I'm glad I'm old enough to have lived through 1972 and actually remember it. Thanks to an amazing young middle school teacher, I lived a better Nixon -McGovern race than almost anyone else involved.
It started as the standard seventh grade social studies exercise -- the class would divide by their political bent , nominate stand-in candidates to represent the two national tickets and hold an election. Like thousands of such lesson plans around the country, it started with an examination of issues.
It came as no surprise the most popular left-leaning students became the McGovern ticket and a couple hawkish jocks carried the Nixon banner.
But a few of us wanted something better, we had our own 12-year-old ideas for what it would take to unite America and get out of Vietnam.
Most teachers would have pointed out that our ideas were unformed and there were two choices. But we had a good teacher.. and on the heels of George Wallace and long before John Anderson and Ross Perot, the Truth Party was born.
My running mate and I, with the help of a couple of other politically disenfranchised pre-pubescents, wrote our own platform and ran our campaign over several weeks in the shadow of the national election.
If this were a Lifetime movie, we would have won big, went to the prom with the quarterback and this is where I would reveal that my running mate was a young Hillary Clinton.
But it was better than that.
Christina Knickerbocker and I came close enough to shake up the big boys and convince a surprising number of our fellow students to take a chance on a new idea.
And Mr. Kinal of Pembroke Central School in Corfu, New York gave us a taste of the possibilities of an informed electorate... even if it was just getting them to listen to our carefully crafted school assembly speeches and read campaign brochures hand-drawn with Magic Marker.
I saw Chris Knickerbocker last week for the first time in many years. She and I were both beat up from this last election day and the possibilities lost.
But she's still fighting the good fight. We walked together around her new town , a place where she is active in historic preservation and the arts.
She's worked in university administration for years and makes a difference every day. She and Kim have lovingly restored an incredible old home where the most outstanding feature is a kitchen with a steady parade of friends sharing tea, wine and ideas around the fireplace stove.
They have many rescue projects -- animal, vegetable and mineral -- including a three-legged , nearly blind cat who came into their home small and battered, but is now fat, sassy and very content.
Miss T (for Tripod) jumped right into my lap without word one about the Truth Party. It doesn't take cat vision to recognize a fellow traveler.
I've spent a lot of years since the Truth Party tilting at windmills, fighting the system and sometimes getting beat up badly by the same. But I wouldn't trade a single victory and can't imagine living it any other way.
Chris and I laughed about the Truth Party days and she caught me up on the other candidates.
The Democratic ticket works at the same company in a city less than an hour from our high school. I had to smile when I Googled our McGovern and discovered he is also a town councilman in another regional town.
The Republicans never left the small town. The VP sells used cars. The Nixon stand-in has had the same bad haircut for more than 30 years now and won't attend a party if he doesn't agree with the "lifestyle choices" of other guests.
As for me, I sit now waiting to hear on a couple of jobs I would truly love to have. Different tasks, different places, but every time I sit down at the computer I can't help but research more on what I could do with either. In both cases, I could make a difference.
In one, I would even share an employer with my former running mate. She knows what kind of challenge I enjoy, she set up the interview.
Mr. Kinal still teaches at Pembroke. If his students today don't realize how lucky they are... they someday will.

Copyright 2004 Judi Griggs