You are henceforth and forever outcast!

Did you know there was a Des Moines connection to this ubiquitous 70s Richard Bach book?

The New York Times, July 3, 1974 Des Moines, Iowa, July 2 - John H. Livingston, the man who inspired the best-selling novel "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," died Sunday at the Pompano Beach (Fla.) airport soon after completing his last plane ride. Richard D. Bach, a former Iowa Air Guard pilot, has said his best-selling book about a free-wheeling seagull was inspired by Mr. Livingston. Johnny Livingston, as he was known, moved many years ago from Iowa to Florida. He was one of the country's top pilots during the barnstorming days of the nineteen-twenties and thirties. From 1928 through 1933, Mr. Livingston won 79 first places, 43 seconds and 15 thirds in 139 races throughout the country, many of them at Cleveland. He won first place and $13,910 in 1928 in a cross-country race from New York to Los Angeles. Mr. Livingston leaves his wife, Wavelle, two brothers and four sisters.

I loved that book so much in third grade that my teacher (Mrs. Grundemeyer) let me read it out loud to the class during story time. Third grade! I vividly remember going to our little single screen theater to see the movie alone.