New Survey on eve of Woodstock Anniversary shows 'generation gap' has widened but softened

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1WGF5sA-3c&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dcrosby%2520stills%2520nash%2520and%2520young%252C%2520woodstock%26sourceid%3Dnavclient%2Dff%26rlz%3D1B3RNFA%5FenUS&feature=player_embedded#t=84

Forty years ago we didn't feel a threatened nation.  America was at the top of the heap; the richest country in the world and by inference, the best.  The younger generation could afford to march, pray and dance their way to adulthood.  Today, sadly, many of us live in fear:  fear of job loss, fear of losing homes, fear of attack, fear of illness and bacteria, and yes, even some fear of their government who has become more and more intrusive into our daily lives.  Young people have become more conservative in their views and, most probably, today, they could do a better job.  We seem, with all of our talk, dancing and singing to have really lost our way.  Lobbyists are ruling our country; those in charge label dissent as "un-American".   
 
Times have changed; but have they changed necessarily for the better?  I'm not so sure.

It's interesting that behind the waves of change we've experienced over the last 40 years, two things remain constant: fear and hatred of 'the other'.  The thing that has changed is simply the 'tribe structure' -- from age-based tribes to 'nationality' and economic class tribes.  It's a miracle that civilization has progressed as far as it has, given humans' obsession with dividing their species loyalties into tribal, class, and national subgroups which incessantly battle each other.  The dream of humanism (loyalty to the species as a whole) is as distant as ever.  Humans simply are built to hate and fear, and refuse to give these up....

I hear a lot of anti-Muslim talk (in very tolerant Houston, too!), but when I enter the home of a Muslim customer, take my shoes off at the door, sit down, and watch the kids playing, the infants cooing, or grandma in the other room cooking, it's hard to remember that these are supposed to be the threatening 'others' that I'm supposed to fear.  And then I remember that (when I was young) it was the dangerous 'Negroes' who filled the same slot..... So sad!

thank you peter lake!!!  great song to wake up to!
  
 
 

Andy,  Doc  Nolan:   We  need  to  stop  letting  "status  quo  politicians"  prey  on  our  insecurities,  thereby  playing  off  one  country  against  the  other,  one  race  against  the  other,  even  one  economic  class  against  the  other.    We  are  all  in  this  fragile  lifeboat  we  call  "life"  together,  and  for  that  very  reason  {not  in  spite  of  it}  we  need  to  coordinate  our  oarsmen's  efforts,   otherwise  we  will  continue  to  accomplish  nothing,  and  to  accomplish  nothing  when  radical  steps  are  needed  just  to  stabilize  our  environment  is  actually  a  move  backwards.

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

On a lighter note... I vividly remember an event in downtown Pittsburgh, PA, in 1969.  A few months before, I'd been a guy doing odd jobs, unhappily waiting to be drafted and sent overseas, smoking (censored) with friends, sharing a house rental with two couples 'living in sin', and so on in Albuquerque, NM.  I was definitely part of the rebellious generation. --- And then I got tired of waiting to be drafted, and enlisted in the Air Force.  Short hair, uniform, yessir/nossir, and so on.  Where does Pittsburgh come in?  I was enroute to my first permanent station (Westover AFB, MA), and was heading back to visit an old girlfriend near Latrobe.  I was carrying (a) a duffel bag, (b) a clothing bag, and (c) a suitcase, probably weighing 70 pounds in aggregate.  And I was dragging all this stuff across the street (actually I was waiting for the light to change).  An elderly gentleman (over 70) wearing an American flag lapel pin, approached me and asked if I needed a hand with my luggage.  It hit me like a hammer... two months ago this guy would have cursed at me (hippie!) and now he was asking if I needed help (our 'boys').  I had crossed an enormous divide: I was now in a new world.  It was a very strange feeling.  I declined his offer, but I've never forgotten him!

Doc  Nolan:   Glad  to  hear  that  you  still  on  occasion  make  house  calls,   the  home  is  where  the  real  secondary  gain  takes  place...where  the  healer  or  problem-solver  suddenly  is  himself  "healed."  We  have  so  much  more  in  common  than  we  have  that  keeps  us  apart. 
The  experience  you  picked  up  with  the  uniform  -vs-  civilian  attire  was  representative  of  so  much  that  is  wrong  with  our  lives.  Perhaps  it  in  part  is  information  overload,  we  must  settle  for  sound-bites  instead  of  stories,  bumper  stickers  instead  of  debates.    The  polite  word  is  "multitasking."  Everybody  works,  some  work  long  hours,  the  kids  often  are  left  to  largely  fend  for  themselves.   And  we  finish  our  working/parenting  days  so  exhausted  that  we  have  very  little  "quality  time"   left,  which  unfortunately  does  not  slice  too  thinly  and  still  retain  the  quality  flavor.  One  reason  why  I  like  this  particular  forum  is  because  we  tend  to  all  be  interesting  &  diverse  people,  and  few  waltz  delicately  around  what  it  is  that  they  have  to  say.....life  is  too  short  for  foreplay,  at  least  in  THIS  area}.
Picked  up  a  copy  of  "Deep  Survival"  online  the  other  day,  the  book  seemed  to  be  one  of  only  a  few  that  had  a  large  percentage  of  its  USED  copies  underscored  with  yellow  highlighter,  or  with  margins  filled  up  with  meticulous  cross-referenced  notes.  Almost  wanted  to  have  them  send  me  the  names  and  identifiers  of  the  original  owners  {valued  books  tend  to  have  the  owners'  names  proudly  and  boldly  displayed  inside  the  front  cover,  with  a  phone  number  in  case  the  book  is  misplaced...it  also  deters  theft}.  Then  I  thought  we  could  draw  names,  and  each  of  us  call  one  avid  former  reader,  and  invite  them  to  post  &  participate  here.

Cuukoo1:  That  sure  is  a  cool  link  that  you  shared  with  us,  you  plug  in  a  date,  you  crank  out  everything  of  historical  interest  that  ever  happened.....
And  a   top  of  the  morning  to  you  as  well.....lol

morning bert!!!! it's all relative to your perception.  some see dark, doom and gloom, where some see light.  "whatever", i say.  just pick a day and the sun is still gonna rise...... so far.  i'm all over the music peter lake posted.  just turning 16 in the summer of 69' was exactly as it was suppose to be, for me. i choose to love life, live it and enjoy it, no matter, as opposed to not.  what a wonderful roller coaster ride this journey is.  jmo. 

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-n0umyjXms
 

Good morning, Eyelanders...thank you JPeterLake for that link, first song I've heard today and it's a good 'un.  ...Stephen Stills loved Judy with the big blue eyes and the voice that could hit the high notes with ease, that's pretty obvious.  I hope we have more music today....

Remember the televised Draft Lottery?  Anyone here have their lives and future dependent on a number announced that night on teevee?  Well I didn't have one, since females were unfit to fight back then.  But my now husband did, and his number was 303.     Anybody else?

GOODNESS GRACIOUS! We have come sooo very far since then;woodstock.We have solved so many diseases,though we have also created cures that kill,we have learned to feed a population that is twice, THAT'S RIGHT,TWICE as big as it was then. Sadly,we haven't learned to get along much better than we did then,but, and this is soo very important, we have learned to talk/text/twitter to each other. Sooner or later,that could mean we will start comparing notes, and we may, just may, learn that we are all on spaceship earth together.Wait, that was the cry of the WoodStock Nation!    Still works for me.   Peace, and Love, Y'All

Park4:  I  remember  full  well  the  televised  number  drawing,  even  though  I  had  previously  decided  to  better  take  control  of  my   fate,  decisions  that  took  me  out  of  the  mix  of  reloading  the  pool  of  infantrymen  that  was  seemingly  neverending.  I  seem  to  recall  that  my  Selective  Service  Board  was  venued  in  Evanston,  next  to  Northwestern's  campus.

Well since I'm a bit younger than 40 ~ I have recollection of any thing really mentioned this morning...  I do remember my parents talking about the draft #'s being pulled on TV though.
 
I can remember in the 90's when MTV tried to "re-create" Woodstock ~ that was a mess ~ It really made me realize you can NEVER recreate something like that no matter how hard you try.. Yet many people of my generation have still not learned that lesson, it's still trying to be redone under concerts titled as ~  LA LA Palooza, Ozzyfest, Country USA, Freedom Concert, Vans Warped Tours.. Yet not ONE of these festivals have seemed to have captured the images & the ideas that Woodstock did 40 years ago.. 
 

Its not that I'm not aware of how flawed our species has been and still remains.  

It's not that I don't mourn the hatred and hate the violence that is unfortunately part of our everyday life, be it across the street or on the opposite side of the world.

I am deeply aware, I've shed many tears, and at times I've allowed myself to become totally overwhelmed by it all; fettered in chains of hopelessness.

I choose instead to be hopeful today. Today I remember that forty-years after Woodstock, we are still here, trying to be better, to be more cognizant of our impact on the future. I remember that many of us are still trying to get it right since that first person wrapped his mind around the question "why?" so very long ago.

Color me naïve, but today I just choose to be saved by the music.

Peace out..

http://www.gvsmedia.com/video-2/ZYrz5y1mW5U/Sly-and-the-Family-Stone-I-Want-To-Take-You-Higher-Woodstock

Hi rings, you're so right.  You can't go back again.  Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but it doesn't work.  The memorable events usually begin as ordinary events, and then something clicks and it takes on a life of its own -- and become memorable in its own right.
 
 
I heard an interview with Woody Guthrie the other day...he's a registered Republican, and he likes Sarah Palin's style. 
 
So............There you go.
So much for a cohesive "Woodstock generation."
 
It was good while it was good, but now it's over.
 
 

Bert,  My now husband and I were engaged when that lottery happened. We'd talked a lot about what would happen if it looked like he's be drafted.  He still had 2 plus years of undergrad to go.  I was the radical:  I said, we go to Canada.  He was not about to dodge the draft, but he figured on going to OCS to avoid foot soldiering.  Luckily 303 was never called, and he never went.
 
I honestly would have packed up and taken off for the north, I just didn't think it was worth dying in, Viet Nam, and for whatever that war represented.
 
He's more honorable than I, I guess.

I like how you think PeterLake.  I do.  I've seen and heard and lived with negativity from my father until I was filled to the top with it, and what the point of all of it?  He was bitter, depressed, angry at everything -- and to what end?  He sat in his leather recliner till the last afternoon of his life and raled at the news on television, shook his fist at what he saw there, got up to go out to go to dinner, and he never came home.
 
That was his life from age 45 on until his death at age 77.
 
I swore I wouldn't be like that and I'm not.  I see it all, like you, PeterLake, but I choose to find something good in all of it, something worth hanging on to.
 
I'm not going to waste my life in anger and despair.  I'm not going to shuffle off to my leather recliner just to sit my life out there, shaking my fist at CNN.
 
There's more to life than that, I've seen it, and that's what I choose.

PARK4 & cuukoo1:  Glad to hear that that is what you choose too. It is after all; a choice.

meanwhile, far away, and 40 years ago........ "stay away from the brown acid!"

I've got to get some work done, and then it's back here for some Woodstock music.  I'm hoping Thesepia train will provide it, later on today, in a car reminiscent of Woodstock 1969, minus the mud and rain and the "brown acid."  A playlist, peterlake?  Perhaps?

Park4:  Trust  me  on  this  one,  your  husband  was  not  more  honorable  than  you.   He  simply  processed  conflicting  and  difficult  information  differently.  That  was  the  hardest  part  about  the  Southeast  Asia  situation.  Unlike  my  parents'  generation,  it  was   no  longer  obvious  who  was  the  enemy,  and our  politicians  were  obviously  highly  suspect  about  the  quality  of  what  information  we  were  given.  I  remember  working  for  a  government  agency,   a  better  option  I  thought  to  deploy  my  skills  in  the  national  interest  than  being  an  infantryman  in  the  rice  paddies.  I  was  particularly  good  at  finding  people  that  didn't  want  to  be  found.  One  young  man  in  particular  was  identified  as  a  high-value  target,  a  terrorist  who  had  new  plans  to  destroy  homeland  targets,  killing  many   innocent  civilians.  So  I  worked  like  the  young  fool  that  I  was,  with  even  extra  energy  to  go  to  law  school  at  night.  Then  the  prey  was  captured....and  the  next  week  I  saw  his  picture  in  the  paper.  Turned  out  his  file  I  was  working  was  sanitized  so  that  I  would  have  no  misgivings  about  the  mission.  He  was  a  peace  activist,  articulate  critic  of  the  president's  men,  and  on  Nixon's  secret  enemies  list.   Damn,  the  poor  guy  didn't  even  eat  meat,  he  felt  it  was  kill  friggin'  animals,  let  alone  people.  That  was  the  day  that  I  made  a  commitment  to  move  over  to  the  defense  side... 

 prior to 69, was 68..evolution
 
http://www.veveo.net/video/The+Beatles+-+Revolution+1/CL0243046328_4d2dff054_Vk02MDA1OTJ-aW46MX5xOmJyfmJ3OlZNNjAwNTky
 
67,66,65,64,63,62,...........
 
 
 

Woodstock didn't have Bob, or The Band, or Van. John Prine was soon to become a better anti-establishment writer, and Randy Newman wanted to make love to you while he burned down the corn field. Woodstock? .... and the Caravan is painted red and white. That means ...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Qe5Ax-OLA

The best version of Red House ever recorded . . .
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjOQ9r35uiU

I just learned (on NPR) this morning that the organizers of Woodstock wanted Roy Rogers to play "Happy Trails" to end the concert.

if you have a good set of speakers on yer 'puter, go to the XM Satallite radio site, and you can get a free three day pass to listen to the WOODSTOCK SPECIAL. xm 40     really great stuff, better quality,stories from the principals,and interviews, and some insights; abbie Hoffman getting his head banged by the Who, and the film of that being kept in a vault,by the Who (story I heard yesterday on XM)

I'd bet green money that it was Arlo who boosted Palin. I knew of his daddy, and he ain't his daddy by a fur piece. Woody died of Huntington's Disease in 1967. His guitar had a sign on it that said "This Machine Kills Fascists", and he wasn't talking about Italians...
Woody would've been right at home at Woodstock, and I'd say he would have had a go at Joe Hill sometime late in the set:

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
they shot you Joe" says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

"In Salt Lake City, Joe," says I,
Him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
went on to organize,
went on to organize"

From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
Where working men defend their rights,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

Woodstock was all about peace and love and music, but it was about more than that.
Sing with me:

We shall overcome...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2wJW0YoafI

"The Draft Dodger Rag" by the Chad Mitchel Trio. 

and, Amazing Grace, and "Gimme an 'F'........what's that spell?",Hendrix's Anthem....and all the rest.And, that other war cry that changed it all:   "DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30"  Adjusted for inflation,and age, why...that would be  US!     YIKES!

And Arlo Guthrie's Aug 13th interview, mentions Mz Palin, but not in such a favorable light as indicated in a previous entry. And he claims affiliation to the Republican Party, but I'm guessing it is the Fiscal Conservative,Social Liberal branch; and that is why you didn't see too many instances of him hyping at the last round....you can get anything you want at Alice's retaurant

Yes it's Arlo.  Woody's been dead forever, wouldn't have made a good interview.  Arlo Guthrie didn't say "nay" to Palin, RY -- he said he was a work within the system kind of guy, always was, rather than a storm the Bastille type.  His Alice's Restaurant is in a church he bought and restored.
 
 
AND he's been married to his one and only wife for 40 years.  Who'd a thunk it.

Park,looked like he said she would'na made a good pres,or vice....4th paragraph, Carole costello interview,8/13.Maybe I'm reading into it....

Anyways, we be all,entitled to our opinions and dreams....And Sarah is entitled to hers.  I,personally,think so.

Some things...
 
Doc~ That story sounds so familiar; have you told it here before? if not, what was the last time you were in Pittsburgh? I think I may have met you in real life.
 
topic~ I've said it before, I'll say it again; Dad was/is a hippie and Mum was a beatnik. That one year difference between their ages made all the difference. Mum graduated High School in Feb. of 1964 and Dad followed in May of 1965. Neither one made it to Woodstock. Dad was on a different drug-induced plane (besides he had to work) and Mum was working in the Lab at the University Of Pittsburgh. Growing up a flower-child in the early eighties was strange. VietNam ended four years before I was born so there was a lot of residual aftermath floating around in the early eighties. Some Hippies became Yuppies and other ones went back to the country/farm whatever. I remember being very young and being forced to participate in "Hands Across America" which is what I think was the Woodstock Generation's final social achievement. I remember my parents making me watch Running On Empty, that movie from 1984 starring Judd Hirsch about the ex-radicals living underground. Knowing they knew people like that at the time is all the more shocking, and finding out years later that people from the Underground visited us even more. 
Mum and Dad helped found the East End Food Co-op, which is thriving nowadays, but the neo-hippies that shop there have no idea all the work that went into it way back when on Semple Street, before the first move to Penn Ave, the store I partially grew up in.
Growing up, I did cause my parents some concern, when my favorite TV character as a child was Alex P. Keaton, played by Mr. Michael J. Fox. When I tried to rebel, I failed because the only possible way to do that would have to become a Young Republican, something which my social values were strongly against. I do remember telling them quite often out of normal teen angst and exasperation "The Sixties are over and you guys lost!!" That didn't go over to well the first time.
Nowadays, just a few months away from 30, it's hard to say what I am; yes to same-sex marriage, yes to stricter gun laws (does anyone honestly need an AK-47 or Israeli Galiel?), yes to death-penalty reform (keep the death penalty, just find a quicker way than lethal injection), keep abortion legal, end affirmative action, if we're going to overhaul the health care system, please follow the French or Dutch models, yes to capitalism, yes to researching better fuels, yes to making to fuel we use now work better, yes to immigration reform, I could go on and on, but fear I'd be opening up a can of worms. The best way to describe my political view points is Intelligent Liberalism. 

A 60's post-mortum . . . . . . . .  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVa8VUcopX4

For tonight's dream journey into the moonlight, riding the rails of thesepia train. I enjoy and respect both versions of the song and the man...  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjSHazjrWg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dcat%2520stevens%26sourceid%3Dnavclient-ff%26rlz%3D1B3RNFA_enUS268US268%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26hl%3Den%26tab%3D&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wEctHyuc0&feature=related

Daniel, that was wonderful.  I love it: your idol was Alex P. Keaton.  Every liberal parents' worst nightmare.  Oh, I'm still laughing.  That was a terrific post.
 
I've been thinking hard (hard as I can) about Woodstock and that time, that era, and honestly, you've got Alex P. Keaton, and closest to my experience was truly "The Big Chill."
 
I could relate those people, pretty much every one of them.  I knew people like that, had friends who were just like a couple of those characters. 
 
I didn't skip over Woodstock, it was a big part of my life, I lost some friends to San Francisco, never to be heard of after they got in their cars and headed west from Illinois.  Lois and Mark E. where did you wind up? We still wonder.
 
The other was in drug trouble and I think he really stepped into it deep, because he took off for Mexico.  Last I saw him, ever, was in 1969, on of all places, Wilmette Beach.  He walked off down the beach and it was goodbye Steve Brennen.
 
But us, we stayed.  Post college and beyond.  In the summer of 1969, 40 years ago today, I was probably working, getting in overtime at the publishing company where I earned the $$ that put me through college.  My husband too, working and saving $ for college.  We were going to be on our own, and that meant work.
 
And by 1969, wasn't everything going to hell in a handbasket, peace and love -wise?  1968, that summer, was the cruelest of times, the most frightening I recall, and after that, the bloom seemed to be off the roses that crowned the hair of the flower children.
 
I don't know quite what happened and when, because I was big-chilled out I guess, and my attention was focused elsewhere.
 
But Daniel, you've done it again.
Love your story.
A hippie and a beatnik seem to produce really talented and charming off spring.  In your case, anyway.

Roadyacht:  I saw the interview on television, and I guess I heard wrong.  I hope I did...but anyhow, I stand corrected.

Woodstock! I remember the music. I had friends that attended it and came back with tales to tell. I'm just as glad to hear about it 2nd hand. I don't do well with large crowds or roughing it outdoors.....all I know is that the music there became an anthem for our generation. I still get chills when I hear it again. I wonder how the movie about it will be received? I think instead I would appreciate a documentary on the topic done by Ken Burns.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzQQgF0p_kk
 
 
...and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
 
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWNTqbLFFE&NR=1
 
 
A studio recording of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" sung by CSNY...

Cary Grant alert, on TCM, right now.  It's been called the ultimate chick flick.   5 Kleenex rating.
 
 
Affair To Remember, An (1957)

A romantic shipboard romance inspires a couple to promise to meet six months later.
Cast:
Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson
Dir:
Leo McCarey C-115 mins, TV-PG
 
 
 

PARK4 ~ Thank you.
 
and another thing...
if there was any one song from Woodstock that in my humble little opinion that Eyeland radio has been playing today is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQYDvQ1HH-E
 

I'm certainly being a chatty little guy tonight, but it just occured to me that not only is this date the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, but it is the 70th anniversary of the film, The Wizard Of Oz. Perhaps the Yellow Brick Road led to Woodstock?

Zardoz! The Yellow Brick Road leads to Zardoz.

Daniel Zev: I hope I haven't told that story here before (sign of old age!).  It has been 16 years since I was last back in Western PA (visiting my alma mater, St. Vincent College for a reunion).  My sister, one of six siblings, says I have an astounding memory, but I simply think of myself as Billy Pilgrim, traveling back and forth in time (and making occassional forays off to Tralfamadore to find comfort with Montana Wildhack).

Those of us from 'that generation' have something in common with combat veterans, adventurers, and explorers: we visited places that no one else can understand without having been there.  The years 1968 and 1969 were like 9/11, except that the more recent event hit like a lightning strike -- those years were one unfolding horror after another.  Just as some incredible music came out of the trenches of World War I (17,000 British troops kiilled on one day!!!), so some incredible music came out of the Baby Boom generation.  The music kept us sane.  As the world moved and shook, many tied their brains to lyrics, melody, rhythm, and chant..... Moved and shook? You think I'm kidding???? Check out this timeline, you of the younger generations.... all this in one 12-month period called 1968.  http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/1968/reference/timeline.html ; .  And 1969 was no better!

Here's a timeline for 1969.... http://www.fsmitha.com/time/1969.htm

7:25 park4 !! me too! & 8:03, tissues in hand.

"War isn't healthy for children or other living things"

A good read - 
 
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/war-is-not-healthy-the-true-story

 
A sound like onrushing water, drew me out to the front porch in time to see the leaders among hundreds of Around-the-Lake bicycle racers fly by at what looked to be thirty-some miles an hour.

With a lot of miles behind them, it was a surprise to hear non-breathless cursing.

That first motivated, dedicated pack of riders with the stuff to win has been followed for forty-five minutes by people who probably just enjoy cruising through town without having to stop for signs or lights and who are hoping to finish and not be last.

It is cloudy, in the mid sixties with a soggy breeze. They could have seen worse.

I was twenty-five in nineteen-sixty-nine and moving to Omaha. In the summer of seventy-one, my boss called to ask if I would mind going to a park on Dodge to see if I could find his son, Rob.

It was in that Warren Buffet part of town, dark, with mature hardwoods and filled with what could have been called paranoids were it not for the fact that "they" really were out to get them - or some of them anyway.

I attracted the attention of a nice looking young man with a long dark pony tail and complete mastery of hippie lingo and cadence.

"Waddya doin' here, mayann? People think you look like a narc, mayann. It might not be so safe here for you, mayann."

He was right but neither of us knew it until a softball sized coconut that I have always  suspected was intended for the back of my head, smashed into the front of his.

The sound was awful though he probably didn't hear it.

It looked to have been hurled by a tall, wide shouldered guy with a real cannon and sparked a lot of activity in which some lounging, laid back, youngish men turned out to be with the police.

The friends of coconut face rushed but not to his aid. They piled into a van that turned out to have been immobilized and were easily kept in place by two uniformed women.

Some dopers ran and were allowed to keep running, some were nabbed and quite a few seemed not especially aware or concerned about the chaos that erupted in their midst.

Nobody paid attention to me until a tall kid came up and nervously asked if I worked for his dad.

"What is that, Rob, a wig or something?"

He ditched his Abbey Hoffman hairpiece and allowed himself to appear to be lead by the arm to where my car had been parked in by the authorities.

We were able to climb in through the back door and get away without too much off-roading.

Instead of driving him to his parent's home, I had no idea where it was, I asked where he wanted to go.

We went somewhere for coffee and a half hour or so of self-pity and whining during which I faked empathy and understanding before he asked what I thought would happen if he got off the road and went home. He had been "on the road" for about four or five days.

"Just my opinion, Rob, but I think that they will overlook the fact that you look and smell like shit and you do, ask if you are hungry and rustle up some grub while you take a shower."

When he went to the front door, his dad said: "Hey, son, you look like you could eat something."

Curiously, no mention was ever made of that night.

Everyone that we knew to have been in the drug culture, grew beyond it because it disappeared as a popular pastime but I cannot name one, of about eight, who has had a life that has been enviable, all of them having been scared, scarred, suspicious and unable to fit, completely comfortably, into a society that they seem unwilling to trust.



 

  

Another memorable tale from my favorite storyteller.  Many merci-s, Stoney.

Stoney, I can only echo what PARK said.  Bravo!

Viva Stoney-in good form, as always!
Olivia, returning from a wonderful hiatus in reality...