![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Do-over.jpg\")
<\/a>Woody Weingarten\u2019s \u201cchicken-scratches\u201d \u2014 otherwise known as notes \u2014 for today\u2019s column. Courtesy photo.<\/p><\/div>\n
Fifty-six years ago I asked my first man-in-the-street question for a weekly newspaper.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t recollect what it was, but it was shallow.<\/p>\n
After all, I was a wet-behind-the-ears 21-year-old know-it-all who knew next to nothing. So it was appropriate that neither the query nor answers published in the Bronx Press-Review stirred any emotions.<\/p>\n
The feature drew an unadulterated response:<\/p>\n
Diddly-squat. Bupkis. Zilch.<\/p>\n
Several weeks ago, hoping I\u2019ve learned a speck or two in the interim, I decided to repeat the exercise. I expected, naturally, that my much deeper person<\/em>-in-the-street probing would elicit vastly more profound responses from strolling passersby.<\/p>\n I was right.<\/p>\n Back in the day, I was forced to discard close to two-thirds of the replies I\u2019d extracted.<\/p>\n They were unfathomable. Vacuous.<\/p>\n Or gibberish.<\/p>\n This time around, on picturesque San Anselmo Avenue rather than the hustle-bustle of a New York City street, I needed to trash only a few reactions (and then because they mirrored others).<\/p>\n My question prompted self-awareness, sensitivity and vulnerability: \u201cPretend I\u2019m handing you a magic card. With it you get to do over any one thing in your life \u2014 not re-live, but do differently. What would your revision be?\u201d<\/p>\n Most folks came up with their answers speedily.<\/p>\n But one guy went so far inside himself for such an elongated time I feared I\u2019d have to summon either a shrink or a crew of paramedics.<\/p>\n Was there one predominant response?<\/p>\n Nope.<\/p>\n But the most prevalent had to do with education and academics.<\/p>\n The thought-provoking winner from that grouping, in my estimation, was what San Anselmo\u2019s Katherine Willman, who categorized herself as \u201cmiddle-aged,\u201d conjured up.<\/p>\n Without hesitation, she said he\u2019d have taken her \u201cson out of public school and put him into a private school \u2014 because private schools promote individuality and independent thinking better.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer Hinsdale, 47, another San Anselmo resident, would have \u201cchosen to study Spanish because I spent more years studying French than the number of French speakers I\u2019ve met in this country. Meanwhile, everyone\u2019s speaking Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n His choice made me ponder my own.<\/p>\n In retrospect, Latin and German didn\u2019t quite turn out to be as valuable on a daily basis as I\u2019d thought they might.<\/p>\n Erika Mott, 15, of Kentfield, wished she\u2019d \u201chave studied harder for my finals freshman year because it dropped down my Grade Point Average.\u201d<\/p>\n Ronald Brozzo, 71, also of San Anselmo, said he\u2019d \u201chave finished college instead of going for only a year and a half. It would have helped me a lot later in life.\u201d<\/p>\n And Josette Dvorak, a 48-year-old Mill Valley woman, mused that she\u2019d \u201chave spent a college semester abroad, at Oxford, so I could have experienced life in England.\u201d<\/p>\n Others who were questioned provided a wide gamut:<\/p>\n \u2022 Amy Castagna, 58, Novato: \u201cI would have gone home to Pennsylvania for my grandmother\u2019s funeral. It\u2019s my one big regrets <\/strong>in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Alex Swanson, 32, Larkspur: \u201cI\u2019d have started investing in index funds, purchased my first rental property earlier, and learned to live on 50 percent of my income \u2014 so I could have been financially independent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Yuko Fukami, 54, Berkeley: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have become an architect but would have done something else \u2014 maybe become an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Carlos Mock, 43, San Rafael: \u201cI would have traveled more, all around the world, instead of being so responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Mona Philpott, 63, San Anselmo: \u201cI\u2019d have taken my music lessons more seriously. My parents wanted me to, but I fought the practice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Lynne Ashdown, 75, Novato: \u201cI would have had one more child. I have two sons and I\u2019d have liked to have a daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n Several respondents declared they\u2019d change nothing \u2014 folks like 61-year-old Cindy King of Mill Valley, visiting 57-year-old Yatra Sherwood from the United Kingdom and 35-year-old Mila Kronick of San Anselmo, who asserted \u201cI\u2019ve liked everything I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n But my favorite answer came from Heather Richer, a 38-year-old San Anselmo resident \u2014 because of its levity. \u201cI wish I\u2019d have brought my Bed Bath & Beyond coupon with me to the store.\u201d<\/p>\n When I posed the Big Question to myself, I thought that instead of becoming an editor and writer, I might have tried life as a cartoonist or actor.<\/p>\n The downside, of course, would be that this column, The Roving I, wouldn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n Hmmm\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fifty-six years ago I asked my first man-in-the-street question for a weekly newspaper. I don\u2019t recollect what it was, but it was shallow. After all, I was a wet-behind-the-ears…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"