Boston

There are only two cities in the United States I find magical - Boston and San Francisco. There are dozens of places I'd rather live right now, but in their prime, when rents were cheap and excitement free, these were the only two places to be.

I was lucky enough to be in Boston during its heydey - 1967 to 1970. This was before the Highway 128 loop; before high-tech and abundant jobs; before a vital downtown; before massive traffic jams at Logan Airport and "the dig." This was when 250,000 students defined the town, when radical politics and the sexual revelation collided with Back Bay and the Catholic Church.

It started innocently enough for me. My dad dropped me off at Tufts in mid September 1967, and I languished in my room for two weeks, homesick, wondering why I hadn't gone to the University of Maryland, 20 miles from my parents' home in Annapolis. Truth be told, I didn't like being at home much - my mother was drinking and was loud and vicious much of the time - but I didn't like starting over, either. I have had little fascination with the unexpected and unknown in my life, except, ironically, during my time in Boston. My roommate didn't make things any easier. Bobby Deutsch was a good enough guy. He was a local kid - which made me teary - and a bit of a nebbish. He ended up in politics, and was elected years later to the Massachusetts House. There was nothing between us. I needed a friend and Bobby was campaigning for some office within a week of getting on campus.

But soon enough, I came out of my funk. Met the other great guys on my floor. Switched roommates; got approached by fraternity; went to a Red Sox game; walked around the city; learned the stops on the MTA; became a serious student. And that was my fourth week at school.

By November, I was settled, happy drinking beer with my soon to be frat brothers, including Dave Schrumm, my roommate and later to be first citizen of Cheshire, Connecticut, and Marc White and Gary Fradkin, our next door neighbors in the dorm.

Everything was on track, chugging along towards a typical college experience - four years and out and on to my place in some stellar company and successful career.

Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way.