Summer of Love

“For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair”

         Scott McKenzie, “San Francisco”

Nicole Anslover invited me to her Sixties class.  One student reported on the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” that ran into trouble with CBS censors during its three seasons on the air, culminating in its cancellation.  I mentioned that when Pete Seeger, who for years had been blacklisted from appearing on TV, sang the anti-war number “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” and refused to leave out the final verse, which alluded to the President being a “big fool,” the network deleted the entire segment.  A year later, however, with public opinion having turned against the war, Seeger was allowed to perform the entire song. When somebody asked about the blacklist, I mentioned that Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street, had also been a victim during the Red Scare.  A student said she was five years old in 1983 when an episode “Farewell Mr. Hooper” dealt with the lovable store owner’s death and has never forgotten how emotional it was.

Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street

Charlatans perform at Golden Gate Park

Nicole showed excerpts from the “American Experience” documentary “Summer of Love.”  It explained why young “Baby Boomers” were disillusioned with the dominant cultural values but portrayed happenings in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in 1967 as an unfolding tragedy, with the media largely responsible for causing hordes of young, naive runaways and cynical drug dealers who preyed on them to make a mockery of the so-called Hippie ideal of peace, love, and harmony. It begins with the January 14 “Human Be-In” at Golden Gate Park and concludes with the October 6 “Death of Hippie” funeral procession organized by the Diggers. Despite its tragic aspects to victims of “bad trips,” the counter-culture’s influence can still be felt in music, art, fashion, and movements to preserve the Earth and protect LGBTs.

A grad student at Maryland in 1967, I remember a “Gathering of the Tribes” Be-In poster in the T.A. (teaching assistant) room.  About that time, I smoked my first joint with neighbors who were playing the Doors’ “Light My Fire.”  The song lasted a little over seven minutes but seemed to go on forever. I began attending antiwar rallies in Washington, D.C., and was getting into “psychedelic” bands from San Francisco such as Jefferson Airplane, whose album “Surrealistic Pillow” came out about then; but my regular drugs of choice were cigarettes and beer.  I didn’t try LSD until a decade later and then only once.  Many grad students really got “into the life,” but I was more focused on completing my PhD degree.  I recall a guy giving away all his “straight” clothes; his sports jacket lasted me over ten years.

Thursday Lin Brehmer played “Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah in honor of Skip Haynes, who died at age 71.  Lin also played a short clip from an Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah album supposedly meant for the enjoyment of dogs. The chorus to “Lake Shore Drive” goes:

And there ain't no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore drive heading into town
Just slicking on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound

Friday Brehmer played Bob Seger’s “Fire Down Below” and made mention of Dante’s Inferno, prompting sidekick Mary Dixon to reference T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”  Next came a preview of Saturday’s show about 1972, featuring “After Midnight” by J.J. Cale and “All the Young Dudes” by Mott the Hoople.  When I heard the line “Man I need a TV when I’ve got T.Rex,” I thought of former teacher Mary Kocevar at bridge saying she once had a student named T’Rex.

Bowling in Mel Guth’s Seniors League, I heard a guy several lanes over claim he’d never watch CBS again because a commentator asserted that the country music concertgoers killed in Las Vegas were probably all Republicans.  I knew that was patently absurd; but before noting that anyone who said such a thing would be fired on the spot, I commented that country music fans were a very diverse group in age, race, and ethnicity; indeed the 58 fatalities ranged in age from 17 to 67.  The Engineers took 5 of 7 points from Wrecking Balls, consisting of Delia’s uncles Phil, Larry, Eddie, Angel, and Pete.  Two months ago, Phil suffered a stroke and now bowls left-handed.  Amazing.  I congratulated Gene Clifford, 80, on a 200-game, and he replied that he rolled a 255 two weeks ago.

 Angel Menendez, Phil Vera, Pete Claudio, Eddie Lopez

Liz Wuerffel, Hilton Minneapolis bathroom?

Liz Wuerffel and Allison Schuette are at the Hilton Minneapolis attending the Oral History Association annual conference.  With Megan Telligman of Porter County Museum they are presenting a session on the Invisible Project dealing with homeless people. Conference highlights include a President’s Reception at the Mill City Museum (once home to the country’s largest flour mill) and a plenary session honoring historian-activists Alice and Staughton Lynd.  Here’s the abstract for “Mobilizing Oral History: Collaborating to Educate and Engage a Local Public in Realities of Homelessness”:

    What happens when several nonprofit organizations invite university partners and a regional museum to educate the local public about homelessness? How does this collaboration put oral histories to work? 
    In 2015, four nonprofit organizations that work to end homelessness in Porter County, Indiana, approached Liz Wuerffel and Allison Schuette, co-directors of the Welcome Project at Valparaiso University—a regional, first-person, digital story collection—about collaborating on what became known as The Invisible Project. The purpose of this project was and is to raise awareness of homelessness in the county and break down stigmas that people experiencing homelessness face. On any given day in Porter County (population approximately 167,000 with a median household income of $64K), 160 individuals are homeless. Many of us in the region don’t recognize their situation because these individuals, predominantly women and children, don’t conform to traditional stereotypes of homelessness. The Invisible Project aims to depict those who experience homelessness as our neighbors, residents deserving of recognition and respect.
    With the help of staff members at the Porter County Museum, professional photographers, and a faculty member who teaches graphic design, we at the Welcome Project helped to create a mobile exhibit that makes visible the reality of homelessness in Porter County through first-person stories, infographics, and design. In this interactive session, organizers will present several digital stories from The Invisible Project alongside materials from the exhibition. Participants will be invited to consider the ways in which this format mobilizes oral history to advocate for those who experience homelessness and to educate the public about the reality of homelessness in our region.

above, Amanda Marie, photo by Vicky Nowakowski Board; below, Morgan MacGregor

Beautiful Amanda Marie Board, whom I met in Anne Balay’s Women’s Studies course and who spent the summer as a visitor use assistant at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, passed on Morgan MacGregor’s lament:

    The Office of Personnel Management has just passed new rules regarding seasonal employees with the National Park Service. These rules basically say that we are no longer allowed to work more than one 6 -month seasonal position in the same region. They say that this is meant to force the park service to hire more permanent positions. That sounds great; except they are not hiring more permanent positions. In fact, for every 3 permanent positions that are retired from by permanent employees they do away with 2. The NPS simply does not have the funding to create these much-needed permanent positions. These rules are going to affect 10's of thousands of people who are seasonal workers with the NPS.
    We seasonals make a living wage. I sleep in my truck in the winters to save money and because there is not available park housing. I haven't had proper insurance for years. We are not provided any benefits. We are forced to move every six months. We endure these and many other hardships because we love the parks. We love the Park Service ideal. We bleed green and grey because we believe in what the NPS stands for. 
    I have sworn in hundreds of Jr. Rangers and provided thousands of visitors with information, advice, and (hopefully) entertaining and interesting programs. When I see the glimmer of adoration in the eye of a little Jr. Ranger as they tell me that they want to be a Ranger like me when they grow up. It fills me with the pride and joy that make it all worth it. I love my job. I love representing and being the face of an agency like the National Park Service.
    However, at the end of my season here at Yellowstone. I am unsure if I will be able to continue being a seasonal park ranger. When your government is trying to stop you from working; what can you do? When they literally take a job away from you; what can you do? Politicians always talk about jobs. “We'll create jobs!” “We'll take our jobs back!” “We're gonna have so many jobs it'll make your head spin!” Well I'm writing this to tell all of you that the government is actively taking jobs away from the most vulnerable of government employees. We seasonals, who have no unions, no voice, and no choice but to try to keep pouring our hearts into the National Parks in hopes that someday things will get better.

Amanda Marie shared recent work experiences at Bryce Canyon:

    Today I had a woman in her fifties try to enter the park on a senior pass (you must be 62). Apparently "it worked at Zion."

    A little while later, two motorcycles pull up to my window and show an access pass (good for one motorcycle). Zion let them both in on one pass. 

    Finally, a car pulls up to my window and shows me a 4th grade pass, but there is no 4th grader in the car. As you may guess, "but it worked at Zion." 

    My response to the third car? "You could show Zion a library card and they'd probably let you in."