The rest of the story....

This somewhat famous full-page photo appeared in Time Magazine (and in Life Magazine’s Retrospective of the 60’s issue).

  It was taken during the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention held in Chicago IL.   The angry shirtless young man in the center of the picture flipping the bird to the police and press is the subject of this story.  He’s the brother-in-law of my close friend.  His name is Al.   I won’t divulge his last name because I don’t know if he’d care if anyone knew it was him.   He’d probably be fine with it, but I’m not sure, so he’s just Al. 

The story behind this photo is as follows:   Al was not into protesting and didn’t realize the convention was even being held there at that time.  He and some friends drove to Chicago from St. Louis for the sole purpose of “testing out a new cooler” they had picked up.  He saw the protestors in the street and just joined in…. not knowing what they were protesting.

I remember seeing the picture when it originally was published and didn’t know who he was at the time.  A few years ago during a discussion about Al, my friend told me that he was in the magazine.  I had remembered the picture all those years.  Al hasn’t changed much at all.  He still looks the same… his hair is a little shorter and he’s older, but you can tell it’s him.  No question about it.  I’ve met him on several ocassions.  He’s quite the character.

The picture was also in a film that was out a couple of years ago.  I can’t remember the name of the film now, but I recognized it instantly as one of the characters in the film was flipping through the magazine.

Anyway… now you know the rest of the story.