CHAPTER 31 -AMERICA'S SPIRIT

In the mid-seventies, after I enrolled, Hyde got hot. Phil Donahue, 60 Minutes, and Time magazine did pieces on us. 

Barbara Walters, Michael McDonald, John Hiatt, and later Cher, sent their kids there. 

There's always a cost to fame. Most kids of celebrities I know pay it. That glitter blinds everybody to human needs. Hyde was becoming famous.

We called it National Commitment --part vision, part PR campaign --demonstrating to the world how awesome Hyde was.

I felt like my family was being groomed to represent the school. We were perfect for TV - the quintessential American dream family who supposedly had it all, like in the movie Ordinary People. We had that great tragedy to reveal, that rude awakening, but Hyde saved us from ourselves. At least that was the narrative we were going with.

My family traveled to New York City to be on the David Susskind show and reveal our funky dynamics to the nation on live television.