No Decisions in the Wind

[Lightning Rod]

I spent most of my childhood in Abilene, Texas. It's where I learned to hate the wind. It was always blowing there. The red sand would get in your eyes and your teeth. The Indians say that it's not good to make decisions on a windy day.

My best friend when I was in the eleventh grade was Tommy Todd. We were on the golf team together. He liked to dress in black like Gary Player.

Tommy and I were friendly adversaries. We competed on the golf course and we argued politics. Tommy's dad was the District Attorney in Abilene at the time and a Democrat. I was chairman of the Taylor County Young Republicans. So we had plenty to argue about on the golf coarse and in the lunch line at school.

Sometimes Tommy and I would play golf with his dad. I always liked Tom Senior, he was calm and patient.

This was during the Johnson/Goldwater election. I think Tommy was a Democrat because his dad was a Democrat. I was a Republican because I was fascinated with the stark and simple ideas of Barry Goldwater conservatism.

I know it's hard to believe that Lightning Rod once called himself a conservative, but it's true. I was young and stupid, a junior in high school, what did I know?

During the summer before my senior year, my family moved to Dallas. I didn't see Tommy for a couple of years. The next time I saw him was in Denton where we had both landed in the same college. His family had moved to Denton where Tom Senior had been elected as District Judge.

It had been a tumultuous two years. Vietnam had turned the country on its ear. There was the draft to deal with. Our friends were getting killed.

When Tommy and I met again, we had both completely changed positions politically. I was in the SDS and Tommy had decided he was a Republican. I felt forsaken by our political system and saw protest and civil disobedience as a valid course. Tommy had become a 'work inside the system' kinda guy. We still had plenty to argue about.

The anti-war movement was in full swing by this time. The police in Denton were not thrilled about the demonstrations that were being organized. Cops get nervous when several thousand people take to the streets. One of the devices they used to discourage these activities was to go after the leaders using the drug laws. Pot smoking was ubiquitous in Denton among the students in those days, especially the ones active in politics. You couldn't walk down the street without smelling it wafting from nearly every window. So the heat used this as a way of getting a handle on things.

One night they came and tossed my house. They found some herbs and locked me up. In a few days I had an arraignment hearing. The judge was Tom Todd Sr. He looked for about two minutes at the facts of the case and the details of the search and he tossed it out. He looked at me with a little gleam in his eye. He was deciding on the merits of the case, but I'm sure it didn't hurt that I had played golf with him.

I think Tommy is a lawyer now, god help him. Don't make decisions on a windy day. The wind can blow either way.

[WIREMAN]

ya know i was raised to be a golfer Lrod, we even moved to the bay area in '68 so we could play all year round in the nice climate of
palo alto cali......well i was out hiking around one saturday and ran into a lil event called a B-in....never have been the same and proud of it........my family was for AUH2O in '64 we did an about face and went with McCarthy in '68.....what a time it was.....interesting how much we were influenced by dad in those leave it to beaver daze...

[tinkerjack]

Just goofin Clay, following my bliss. I suppose that is why I can think like Homer Simpson sometimes and not loose my self respect. You got me thinking about “best friends” I remember homeboy telling me about friendship back in 1957. “Jacky when you are in high school you feel like you got a lot of friends. But you change you move on, you make new friends” He was right of course but I realize that I was pretty dam lucky to have a couple of HS best friends. But I have completely lost touch with them. Well I suppose I should go back and finish reading your snippet. I just wanted to tell you how much I love appreciate calm and patient friendship. (an allusion to my illiteracy)
Break to S*
Back:
Barry Goldwater conservatism
Yeah I remember that election pretty good. That was the one where the Decomcratic Party was running those mushroom cloud adds to scare the shit out of people so they would not vote for Goldwasser…I think my favorite Goldwater quote is “if one more preacher tries to tell me how to vote, I am going to kick his a$$”

Gone:
Back:
The wind can blow either way.
“It is an ill wind that blows no good” Here comes da judge. Thinking about Norman James. I never realized I was from the south until I went to Boston. Never make decisions on anyday. That is a pretty good discription of how I was in 1964, I was a certified four f back in those days. I was walking around like John Kerry in an election campaign. “life is strange when you find you been living in your own dreams”
How lucky can a man be? I found true love twice between 1957 and 1964.

every got darned word from here down is GO. I mean down and dirty tippyy tapppy open text box thingy.
Listening to Travis Smiley show on Stanley Tookie Williams.
An ill wind that made you “calm and patient”. Smiley asked him how did it all happen, why is he calling in from death row. He answers, “karma.”

what the hell am I talking about W`man? Golf, yeah sports and high school and best friends. Allen Vargo, a bohemian friend of mine (Checkzyslovakia?) My first non-Jew friend. We both tried out for JV lacrosse. He made it I did not. Somehow it was the end of our friendship. I just allways felt so bummed out about it. Maybe I did not "try" hard enough, I was a pretty spoiled mama's boy at the time.

[tinkerjack]

I been thinking about Stanley sitting in that cell like a Buddha.


Sad day,

bipolar disorder in my gene pool, a roll of the karmic dice,

When the bear was seventeen years old
he was shot by his girl friend's father, the guy was beating his daughter because he was pissed at her for going out with white trash, the bear just held him off her at arms length, the guy shot him. Lost his spleen. The father hired Jack Paul Leon, the top cop lawyer in town. The guy walked, air force colnel they shipped him out. Jack paul said to the Bear no hard feelings that's just the way it is.