Last Year, the body in the body politic belonged to November's Playmate/cover girl Patti McGuire. Playboy's editors voted her the outstanding candidate of the year and, indeed, one of the most beautiful ladies ever to grace our magazine. And that opinion was also held by our regular readers--men of taste, one and all--and by the teeming multitudes who picked up Playboy for the first time, curious about that interview with the gentleman from Georgia. And Patti may have changed the course of history. Seems that the former President decided to use the November cover as a symbol of what the opposition stood for; the rest, as they say, is history. If Ford had had a better idea, he would have enlisted Patti--for one thing, she would have helped carry the C.B. vote. When we finally caught up with our Playmate of the Year, she was fresh off her own campaign trail. For a few months, she had been visiting college campuses, car shows, a C.B. and trucker jamboree in Ohio--you name it--as a roving ambassador for Playboy. She's learned to sympathize with politicians. "I was in Miami when it snowed. I was at the University of Ohio when it was ten below, signing autographs on a porch near a beer wagon. I don't know whether it was me or the beer, but there were (text concluded on page 220)Playmate of the Year(continued from page 147) a couple of thousand students there. The campus security cop who was standing nearby kept shouting at me to be careful. He wanted me to keep away from the crowd. 'If they pull you in, we'll never get you back,' he said. Can you imagine? I said, 'Aw, come on, they're only guys.' "
Patti likes to keep her wheels in motion, so we've provided her with eight of them as part of the gifts that go to the Playmate of the Year. Four of the wheels are attached to a limited-edition Dodge Midnight Charger with modified grille and roof treatment, two belong to an AMF ten-speed bike and the rest are part of a Yamaha DT100D street motorcycle. A Panasonic 40-channel C.B. unit will help Patti keep in touch with all of her good buddies out on the road. (Of course, with the $10,000 she's received as the top prize for being chosen top Playmate, she can buy almost any other wheels she takes a fancy to.)
In the story that accompanied her November pictorial, Patti mentioned that she preferred St. Louis to Los Angeles. The record low temperatures suffered by the Midwest this past winter prompted Patti to give California a second chance. She stayed at the Playboy Mansion West for a few weeks and changed her mind, as ladies are often wont to do, about the Golden West. "It was a gas. There were about ten girls staying there--other Playmates and models--and it was like living in a sorority house. We'd have water fights in the Jacuzzi at night, backgammon games with Hef, parties at Pips. I'd attend movies on Sunday. I met a lot of good people and made friends. Now I'm moving out to California. It's going to be a change. I'm leaving behind a two-year relationship and a lot of old friends. But it's something I have to do." Patti's new apartment will be well stocked: The Playmate of the Year hope chest includes a complete hi-fi component system from Pioneer (a Pioneer SX-650 receiver, two HPM-40 speakers and a PL112D turntable). A portable cassette recorder from Panasonic will let her take the music with her. Rounding out the gifts are a Sony color TV, a Canon AE-1 fully automatic camera, a Pulsar watch, Empire binoculars and a complete set of Ventura luggage. That about completes the declaration of personal assets for our top Playmate. It's been a very good year.
"Patti changed her mind, as ladies are often wont to do, about the Golden West."
