Reprinted with permission of author
Fifty-two years ago, on the night of April 8, 1969, a group of antiwar students…
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Tales from the 60s (Part 3) – The Group W bench (Alice’s Restaurant in memory and in practice)
It was the summer of ’72. Vietnam was raging and the draft was foremost on everyone’s mind. After I passed my pre-induction physical at the Seattle Armory I followed the example set by Arlo Guthrie, the protagonist in the movie Alice’s Restaurant. I went and sat down on the Group W bench, reserved for those […]
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Tales from the 60s (Part 2) — Lincoln Park Chicago, August 1968
Sunday, August 24 1968 is one of the landmark dates in the history of the 60s. Not a date like 9/11 or November 23 1963; most people don’t remember this date precisely, but they do remember this event. And even more what happened later that evening outside the Democratic National Headquarters at the Conrad Hilton. […]
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Tales from the 60s (Part 1) — The Last Roadtrip
There was a heat wave in Boston in the summer of 1969. There was always a heat wave in the summer in Boston. It was literally the last summer of the 60s, but it was metaphorically the last summer of the 60s as well. We did not know that. Both Kennedy brothers had been assassinated; […]
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Our War and Welcome to It
The Vietnam War — our war — always loomed just beyond the mountains. To serve or not to serve? Our choice — or pure chance in the draft lottery — still marks us. Ken Burns’ documentary “The Vietnam War” once again reminded us of those who lived and those who were lost, on both sides. […]
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Crossing the Border: The Williams-Bennington Experience in late 60s
What was it about Bennington College?
The 17-mile ride up to Bennington was transformative. But it was not always an easy journey for the Williams student of our day. One classmate, quoting James Joyce’s Ulysses, mentions understanding first-hand what Joyce meant by the “scotumtightening sea,” as he would sign in at the small guard’s office manned by stolid Vermonters whose tacit disapproval he interpreted as directed toward him, but was maybe aimed in a more general way toward the entire permissive and doubtless sinful lifestyle that lay beyond the gates.
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Father Knows Best
The traditional social system we entered in 1964 sounds medieval to today’s young, but at the time it still generally reflected the rules parents expected single-sex educational institutions to establish and administer for their supposedly grownup children. In loco parentis ruled. As freshmen, although we were addressed in the classroom with the grownup title of […]
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