Let's set the Wayback Machine

Way ... way ... back. When "My Sweet Lord," "Maggie Mae" and "Knock Three Times" were blasting through the radio speakers and I was a freshman in high school. My oldest friend produced a binder of notes all of her closest buds, including me, wrote to her in those long ago days. I was shocked by how similar today's Gal is to that Gal.

• "I am so bored!" I wrote during class.

• "Those student council bananas tried to collect money from me for a smiley face button!" Clearly profanity wasn't a staple of my vocabulary yet, but I do exhibit a disdain for organized pep and fun that remains to this day.

• "I have to score a radio for tonight. Ann says it's not appropriate but don't care. I have $4 on the game!" Remember, this was before iPods or even Walkmans. I don't know where Ann and I were going, but wherever it was, I was prepared to bring a transistor and put it on the seat beside me. white cord running to a single earpiece. After all, $4 was four hours of babysitting.

• "Giusep is doing his part and Santo is hot. Even Beck. But Kessinger is 0-12!" The starting lineup for the 1971 Cubs: Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Ron Santo and Joe Pepitone, who I had a crush on and called Giuseppe. I guess it's obvious which team's game I had to hear that night.