A little about me and this book… I was 16 years old in 1966. I don't recall being the typical "peace and love" hippie the 60's is known for. I actually hated the term "hippies", a word the media invented. Honestly, I felt more like an individual, an angry one, since I was hassled wherever I was, and even beaten up several times. I was considered by many as something of an outcast, mainly because I was one of the first kids in school to have long hair. You see, I was a musician by that time and had started a band a year earlier called, The Long Island Sounds. I was the rhythm guitarist. I was a rhythm guitarist because John Lennon was a rhythm guitarist. If John Lennon played the Tuba, then I, and thousands of others, would be playing.......... the Tuba. During this time, I spent quite a bit of time in detention for going against school policy; I wore dungarees ('jeans') which was not part of the dress code, but I wore them because I liked wearing them. I loved detention because all I would do there is write. School became boring to me and I started skipping classes usually going to the city and hanging out around Times Square seeing movies and playing in the arcades. I spent all of my time writing. I wrote all kinds of thoughts and stuff which I compiled into a book called, Luminous Soda Drops. I'd say about 90% of it was written at Great Neck North Senior High - either in classes or detention. In the beginning it was just to pass time, but it soon became a passion and a fantastic outlet for my frustrations and longings. In '67 I started a new book called, The Significance of a Pink Balloon is That I'm Satisfied With Second Best, and that contained more stories than just my wandering thoughts. Several selections from that project are included within this 2011 version of Luminous Soda Drops. I have not read any of these works since I wrote them 44 years ago. Looking at it now, I am amazed that I am the same person that wrote this. Much of it will be looked at as the rantings and ravings of a teenager in the 60s, and quite honestly I understand, because that is how a lot of it looks to me. I look upon these words now as if I'm a different person and I have to say I am impressed with my sheer, unabashed honesty. There is much here that I no longer believe and would have loved to change history by doing some deleting - but I did not. For the sake of the era and just plain truth I felt everything should stay just as it was originally written.
