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I had a major crush on Susan Dey when I was in high school.

I got turned off when I saw her on a Los Angeles TV station during the 1984 presidential campaign, and she said something like, “Reagan and Bush she just leave office now, and let Mondale and Ferraro take over.” And she said it with an angry look on her face.

It was a major turn off.

It wasn't until the late 1970s before I had a "crush" on Susan Dey. By then the show was in re-runs and I was in full-fledged puberty. When the show first came out, I was just a little kid but I fondly remember the shows when they were shown for the first time. They used to be on Friday nights after the Brady Bunch. It was the one night of the week that my parents let me stay up a little late and after Partridge Family, we'd tune in to some UHF station (I think Channel 38) to watch "Creature Double Feature" which usually paired a Godzilla-type movie with some cheesy horror flick that these days gets parodied by the MST3K crew.

Anyway, I think I mentioned it here once or twice but around 1971 or 1972, when I was just 9 or 10 years old, I actually penned a fan letter addressed to "Mr. Reuben Kincaid" asking to be let into the Partridge Family. The premise of the letter was that I could drum (at least better than Chris), bang on a tambourine or maybe ring a little cowbell. Well maybe I never specifically mentioned cowbell but I'm sure The Partridge Family could have used more of it at the time.

I ended up getting just a form letter from the band inviting me to join their fan club and they included an 8x10 glossy of Keith Partridge which was a pretty humiliating experience for a 9-year-old boy who just wanted to join the band! I guess you could say it was my "Drink Your Ovaltine" moment and made me just a little bit more cynical about the outside world. Yes, I really did harbor a fantasy at the time of the Partridge Family tour bus pulling up to my house and whisking me away from the drab existence that was my life at the time.

Everybody likes to make fun of the music of The Partridge Family but it all brings back fond memories for me. The music takes me back to a more innocent time in my life when I still had my whole life ahead of me and the future still looked bright. This song here sort of epitomizes that era for me.