'd sing that song when it first came out driving around, loombugging, listening to the radio. Those were the days my friends...