Sitting next to an older woman on a Northwest flight from San Francisco to Minneapolis, I was trying to sleep, but her chattering kept me awake. My Dad was a few rows back- we had purchased our tickets a day apart, so we were in separate aisles. It would be the last time I would wear a Marine uniform, flying standby on a discount for being in the Military. As soon as we were airborne, the ”Queenie” ordered drinks for us. I remembered one of my Dad's sayings: Particular men don't get much pussy. Another one was: the electric light was invented with an off switch. So I took a look at her. I figured her to be about 35. I was 21, so 35 seemed old while I was sober. We were about to take care of that. As she slid across me to go to the john, her skirt slid thigh high. I noticed she had some nice legs. At the time, the airlines were runnin' a two drink max, which was why I carried a pint-sized flask. When she returned from the head, she sat down. I offered her whiskey from the flask, whereupon she produced a Coke, and the “Partay” was on. By the time we landed in snowbound Minneapolis, we had exchanged addresses and phone numbers.
Feelin' good, it would last a year or so, until she started buying Hart Schafner and Marx clothes for me, trying to get me off my Harley, and quit wearing jeans, t-shirt and my leather jacket which had been my lifelong uniform. She worked for the mayor of St. Paul and my riding buddies and clothes either scared, offended or did both to the City Hall bunch. My response to this was “Fuck'em, they're pussies!” About this time she would say “I want more than just Sex!!!''`Me too”, I'd respond. “I like beer, food, beer, and my Harley!''
During our last argument, after I had bought a 1968 Chevy 1/2 ton, I mentioned the fact that the only reason I had talked to her was that I wanted to put what was between my legs between hers. That day I loaded my Harley and clothes in the new pickup and left during a Minnesota spring snowstorm.I had discovered being a combat veteran, I had very little in common with anyone, and I had begun to isolate. In a few more years I would meet other Vietnam vets who felt the same as I did.
I would gradually come to see how fucked up war is, in particular how fucked up the Vietnam War was! Not knowing then I had PTSD, I wondered why everyone was so fucked up! At the time there was a large anti-war movement on every college campus in the country. I had attended some of their rallies and meetings. Some of these people liked to play pseudo-Communist, preaching that Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro were the folk heroes of the Left, believing they were the answer. Naive folks they were. They hadn't seen the ditches filled with the bodies of men, women and children around Hue City as I had. They didn't know the Commie brethren were stone cold murderers. The residents of Hue had been executed from lists the N.V.A. had carried with them, mostly because they were civil servants, politicians, and religious leaders.
Anyhoo that's another story. I tried college. I was expected to attend class or the money I would get from the GI Bill would stop coming- unreasonable bastards. I lasted 3 quarters.The problem was I had discovered the blues bars. I was living in a community of college kids with head shops, book stores, and bars- my favorites being The Triangle, The Viking, and the 400. Along with The Joint, they were located in the Cedar Riverside area of the West Bank off the Mississippi River.
There I heard Dave and Tommy Ray, John Koerner, Willie Murphy and the Bees. They played these bars late into the night, with the party going on in a backyard after the bars closed. My roommates, who were all Nam vets, were going to the ”U”. Only two of them ended up getting degrees. How the hell was I gonna go to school? The party lasted four years. I would later attend a TVI year-long welding class and build bikes. That and 'Vietnam Veterans against the War' are another story. Here is John Koerner and Willie Murphy and the title track from the album they made together in 1967. It's called “Running, Jumping, Standing Still”. I did a lot of that!!!! Rat
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