Ray9
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2016
- 2,707
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- Banned
- #1
Born in 1947, I am fully aware that the popular narrative bandied about today is that white-privileged, straight, male Baby Boomers grew up going to weekly lynching’s and yearly father-son gay bashing picnics. The scarlet letter placed on us by the academic community is problematic and while there are no recollections in the minds of most male boomers of hanging Negroes and slapping homosexuals, the characterization persists in the literature for reasons we will likely never understand.
I didn’t make it to Woodstock but in 1973 I along with about 50 others called in sick to work on Friday, July 27th and headed to the Summer Jam rock festival at Watkins Glen NY to make amends. Two girls from my little city, Anne and Nancy, had been featured in Life magazine in 1969 standing under waterlogged plywood at the world’s most famous rock concert and it had become apparent to many that missing the event was a bone-headed mistake of important history. I have no idea if either one of those ladies is still on the right side of the grass but if they are, I hope they are doing well.
I had a brand new Honda 350 twin motorcycle and I rode it the 300 miles to the Watkins Glen race track with a backpack containing a soccer-ball-sized bag of weed that at the time was the best money could buy-one toke and you were on a cloud. It came in handy because I had to barter it for food. Watkins Glen is small and all the stores quickly ran out of supplies so even if you had cash there was no food available except from people who brought their own in campers. Even the store shelves were gone because the hordes took them for firewood.
I got separated from the group I went with and for three days I had hotdogs for breakfast with people whose names I can’t remember. The weed wasn’t mine and when questions about its whereabouts arose after I got home, I just shrugged my shoulders???
As a male Baby Boomer, I have never date-raped a woman, discriminated against an African American or called for the extermination of the queer population. I do have an abiding disdain for intellectuals, however. Thomas Sowell is right; they do far more harm than good.
I got a haircut and a real job-so sue me.
Anne and Nancy far left under plywood; they were teenyboppers; I was 22, they were about 17.
I didn’t make it to Woodstock but in 1973 I along with about 50 others called in sick to work on Friday, July 27th and headed to the Summer Jam rock festival at Watkins Glen NY to make amends. Two girls from my little city, Anne and Nancy, had been featured in Life magazine in 1969 standing under waterlogged plywood at the world’s most famous rock concert and it had become apparent to many that missing the event was a bone-headed mistake of important history. I have no idea if either one of those ladies is still on the right side of the grass but if they are, I hope they are doing well.
I had a brand new Honda 350 twin motorcycle and I rode it the 300 miles to the Watkins Glen race track with a backpack containing a soccer-ball-sized bag of weed that at the time was the best money could buy-one toke and you were on a cloud. It came in handy because I had to barter it for food. Watkins Glen is small and all the stores quickly ran out of supplies so even if you had cash there was no food available except from people who brought their own in campers. Even the store shelves were gone because the hordes took them for firewood.
I got separated from the group I went with and for three days I had hotdogs for breakfast with people whose names I can’t remember. The weed wasn’t mine and when questions about its whereabouts arose after I got home, I just shrugged my shoulders???
As a male Baby Boomer, I have never date-raped a woman, discriminated against an African American or called for the extermination of the queer population. I do have an abiding disdain for intellectuals, however. Thomas Sowell is right; they do far more harm than good.
I got a haircut and a real job-so sue me.
Anne and Nancy far left under plywood; they were teenyboppers; I was 22, they were about 17.