RECOLLECTIONS OF MY HIPPIE DAZE

HODGEPODGE

Have you ever noticed how life is often filled with curious choices and bizarre coincidences?  Well, at least it seems that way to me.  I know my life would be a lot different today if I had made different choices back then.  But, it’s really difficult sometimes to recognize when those destiny detouring decisions present themselves.  And they can seem like the most innocuous choices at the time.  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but it sure seems like it’s that way.  “I’ve been in the right place at the wrong time, the wrong place at the right time, and the wrong place at the wrong time” (hats off to Dr. John’s song).  Like the saying goes, “If I only knew then, what I know now.”  Despite of all the bone-headed, blind, blunders I’ve embroiled myself in over the years, I’m still here writing down my rambling thoughts at 52 years old.  Which probably goes to show that there is someone up there, looking out for yours truly.  I know that on more than one occasion if the ‘Big Guy’ didn’t get involved, I’d probably be in an unmarked shallow grave somewhere.  Still, I have no regrets.  Its been a windy and bumpy road at times to get to where I am now, but all in all, I’ve had fun getting here.  The point I’m trying to make though, is that we’re all presented with these choices, and sometimes it can be the most simple seeming ones that are the most important, and can influence the direction the rest of your life takes.

That being said, I thought I’d tell you a few short tales of choices and coincidences that I feel are unusual and amusing. At least, they are to me now, looking back through the years.  Although at the time, some of them didn’t seem so funny when I was living them.  None of them really merit a story of their own, but put together in a hodgepodge collection, maybe they’ll help demonstrate what I’m talking about.   Also, before I get started, I thought I’d go over some of the ‘Rules of the Road’, when you’re hitching.  Maybe not rules exactly, more like guidelines.  They’re just common sense really, but they might help illustrate a point or two in these traveling tales.

I’ve already told you how I’d present myself on the road when I was by myself thumbing a ride somewhere.  Being organized, clean and carrying a destination sign got me rides pretty regular and fairly quick, over all.  So, getting picked up depended upon the driver of course, and there is a hierarchy of selection of potential riders that the driver makes.  Usually it went like this.  One man by himself with little baggage will get picked up before a man with a lot of stuff, or even a dog with him.  One guy and one girl hitching together can sometimes get rides quicker than the lone man, depending on how cute the girl is.  Two guys thumbing together down the road will find it more difficult to get a ride because the driver feels he is multiplying his risks - add baggage and the difficulty gets worse.  Any more than two people hitching together exponentially increases the difficulty in getting picked up.  Also, when two people hitch together, its kind of an unspoken agreement that you take turns alternating who sits up front with the driver to keep him or her company.  This way the person in the backseat can get a little shuteye, knowing that his partner is looking out for him.

To start the ball rolling, I thought I’d tell you about the time I hitched to Columbia, Missouri to see Ted Nugent in concert.  Ted was going to be playing in the

gym at the National Guard Armory on a Friday night.  This was in the fall of ’71, and I had managed to enroll back into the same school that I’d been kicked out of the year before (I promise, I will tell that story).  I had just gotten out of jail in Jonesboro, Arkansas and had hitched back into Bolivar, Missouri cause I didn’t have any idea where else to go.  I didn’t really think they’d let me back in, but I enrolled anyway, and they accepted me (surprise –surprise).  As soon as I got settled in, I started right back in to the same party routine I’d had the year before.  Tim was back that year too, but we didn’t end up as roommates.  I don’t remember the reason why.  His new roommate was Slatz and mine was a tightly wound guy named John.  There were also a few new players at the school; so all told, there was probably two dozen or so freaks on a campus of 1300 or 1400 students.  One of them was a guy named ‘Little Dave’.

Tim had heard from his friend Pat in Columbia that Ted Nugent was going to be playing that Friday night, and he and ‘Little Dave’ and I decided to hitch up after our morning classes.  So, here’s three guys trying to hitch about a hundred miles or more of Missouri back roads to Columbia.  And two of the guys are carrying guitar cases.  We managed to get a ride from someone at school east out of town to a little town called Halfway, where we picked up Hwy 65 heading north towards I70.  Somewhere around Lincoln we got stranded for a couple of hours or more.  Remember what I said about more than two people trying to get a ride?  Well, here we were on a