Yippies Go Yiddish

Avoid Tsuris at Dem Convention Miami Beach 1972

I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in May 1972. I didn't have a job or job planned. I had a large portfolio: Creem, Rolling Stone, Fusion, Village Voice, Berkeley Barb, as well as Boulder Express, Boulder magazine, and the Colorado Daily, where Sam Maddox and I were co-arts editors. I first went back to Long Island, where upon entering the house in Searingtown, sensed the absence of my father's coats in the front closet. "Where's dad's stuff?" My parents forget to tell me they were getting divorced.

My mom had bought a condo at Sky Lakes in North Miami Beach, FL. The condo was empty for the summer. My friend, Elliot Cashdan (1946-2011), who lived in East Meadow, was about four years older than I. He was not a writer but was struggling with his grief, needing to tell the story of the early death of his mother, whose many complaints were ignored by doctors until she was diagnosed too late with a brain tumor.

Elliot had a sporty British car, a Rover. We drove the hip sedan…