It's kind of weird but I know what I was doing 45 yrs ago this past weekend. Not that it was of any great importance. I was at an Aunt and Uncles home installing a TV antenna on their roof. How do I know this.....well in looking over a set of old mail and postcards from my Mom's old home before they get thrown out I discovered an unopened envelope with my name on it. I opened it and found a five dollar bill and a note from my aunt thanking me for putting up the antenna and watching over their house while they were vacationing in South Carolina. By an odd coincidence I remembered it was exactly 45yrs all most to the date that I did the job. Didn't know I got payed and like I said kind of weird to have discovered it. So let me tell you of that memory and you can judge if it sheds any light on to that late 60's , early 70's time. So here goes my memory quirk. It had been a miserable week. My father was in the hospital with a heart procedure. Maple Hill High School in my home town of Schodack New York seemed to suffer a mini nervous brealdown. One junior was expelled from school for selling cigarettes out of his locker that his uncle brought up from the somewhere in the south. Three kids expelled for one day for smoking in the bathroom. One kid it was rumored did not because he apparently {turned states evidence} against the junior selling untaxed cigarettes to minors. There was a major fight between junior high school kids. One child got his nose apparently mildly broke. Again an expulsion. Someone had set a tire on fire in the back parking lot in the wee hours of the morning of 3/25 which was a Wednesday. From talking with a couple of people from that time it was an overall bitchy week between students and teachers as well. Maybe it was from a version of cabin fever but the town itself was on edge as well. Some arrests on our old Main Street from brawling outside the bars. two major car accidents Finally......as I stated before there was a palpable tension within the school. A teacher was letting it be known he was not getting tenure and was expressing his angry views to his students and this would boil over within a month to a nasty protest which all most got several more students expelled. Peter Stoll an English teacher there at the time confided to a couple of friends and myself that our principal Larry Davis was ready to pull his hair out. As he apparently confided to some teachers and school board members.....{when the hell are things going to go back to normal in this Goddamn world.} In actuality he didn't have long to wait before things would settle down. The sixties were after all , over. Just the lingering after shocks were remaining. Principal Davis loved order like he had in the Navy in WWII.
Other stuff was going on in the world and at home but I think I have set the stage for our small community. That Friday , after school I was dropped off at my Aunt & Uncles. My Mom was going up to the hospital to attend to my father at the medical center. I had my list of chores and it was agreed I would spend the weekend there puttering around. It was gloomy , misty rain , chilly. My friends and I all agreed that no one was going out on this Friday because we were all bushed. Because I did some amateur radio my Aunt suggested I install their new antenna , so for the next 2 hours that is what I did and it was cold on top of that house on top of a hill. But it worked and because it was on a high vantage point the TV could also pick up stations out of the a immediate area , namely channel 8 New Haven Ct and WTIC. channel 3 in Hartford Ct. I thought a job well done. But I had no place to go. Made dinner or should I say a prepared TV Dinner. So now what to do? It was dark , I had a certain senior year fatigue about me. So I did what I probably needed to do , something I have all ways sought out during various times of my life. I decided on solitude. I also decided on a couple of Schlitz beers from the downstairs fridge. called up Kunicki , he was vegging out as well. Made plans for Saturday night. Now I jacked up the heat , pulled the Lazyboy recliner to the living room window , opened the window slightly , yes I smoked but one of my quirks is I like fresh air as well. I know , makes not a lot of sense. Lit up a Benson & Hedges Deluxe {you can guess where I got them and no I did not turn in the kid.} Anyway had my portable radio with me with shortwave ability. Turned on the BBC from London. Even then I liked to pay attention to the news. Usual bad news , protests in Paris , war in Vietnam.etc. They also spent a fair amount of time discussing the rumors that The Beatles were splitting up. Which in reality they soon would. One economist talked about how it might effect the economy in England. Imagine that. I then set in silence and let my mind wonder. I believe I realized that a major era of my life was ending , that being high school. My older and ill father , my strained relations with my brother who only a few short months before had returned from Vietnam. My teenage insecurities along with a deep desire to escape Maple Hill High School. Before I knew it it was around 10:00 PM. I switched on a NYC radio station. Gene Shepard doing his radio show. You may know him as a writer and narrator of A Christmas Story. Could that man talk....for two hours five nights a week he would just do these flow of consciousness stories. I wrapped my mind around his voice and let him take me for a ride. I believe he talked about a date he had in a rich part on town in his early adulthood. It was then he said he more fully realized what was out in other parts of the world and he might get a piece of it. From there I listened Long John Nebel's talk show on WNBC. Discussion of the publishing industry and the hoax book Naked Came a Stranger. I truly do feel that there was a higher level of discussion back then. After 1:00 AM I simply went back to my wandering mind. What rich part of town might I visit or would not. I puzzled over these matters I am sure Teenagers of this generation have these moments as well. One thing I don't think we had to deal with quite as often was what we wanted to do in our adult life. If you didn't know , one had Liberal Arts. Figure it out down the road. Of course back then you could leave high school and often find a decent job with benefits. This does not happen often today. Somewhere in the night I drifted off to a reasonable sleep. Wow , it was suddenly 11:00 AM. Got up , fixed a quick breakfast , checked the chore list twice and started moving on it.
Night would again fall , a non adult house , friends with transportation , I threw a small but respectful party. Cards , darts , drinking , a few girls dropped by as well. People escaping for who knows where or what..Our major discussion point was Vietnam as it was in much of the nation. One slightly broken window which got blamed on my cousin later and broke up around 1:00 AM.. I can still hear those voices today. From Gene Shepard to high school whats their names. But I can honestly say I and we needed that weekend......sort out the cobwebs and prepare for June and some supposed new destiny that adults kept telling us about. We were a fairly subdued group that night. Seem to fit the psychology of the week.Coming to the end of an era in ones life can sometimes make you that way.
Next day I opened every window in the house......cleaned up the place , dumped the empties with Kunicki who disposed of them. Showered , shaved , looked presentable , Mom arrived after noon. Did an inspection and off to home again. Another week at MHHS awaited and I had a planning meeting for a new day called Earth Day we were acting on.
Other stuff was going on in the world and at home but I think I have set the stage for our small community. That Friday , after school I was dropped off at my Aunt & Uncles. My Mom was going up to the hospital to attend to my father at the medical center. I had my list of chores and it was agreed I would spend the weekend there puttering around. It was gloomy , misty rain , chilly. My friends and I all agreed that no one was going out on this Friday because we were all bushed. Because I did some amateur radio my Aunt suggested I install their new antenna , so for the next 2 hours that is what I did and it was cold on top of that house on top of a hill. But it worked and because it was on a high vantage point the TV could also pick up stations out of the a immediate area , namely channel 8 New Haven Ct and WTIC. channel 3 in Hartford Ct. I thought a job well done. But I had no place to go. Made dinner or should I say a prepared TV Dinner. So now what to do? It was dark , I had a certain senior year fatigue about me. So I did what I probably needed to do , something I have all ways sought out during various times of my life. I decided on solitude. I also decided on a couple of Schlitz beers from the downstairs fridge. called up Kunicki , he was vegging out as well. Made plans for Saturday night. Now I jacked up the heat , pulled the Lazyboy recliner to the living room window , opened the window slightly , yes I smoked but one of my quirks is I like fresh air as well. I know , makes not a lot of sense. Lit up a Benson & Hedges Deluxe {you can guess where I got them and no I did not turn in the kid.} Anyway had my portable radio with me with shortwave ability. Turned on the BBC from London. Even then I liked to pay attention to the news. Usual bad news , protests in Paris , war in Vietnam.etc. They also spent a fair amount of time discussing the rumors that The Beatles were splitting up. Which in reality they soon would. One economist talked about how it might effect the economy in England. Imagine that. I then set in silence and let my mind wonder. I believe I realized that a major era of my life was ending , that being high school. My older and ill father , my strained relations with my brother who only a few short months before had returned from Vietnam. My teenage insecurities along with a deep desire to escape Maple Hill High School. Before I knew it it was around 10:00 PM. I switched on a NYC radio station. Gene Shepard doing his radio show. You may know him as a writer and narrator of A Christmas Story. Could that man talk....for two hours five nights a week he would just do these flow of consciousness stories. I wrapped my mind around his voice and let him take me for a ride. I believe he talked about a date he had in a rich part on town in his early adulthood. It was then he said he more fully realized what was out in other parts of the world and he might get a piece of it. From there I listened Long John Nebel's talk show on WNBC. Discussion of the publishing industry and the hoax book Naked Came a Stranger. I truly do feel that there was a higher level of discussion back then. After 1:00 AM I simply went back to my wandering mind. What rich part of town might I visit or would not. I puzzled over these matters I am sure Teenagers of this generation have these moments as well. One thing I don't think we had to deal with quite as often was what we wanted to do in our adult life. If you didn't know , one had Liberal Arts. Figure it out down the road. Of course back then you could leave high school and often find a decent job with benefits. This does not happen often today. Somewhere in the night I drifted off to a reasonable sleep. Wow , it was suddenly 11:00 AM. Got up , fixed a quick breakfast , checked the chore list twice and started moving on it.
Night would again fall , a non adult house , friends with transportation , I threw a small but respectful party. Cards , darts , drinking , a few girls dropped by as well. People escaping for who knows where or what..Our major discussion point was Vietnam as it was in much of the nation. One slightly broken window which got blamed on my cousin later and broke up around 1:00 AM.. I can still hear those voices today. From Gene Shepard to high school whats their names. But I can honestly say I and we needed that weekend......sort out the cobwebs and prepare for June and some supposed new destiny that adults kept telling us about. We were a fairly subdued group that night. Seem to fit the psychology of the week.Coming to the end of an era in ones life can sometimes make you that way.
Next day I opened every window in the house......cleaned up the place , dumped the empties with Kunicki who disposed of them. Showered , shaved , looked presentable , Mom arrived after noon. Did an inspection and off to home again. Another week at MHHS awaited and I had a planning meeting for a new day called Earth Day we were acting on.
