Nadrienne

May/June  1979            Gloucester, Massachusetts    Indianapolis, Indiana   Chicago, Illinois  Junction City, Kansas      Boulder, Colorado

When Kathe Camara and I set out for Boulder in May of 1979, we had 5 companions in Kathe’s 1966 Dodge Coronet. John, an activist with the Rocky Flats Truth Force, Kathleen McGlaughlin, on of Kathe’s classmates from Southeastern Massachusetts University, Nadrienne, who lived up the street from my parent’s house in Gloucester, Nadrienne’s 4 year old son Ehvom, and of course Kathe’s labrador ,Bodeke the Wonderdog. I had met Nadrienne the previous summer and had babysat for Ehvom a few times before I moved to Fall River to work for Clamshell Alliance the previous fall. Nadrienne was a  pleasant counterculture mom , a frustrated artist with many brilliant ideas. She hadn’t been successful at much in Gloucester but she had a good heart. I liked her and when I introduced her to Kathe they became friends quickly. Nadrienne was an avid reader and very spirtual, Kathe was impressed with her. Next thing I knew Nadrienne was invited to join us on our excursion to Colorado. We were invited to stay over at her grandmother’s house in Chicago, and to have our fortune told. (Nadrienne’s grandmother was a psychic who read Turkish Coffee grounds to divine the future. I was skeptical but liked the coffee. After we left Chicago and got closer to our ultimate destination, things grew tense between Nadrienne & Kathe’s other friends, John & Kathleen. Initially they started to grumble about Nadrienne breast feeding Ehvom, who was certainly bigger than any nursing child any of us had known. We were six people and one hyper labrador in one mid size car. Kathleen was freaked out that a 4 year old boy was being breastfed in such close proximity, and John had a smug sense of superiority, putting Nadrienne down with a subtle sarcasm and contempt that she didn’t notice (or pretended not to) but I thought was kind of cruel. By the time we got to Junction City Kansas I was taking a break from the whole group to drink 3.2 beer with a couple of soldiers. It struck me weird that in a group of peace activists with “new age” ideas such catty nastiness was setting in. Maybe we were just worn out from the road…