Swamp Musings

..of my baby's love..

Where were you on April 22, 1970? I got a kick out of Mostly Cajun's post this morning. Back then I still resided in the N. Va./D.C. mess as a South Alabama ex-pat/student/full-time employee/semi-homeless zit factory. One HAD to be 21 in order to sign any legal document other than military induction back then. Tried that when I turned 17. I figured that since my father took his WW 2 GI benefits and got his pilot's licence and I'd been flying with that circus of his buddies since shortly after being house-broke, had my First Class FCC ticket with scads of endorsements (got a day out of school for each exam, scheduled each one to maximize beach time! ;o), highest available amateur radio licence, was a crack shot courtesy of dad, grandad, a couple of uncles, and a retired OSS employee, figured it would be a snap. Four days of exams, all aced. Then came the medical. Should have started there. Failed it miserably. I'd really hoped to join the USAF, knew there wasn't a big chance other than the between the ears stuff (much easier later when I was too old) but worth a shot anyway. Kept my 1-A through school but that's another story..

Earth Day, 1970. Roomates with signing rental agreements were gone. There were 18 over my years in DC. Yeah, when I had to go through a really rock-and-roll background check for a security clearance that Sandy (my socks are made from hemp) Burgler should have, I was made to recall each and every place I'd lived. Lived in the Fort Myers Army barracks for a while. Damn cold on the street, a army bud told me how to sneak on base, whole drill on inspections, how to find a empty room, plus he gave me a wonderful wool lined arctic coat. Weighs more than my second ex-wife. Still got it. Sometimes it still feels like heaven smiled on me coming out from under my campsite and having those long, hot showers. I'll write about my camp site one day. Big azalea bush on the Blair House grounds. Kept most of the rain and sleet off my carcass and nearly all the snow as well.

Earth Day, 1970. The 1964 Barracuda was still on jack-stands being re-converted from C-altered back to possible street use. Young males have a talent for putting strange hardware into things with wheels and with the help of a passle of Latvians (ma & pa were WW 2 DP's), we stuffed a 440 mag plus goodies in a '64 cuda. 138 mph first time out in the quarter. Waaay too light in the rear as imagined. Still smoking tires in 4th. Had to settle on the 248 pound 350 cc (326 actually) Benelli kidney-wrecker dirt bike for the day's exploration. All the war protests were fun. Weed, wine, and women. Wrote about that in times past. Yeah, I most assuredly would have voted for Goldwater.

Where to go? Monument grounds? Bleh. Something niggles on my antique memory about Nader was supposed to be there and babble. Dupont Circle? Possibility. Confrontational sometimes and I hate the smell of tear gas. I always liked the nekkid lady in the 4th story window when the Washington Symphony did their free concerts though. I'm easy.

Rock Creek Park. That's where the interns out of Georgetown who manned the free clinic on Wisconsin Avenue would appear!

Yup. Mr. soon-to-be Dr. Loudmouth was there with his usual entourage plus a couple of dozen others. A minor disclaimer; Dr. L was pretty good at the free clinic. Very efficient, had the bedside manner of a flask of nerve gas. Admittedly, most of the folk appearing at the clinic during the 'nam protests were tripping out on some bad acid variant, some were also having babies, having heart attacks, and there were a LOT of mental cases that were not acid based. DC had a really high level of heroin addiction back then, dump in a half-million kids with candles, their poor addled grey goo got even wierder.

Dr. L invited the collection up to his dad's place on the lower Potomac in Maryland after a trip to his abode in Georgetown (also owned by pa) to collect "supplies". His abode was a trashy house in Georgetown surrounded by mansions and included 2 acres of weedy real estate. Megabucks even back then. Want to ask me what his daddy did for a living? Not worth the effort was it? Two answers and both were correct.

The "extra" real estate was used by a hatful of Georgetown med students to grow ditchweed. 'bout as wonderful as Donovan's banana peels or Sandy's socks.

This gets much worse before it gets better. The better is pretty damn good by anybody's standard and I'll get around to it. Right now, I'm out of gas.