Although I fell in love with the idea that was San Francisco, I never really transmorphed into the reality of San Francisco. I never really dug the Grateful Dead. They lived just around the block from my Oak Street flop across from Panhandle Park. Of course I heard their music daily or probably hourly if I was hanging on Haight or lounging on Hippie Hill. Their music was flowing on a regular basis from every storefront or coffee shop, from the Print Mint to the Garuda. I saw them often enough on many lazy weekends in Golden Gate Park. But I like bands with a bit more punch. My favorite local band was Blue Cheer. Also, being an east coast lad I still listened to a lot of middle American music.
One song that I heard that really wasn't my thing but stuck in my head was "For What It's Worth" by the Buffalo Springfield. The message said a lot to me. I was involved with some people associated with Students for a Democratic Society over in Berkeley. In January 68 a bunch of us had been arrested across from the Fairmont Hotel in the tony Knob Hill District while then Secretary of State Dean Rusk was wining & dining rich backers, while over in Vietnam people were dying needlessly. In July 69, "Something in the Air" by Thunderclap Newman was playing everywhere I went. I realized the evil darkness of the Vietnam War was looming larger & larger over my head, Things were rapidly coming to a boil.
By December 69 the fantasy of San Francisco was over...Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death at The Altamont Speedway Free Festival as the Stones played; Charles Manson & much of his "Family" had been arrested for the Tate-LaBianca murders. Also that month, December 1st, 1969, the Vietnam War draft lottery took place. It would determine the order of call to military service in Vietnam for the year 1970 for any male born between January 1, 1944 & December 31, 1950. It was the first time a lottery system had been used to select men for military service since WWII. My number was 40. They eventually reached 195. My number was up, as they say.
Hanging around in New York in late 69, there were pleanty of anti-war activities going on. The Yippies (Youth International Party – started by Jerry Rubin & Abbie Hoffman) were always doing protest street theater actions around the Village. The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam went down on October 15, 1969 as Tom Seaver's Mets won Game four of that year's world series. Business as usual for the ruling class. In early November 69, two news stories kinda kicked the anti-war movement into high gear. U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Rheault was charged with ordering the murder of a South Vietnamese official (suspected of being a Viet Cong spy..."termination with extreme prejudice" is what they called it). But on November 12, 1969 journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story of Lieutenant William Calley & the My Lai massacre. The massacre was a beacon highlighting the brutality of the Vietnam war. So three days later, on November 15, 1969, we moved the protests to Nixonland, Washington, D.C.
But the tremendous high of that march came crashing down with the draft lottery. I had to think about my future for the first time in a long while. So I came to the conclusion that I'd head back to my home town in north-western Pennsylvania & try out the college thing. They were giving draft deferments to college boys & I still hadn't run out the legs on my scholarship, so off I went. Back into the heart of darkness.
For the next two years I was in & out of colleges. I went for a semester to the University of Pittsburgh, as had been my original plan after graduation. Then I took off a semester. Before the Selective Service pulled my draft pass, I enrolled in the local community college for a semester, then dropped out again. I figured I could play this game as long as the war lasted. More & more people across more & more strata of society were understanding that we had no business in Vietnam, that people on both sides were dying in an unjust invasion. It couldn't last too long. But yet the war still dragged on. I enrolled at Edinboro State Teachers College, liked the atmosphere & the people & decided to stay for a while. But in September 71, Congress put an end to all college deferments. I started hitch-hiking to Buffalo, New York for confab with the Buffalo War Resisters League folks. I had first rubbed elbows with some of their brothers & sister while in NYC in 69. That's where I learned that WRL members & staffers were key agents for the new "Underground Railroad" that, when necessary, helped draft resisters find refuge outside the United States. The Buffalo branch arranged extended "visits" to Canada.
In the middle of October I was ordered to report to the induction center for the United States Army in Eire, Pennsylvania. I packed anything I valued (not much) into my backpack, & talked a friend into driving me up to nearby Interstate 90. I hopped out & trying to keep a game face on, waved a "cheery" good-bye. I walked out to the interchange & as I neared that concrete ribbon, I heard a voice in my mind say, "East...or West?"
Everything was set with the Buffalo WRL to slip me across the waters into neighboring Canada. But as I walked toward the on-ramp, a thought was gnawing at my brain. Whose game was I playing. Deserting my country no matter how unjustified Vietnam was seemed like a move the government was pushing on me. I wanted freedom but I wanted it on my own terms. So I went up the ramp a way & stuck out my thumb. I was headed west once more. Out of the frying pan into the fire. Now I was a fugitive in my own country. I'd have to keep a sharp look over my shoulder, but...I was on the road again.
Here's what music moved me during...
Vol. 3 - Vietnam Draft Fears/ In & Out of College 1970-1971
1970
Deep Purple - Child in Time
The Stooges - TV Eye
Spirit - Natures Way
MC5 - Human Being Lawnmower
The Guess Who - No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature
Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band - The Clouds Are Full of Wine (Not Whiskey or Rye)
Spirit - Animal Zoo
David Bowie - She Shook Me Cold
MC5 - The American Ruse
James Gang - Ashes, the Rain, & I
1971
Sly & the Family Stone - Brave & Strong
T. Rex - Jeepster
Alice Cooper - Ballad of Dwight Fry
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Next in this series: Vol. 4 - End of College Safety/Draft Dodging Days 1972-1976
Enjoy,
NØ
Gnarly dude! The adventure continues. These Alice Cooper, Funkadelic, T.Rex, Bowie, Beefheart, MC5 & Stooges have also spent plenty of time on the stereo since my late teens/early 20s too, but in the Reagan rather than Nixon years. Thanks for the continuing story and soundtrack.
ReplyDeleteThe Reagan years were as creepy as the Nixon years. Needed these tunes just to survive.
ReplyDelete