Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
please God let me fail, but please don't freak out in his part of it. Please.
Put down any answers
you want or no answers at all but don't freak out
.
The written test was also a challenge.
We live in the United States of
a. Mexico
b. United States
c. America
d. all of the above
And so on. Many guys in the testing room took all the time allowed to give it their best and
get it right.
The army shrink asked the questions we'd rehearsed. What would I do if an intruder broke
in and threatened the lives of my family? I shuddered in response and told the shrink I'd kill
them.
Kill who?
What?
The army shrink scanned the crumpled and shit-stained letter I'd brought from the psy-
chiatrist. “Who paid for your sessions?” I stared, trembling to the negative.
My draft counselor did not commiserate but went directly to Plan B, refusing induction in
San Francisco, reminding me that the San Francisco district court docket was backed up four
years. Four years loomed like another round at the State U. But this four years had to be better.
San Francisco was the birthplace of the love all around us after all, and it was a vibrant setting
of a dynamic culture where a young man could find himself in productive pursuits. My draft
counselor ended that phase of counseling by assuring me that San Francisco was our target
city by choice, not chance.
In those days of
Love it or Leave it
, Dick Nixon's “silent majority” demanded that “Amer-
ica” be defended. The majority was never asked to fight the jungle war. Some military per-
sonnel came from silent majority families, but the vast majority of silent individuals did not
volunteer for combat action.
Weighing choices became tedious and depressing. Continuing debauchery helped to dis-
tract thoughts from the jungle war. The year after college saw college grads swelling the work
force—not the professional work force. Positions weren't available to a guy as good as dead,
I mean drafted. Pearl diving, slinging pizza and pitchers, picking up pop bottles for the 4¢
redemption, working the orchards, parking cars, bussing dishes, trash pickup, anything for a
buck and a half an hour to pay the rent and buy some groceries was what we'd come to.
Some did not feel deprived. A regular job—something to develop—was not a logical
next step for many persons veering from the common career path. Are you kidding? We
