I'm an old guy who grew up in the 1960's. I saw man go into outer space and then later walk on the moon. I actually shook hands with Robert F. Kennedy the same day he was brutally assassinated in southern California.

I know how to use a Slide Rule. I understood that if you dropped your bottle of soda pop the bottle shattered because it was made of glass. I once had a lawn dart land in my foot which was very entertaining. Yes, when one light on the Christmas tree burned out none of them worked. A scoop of ice cream at Thrifty's was just five cents.

We only had three television stations to choose from and I was often the kid who had to hold the tv antenna so uncle Billy could see his football game clearly.

I remember thinking how cool it was to have a 8 Track Tape Deck in my 1972 Dodge Charger and the Quad System that went with it.

I've actually attended a Creedence Clearwater Revival concert before they broke up. I was also able to see Led Zeppelin in concert by sitting with hundreds of others on the roof of a building because the tickets were all sold out. Robert Plant gave us a shout-out for our efforts...It was awesome.

It was a great time to grow-up in but it also had its challenges.

My mother was left-handed as were my brothers, two of my Uncle's and yours truly.

In the second grade I had a teacher named Mrs.Redford. I remember her well...she was a Psychopath. It is a miracle we kids survived her reign of terror.

During art time Mrs.Redford would not allow me to use the special left-handed scissors (they had dark green handles while regular scissors had red). Note: You lefties reading this understand the problem trying to use a pair of normal right-handed scissors.

Mrs.Redford made it quite clear to her students that left-handed people are stupid and she enforced this philosophy quite severely. Over and over again when she saw me using my left hand she would come up and say something along the lines of; "Steven, are you retarded?" I would reply; "No, Mam" "Then why are you using your left hand? Only stupid people do that!" she would scold. Unfortunately for me it did not end there. She would grab my left hand and hit it several times with a large wooden rod she carried as if she worked for the Nazis or something. It was extremely painful to say the very least. This sort of psychological ridicule made life really tough for me.

As the years went by I used my right hand more and more. When playing baseball I was a right-handed batter but when pitching I was a lefty all the way. I took my first pawn shop variety acoustic guitar, turned it upside-down and restrung it so I could play properly. I had to learn the chords backwards...left-handed guitars are rare even now but especially so in those days. When I began learning to play the drums my entire kit had to be reversed.

Having said all of that, you can imagine as I got into magic it became clear immediately that like the rest of the world, magicians were predominately right-handed. To my right handed friends I would simply say; "You wouldn't understand". For all the lefties out there I am simply preaching to the choir as it were.

Why I didn't create this forum years ago is beyond me, seriously. For some odd reason it just didn't occur to me.
However, thanks to the suggestion of several Café faithful I have now rectified that small error.

Enjoy!

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