Neither
MB nor I had enough credits to graduate at the end of the Spring term
in May 1969. We both had to take some summer courses to earn 120
credits to graduate, so we extended the lease on our apartment to the
end of summer. We were out riding on M's motorcycle one day in the
early summer and, unfortunately, I was not an experienced rider in
those days. I was riding pinion when we leaned into a curve in the road and I (feeling that we were going to topple over) leaned in the opposite direction. Since I was heavier than M, he was unable to compensate
for my weight and couldn't negotiate the curve thanks to my stupidity
and we flew off the road. I went flying about 10 feet through the air, landed on my right side and broke my right wrist and arm. M broke his
collarbone. To my shamefaced relief, M was unbelievably generous and forgiving
as we rode in an ambulance to the hospital. His motorcycle,
miraculously, wasn't badly damaged. It was comical how we managed to
get to classes in my VW for a while. I could steer the car but
couldn't shift with my right arm and wrist in a cast and sling. M's
collarbone was broken on the right side, but he could shift with his
left hand while I manipulated the clutch and accelerator. We got
pretty well coordinated in a very short time and we both learned to
write with our left hands.
 |
| original poster for the Woodstock Music Festival |
 |
| the scene at Woodstock |
It
was in August of that memorable summer of 1969 that the Woodstock Festival was
held, famously, in a dairy farmer's pasture in Bethel, in upstate New York.
Woodstock was the defining moment of the counterculture revolution in
1960s America. All of the best aspects of the movement came together at
Woodstock, especially its emphasis on community, opposition to the
Vietnam War and its ideology of peace and love and good music and
dope. The festival is, of course, legendary for living up to its
ideals. M, being more attuned to the hippie movement,
went to Bethel with some other friends and attended the festival. Neither I nor my other
friends did, we went to the beach in Rockport instead.
Hearing from M about the weather and mud conditions that actually occurred
at the festival we were rather glad that we hadn't gone. (That was before it had become
legendary, of course.)
In
May 1970, the turmoil over the Vietnam War and the recent political
assassinations came to a head in Ohio at Kent State University. As a
result of the killing of four and wounding of nine other students on the Kent State campus by the Ohio National Guard rioting broke on
campuses all over the country and spread to the capitol in Washington
DC. President Nixon was taken to Camp David for his safety. * “The
82nd Airborne was in the basement of the executive office
building, […] they're lying on the floor leaning on their packs and
their helmets and their cartridge belts and their rifles cocked and
you're thinking, 'This can't be the United States of America. This is
not the greatest free democracy in the world. This is a nation
at war with itself.'” Can a nation so divided against itself stand as a free and open society, I wondered?
* Counsel to the President, Charles Colson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6DlWkBYiRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZzkEIYIBYE
To
be continued...
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