Excerpt from The Bloody Aftermath of a Riot

part of my Dad's biography

"It was another mundane Monday morning. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and I looked at myself in the mirror to see how much I had aged. It was 1984, Reagan got re-elected by a landslide but I wasn't surprised because Mondale didn't have the stomach for what Bismarck called 'Real Politik'. I gave myself a nice straight razor shave then put on my Sunday best and went to work. The drive was uneventful. I thought about the time the Army said they didn't want me around anymore then I changed the station on the radio and the song "I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles came on and I remembered what an old Army buddy of mine was telling me how he saw the Beatles in Hamburg and how good they were. I would've liked to seen them then. Never had a chance to see them perform live and from what I heard it was really good. The leather teddy boy look and all its implied violence I knew was an act but it was believable. Hell, I was just a kid when I first encountered cars and fell in love with the sound of those engines. I never was a hood or a tough guy but I knew how to fight and when I joined the Army I didn't have any problems making friends. That drive still stays with me to this day and I'm not sure why I guess it was the way the weather was..."---from The Bloody Aftermath of a Riot: The Biography of Randall E. Pretzer Vol. II by Dan Pretzer