Wednesday, January 26, 2011

the ugly brown coat and Viet Nam

Mom hated the color and material of my photographer's jacket. To me, it was a part of my skin. March, 1969, I bought a new VW bug, white with red interior. I think the total "new" price was about $1500.00  I was working 3 jobs while in college.  On March 13, 1969 a teacher didn't show and I left early to go to work-the company made the plastic holders for milk, each one holding four one gallon jugs.  12th and Pittsburgh avenue.  4 lanes.  At the light, I was in the inside lane to make a left turn,  As I did, a lady driving a Fleetwood Cadillac, hit me broadside.  She was going 80 in a 40 mph zone.Left 200' of tire marks on the road, trying to stop.  MY HEAD HIT THE DRIVER SIDE WINDOW, AND TO THIS DAY MY LEFT SIDE IS FLAT, NOT ROUNDED LIKE THE RIGHT SIDE.(DA** CAPS KEYS LOCK. She spun me around and put a 4' "V" in the back where the engine was located.  Then she hit and spun me around again-I whip lashed so hard, I yanked the seat from it's rails.  I came to rest in a  ditch, which had an old metal sign pole sticking out of the ground. It kept me from flipping over.  The only thing that was left of the car was a rear side window, which blew out on impact(smart German engineers).  I called my foreman and friend from the hospital to go and pick it up. I still have it today.  The shoulder belt smashed 3 of my ribs. The car she was driving belonged to her brother, the owner of a Cadillac firm. No problem with me wanting to sue: one obstacle-back then you had to be totoally responsible for a wreck.  She wasn't. Why?  She had the "right of way."
My good Jewish boss of the motel got me an attorney.  We could not have a case.  And He was smart: ended up a PA. Supreme Court judge.
When I met with the State Farm Agent, the first thing he asked: "Well, do you want to get it fixed?"(Bent frame, cracked motor, besides all the visible damage.)  My reply: "write me out a check for the full price as the car was 9 weeks old. And press hard-third copy is yours.  What next to do? I bought another and this was a promotional bug with a lightning symbol followed by the word"bug," on the trunk.  It was light blue with black racing stripes, a solid walnut steering wheel, wood dash, and Bosh chrome horns mounted on the front bumper. Black seats.  And this car made heads turn because the first "Herbie, the Love Bug," movie just came out.  This was a one in a million production car that drove like blazes and handle right angle turns with ease on its Michelin tires It was my third, out of owning four VW's.  I called my mother to tell her I was in a very bad car wreck: she started to cry over the phone. I told her to bake a cake and put black icing on it. It was her birthday.
OK, the jacket. It was the color of new baby poop and had about the same feel, and it was about to take a long trip in the VW with 4 others: we were going to Washington, D.C. for the huge Viet Nam War protest. I was going to photograph the events as I still tried to keep a neutral stance about the war. Until President Johnson, who, as commander-in-chief, said it was a "limited engagement."  In other words, we could "almost" be allowed to win, but when the enemy ran to hide in China, we had to turn back and quit fighting them. Reason. Johnson "feared a world war with china. Right. We are the richest, most powerful nation on earth.  Real translation: it was a political war. Period.  When I seen pixs of the coca-cola and Pepsi machines and the U.S. selling Minute Rice to the Vietnamese, I realized then it was not a war to save anyone or thing, just let the politicians make some American companies richer. Afterall, we could have bought the country for $4/acre.  Over 58,00 kids dead and more than 300,000 brain or mentally screw up for life. A girl who worked in our little drive in had a brother come back.  And almost every night they would go out and find him crawling on his belly, crying and screaming out of his mind through the corn fields.  Those who were not mental usually became heroin addicts. Johnson was a master politician and one of the most evil men I came to know. When VP Hubert Humphrey came to lecture at Gannon College, I had a clearance badge I had to wear from the secret service. If it was Johnson instead, I toyed with the idea of using my large Graflex camera, which had bellows, long enough to conceal, well use your imagination.  It was a terrible time for us to be alive at our ages because we never knew if we would have a tomorrow.  When mom and I were dating, we always tried to stay together until midnight, so we could say we had a new day together.
Once we arrived in D.C., we found a place to crash with some "hippies."  I went into the kitchen to see if there was any food for our dinner.  The counters were brown.  Then I saw them moving; they were covered with cockroaches.  Some of us found a supermarket where we got bleach, bug killer sprays and enough food to make a 5 gallon pot of beef stew.  There was a big pot and once we got things clean and the food cooking, the da** roaches couldn't crawl up the side or under the lid. The Army (illegal) was bombing DuPont Circle where a lot a kids were protesting against DuPont, the seller to the government of napalm, which is a gelled gasoline product used to burn people alive and wipe out their entire villages.  They were bombing us with tear gas canisters and the night city lights revealed the dense tear gas fog.  I grabbed my camera stuff and jumped on the back of someone's motorcycle to flee from the chocking gas.  The next day, 100,000's gathered around the Washington Monument for peaceful demonstrations.  I have no idea where all my film ended up-probably taken and classified as top secret and buried in a filing cabinet somewhere.   Interesting side note.  There was an American flag which someone completely covered with "protest pins" or buttons-about the size of a merit badge.This was just plain wrong to me and I removed all of them and pinned them to my photographer's jacket-not enough room in the pockets.  It was time to go back to Erie, Pa. It was November and I was hired to work the Christmas season in Grant's department store-their photo center.  So I put on my nice Eagle brand trench coat, over my coat with all the pins.  I saw my future wife sitting in one of the restaurant booths and sat down across from her, Opened my trench coat and her jaw dropped.  The only pin she saw for sure and which I gave her, said, "Frodo Lives." She was a die hard Lord of the Rings fan.  Never knew what happened to that pin, but about 40 years or more later, I hand made a duplicate-same colors, style.  Put it in a jewelry box, wrapped it up for a Christmas present.  She opened it, not knowing what to expect. Then she cried. I always have been a sentimental fool, just most don't know it or recognize it in me. Oh well, such is life-it is the small, important treasures that give life to the person we cherish and love.

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