The 1970s were radical to say the least. A grin comes across my face every time I think about some of the hysterical events I witnessed. Then, I shake my head. As a junior at Louisiana State University, I was enrolled in ceramic handbuilding. The previous semester I had already proven that I did not have the coordination to work the potter’s wheel. At that pre-historic time, there was only one electric wheel, so I had been relegated to the manual ones and failed miserably.
Handbuilding was much more my speed and I wanted to excel. It was a naked native woman with chains around her ankles. She stood about three feet tall. Her head would be the top. Looking back, I’m not sure if I got the idea for this due to the hoards of naked people running through the streets or not. It was a strange idea for a cookie jar. It was also a massive project that I worked on whenever I could. The body got so large that I had to crawl up on the table to work on it. One night I was up there working on it after partying and something I never imagined happened. I fell into the piece and it was gone in an instant. There was no repairing it. The dry hard clay at the bottom mixed with the soggy wet rolls at the top lay in a disastrous lump. Luckily my prof had witnessed my work and could give me a grade to that point.
There is a lesson in the story but I’ll leave you to find it yourself. I’ll just never forget the naked native woman ... will you?
