Reprinted from the September, 1999 issue of Western Legal Journal. The following article, which has appeared in one form or another in numerous publications, offers but a mere time-line of where life has taken this author/attorney/adventurer. The complete story – the story of a generation on the move and coming of age during some very fascinating times – can be found in the pages of At The Speed of Life, a true-life coming of age adventure story written by Michael Petrie. The author may be contacted directly at
a Forest Gumplike Life
By Michael E. Petrie ©1999
My approach to being an attorney may differ a bit from many of my
peers. One sometimes hears of lawyers who trade in their stress-filled professions for some flip-flops, a guitar and a sailboat. But I did it the other way around. For me, the practice of law is merely the latest thrilling
adventure in a lifetime filled with excitement and adventure!
In fact, ever since that darned movie, Forest Gump, came out a few years ago,
many of my long-time friends have begun comparing me to the Gump
character, a fellow who sampled life like a box of
chocolates ... living many different types of lives within one
lifetime. They insist the comparison is meant in a purely complimentary
vein ... and who am I to argue? Here’s the chronology, you decide.
• 1965-1969: I was just your semi-average everyday teenager growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. By no stretch of the imagination would anyone have ever described me as academically stellar during high school. In fact, the school guidance counselor suggested I abandon any aspirations toward college ... but when I also received a “D” in wood shop, thereby eliminating trade schools as well, he seemed at a complete loss for further suggestions or “guidance.”
Not really much into team sports at school, somehow I did manage to earn a letter in wrestling. The primary motivation, I’m sure, was that having a letterman’s jacket was essential for attracting the opposite sex.
As school activities went, it was music & drama that were my main interests. I was in most of the plays and musical productions put on by the school. While most boys my age may have gotten inspiration from their male team coaches, my mentor was the head of our high school music department, and a woman to boot!
Also, I played in a rock band. In those days there were lots of great Chicago area groups. Some of them, like the Cryan’ Shames, Shadows of Knight and Chicago Transit Authority (later to become known by the shortened moniker of “Chicago”) went on to land big time record deals. We weren’t really in the same league, but did consistently get “gigs” at school dances and local teen clubs. Okay, so we weren’t the Beatles, but we sure had a lot of fun!
The late 60's brought with it the end of high school childhood and innocence. It was time to graduate, to venture out into a world that existed beyond the safe and serene suburban world that had been my universe. Time to leave my home town of Downers Grove, Illinois.
At age 17 my parents lovingly shipped me off to attend college in Colorado, my first time ever away from home. (There were actually several schools that accepted me ... take that guidance counselor!)
It was a time of flower children ... and I was in full bloom! Becoming totally caught up in the spirit of the 60's, I soon “dropped out” of college, taking up residence with approximately 35 other “hippies” in an isolated part of the New Mexico desert at a commune we called “Drop City.” Domiciled in a geodesic dome, sleeping on mattresses on the dirt floor, we planted seeds and dug wells and tried our best to rid ourselves of the establishment life in which we all had been raised.
It did not take long to discover that communal life was not all flower power and folk songs. Agrarian life in the stark New Mexico desert was a hard row to hoe and I believed there was a bigger world out there just waiting to be explored. Packing meager belongings into a ragged duffelbag, I moved on to hitchhike my way all over the great American Southwest, eventually ending up in Southern California.