The Larson Family

After my blog post yesterday, I did a little research on exactly how much things have changed since 1973. This is just some of what I found.

First, look at the ad to the left. It’s from a 1973 issue of Playboy magazine. “A Mini Sliderule”… in other words, a calculator, for the low, low price of $69.95! Of all the things I discovered today, the prices are what shocked me the most. For example:

• In 1973, the average price of a new house was $32,500.
• The average American yearly income was $12,500.
• If you rented an apartment in 1973, on average your monthly rent was $175.
• You could buy a brand new car, an AMC Javelin for only $2900.
• Filling that car with gas would have cost about eight bucks because a gallon of gas was just 40-cents.
• 45-cents would buy a dozen eggs.

Also in 1973, the Roe vs. Wade ruling was handed down in the US Supreme Court, the Watergate hearings began, armed members of the American Indian Movement seized Wounded Knee in South Dakota, and Secretariat won the Triple Crown. Skylab was launched, the barcode became common, and the Sears Tower was completed, surpassing the World Trade Center as the tallest building in the world.

Popular movies included:

• The Exorcist
• Deliverance
• American Graffiti

and some of the top TV shows were:

• M*A*S*H
• The Odd Couple
• McMillan and Wife - (how’s that for a politically incorrect title?)
• Sanford and Son
• Columbo
• The Bob Newhart Show

There was no such things as a cassette deck, CD player, personal computer, or satellite TV. Cable TV was in its infancy, and offering a whopping ten channels. My how times have changed. –Troy

In 1973, my Uncle Jim went to prison in Michigan. He was convicted of murder. At risk of going into too much detail and getting it wrong, I will just say that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a man he calls an “aquaintance” killed another man. He went to trial and was convicted. He’s been shuffled around the state of Michigan, to different correctional facilities, for the last thirty six years.

I’ve corresponded with him off and on since I was about twelve years old, and he’s always been honest and upfront about his past, making no excuses for his misdeeds. He’s become an educated man in prison, and has mellowed with age. He’s now in his sixties.

For many years, he’s been going to parole hearings, all to no effect. He’s been denied parole every time. Early on, family members of the victim would show up and plead with the parole board to keep my uncle in prison, but as of late, the parole hearings have been more and more sparsely attended. The judge who convicted my uncle has died. The attorney who tried him has died. And the man who actually committed the murder is also dead. At the last parole hearing, my Mom was the only member of the public who attended.

Half an hour ago, I got a call from my Mom–his sister. My Uncle Jim is being paroled on December 16th. My Mom and her other brother Johnny are going to Michigan to pick him up, and then driving him back to North Dakota to be reunited with my Grandmother. And I will get to meet him for the first time I can remember. My Mom tells me I met him once when I was a young boy, but I don’t remember it.

I don’t know if it’s fully hit me yet. My entire life, or for the last twenty-eight years anyway, I have always lived with the circumstance that my uncle was in prison. I don’t know if I really believed that a day would come when he would actually get out. But, now it seems that day is almost here.

It’s been such a sudden development, I started to think about what I can do to get prepared for his homecoming. What should I get my uncle for Christmas? No sooner had I entertained that thought, many more followed. What do you get a man who has been in prison since the early 1970’s?

Richard Nixon was the President when he went to prison. In the time he’s been incarcerated, eight-track and cassette tapes came and went, as did the Polaroid camera. He’s never experienced cable television, VCRs, DVD Players, compact discs, video games, computers, cell phones, or the internet, other than limited exposure in prison. He’s never sent an email.

And all those thoughts lead to other questions. What would it be like to be in my uncle Jim’s shoes? How do you get a job? How do you answer the questions about a blank resume? What kind of work can he expect to secure? I can only imagine the hardship he will soon experience.

I’ll have a lot more to say about this as the situation develops, but suffice to say this is a true new beginning for my family. –Troy