Friday, March 18, 2011

Lost - and still lost!


I think I posted some months back about a boy I knew in college and how I was wondering whatever became of him. At the time I couldn't find the one photo of him that I knew I had. So of course I found it the other day - while looking for something else, of course!!

This shot is from BYU Homecoming 1963. We went to the game together - that's me with Janet and Joy, two of my roommates - and John Johnson, the mystery boy. Can you believe how we wore skirts and hose to a homecoming game? And to let you know what a non-conformist John was, his sweatshirt stood out - the other males were in button-down shirts - even some ties - and of course blazers!!

John was from somewhere in Virginia. He introduced me to Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and the "real" Bob Dylan. He introduced me to folk music, the civil rights movement, and the burgeoning anti-war movement. He seemed to be on the "cutting edge" culturally. And I not only knew nothing about it all, it took me years to realize just how "cutting edge" he was. I wish I had taken him more seriously.

John was a superb dancer - he taught me a lot about that too - dancing as in the kind that went on at the Cannon Center Saturday Night Stomps anyway!

He's also the one who was friends with a certain apostle - we all three had a history class together - we'd sit at the back and carry on our own discussions as the professor droned on - it was world history of some era.

He was also on the same dorm floor as one of Marlene's friends from her hometown of Los Alamitos - so we saw him often at our apartment and elsewhere.

After my sophomore year, I stayed home before going to France. I never saw him on the BYU campus after that. Curtis was pretty sure he had not gone on a mission. And no one has any idea about him.

And how do you do a Facebook search for someone named John Johnson?

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