Though we didn't hitchhike to Memphis, I did go on to have many solo hitchhiking adventures; once across the country, and many little trips in the Washington/Vancouver area. Interestingly, my son, Gabriel, is now semi-stranded up in rural Washington in a move quite similar to something that would have happened to me.
Anyway, on with the story....
So, this page is a continuation of the previous Page Image. We were writing down WHY we were going on the trip. It starts out, kind of serious sounding:Vance had started with "Im really not sure why I’m going. It could be because…”
Here is where it all picks up...
"I know the town. Jesus. What am I saying. Rick doesn't know it yet, but I don't think I'm even going to have the cash funds. Shit. Rick will be mad!"Then Martin adds:
"Don't Know."To which I now add. WTF! He's just read what Vance wrote and he writes "Don't Know"? Like he's still planning on going? Please.
I think the funny thing here is that, despite not having any money, I probably would have ended up going. And then winding up starving in Oklahoma City or something.
A bit further down and I add an entry (sans any commentary on no one going.)
May 6 [19]76 no chance for me (Rick) I have to go in order to report for the army! yup. I told them to send my papers to memphis. 6 days to leave.I'm not sure that date is quite right. Or the math. I entered the army on June 22nd, 1976. At some point here, I'll have to relate my trip to Memphis. The thing is that, despite the fact that the expedition failed, I did actually go there. I set foot on Memphis soil.
The next entry is from Vance.
Date:? Rick has gone. a solom day in Turky town. Shit. Vance.On the next page, we have the green-penned reports from Vance regarding my absence. I'll comment on the overall meaning of this after all of the text is presented.
Date:? Rick ain't thrivin' on bootie camp. he even went a.w.o.l for three hours. has I recall, it was to get the roach clip I got him as a going away present!* Gezz! What a FRIEND. My very own Begal** Buddy! "Want to buy a cookie?"*For the longest time, i couldn't remember the curcumstancse of this AWOL incident, although it couldn't have been too severe, as I didn't get busted. Just today, I remembered it. The roach clip (The Star of David roach clip mentioned in an earlier post) was taken from me. it was on of those things where some guy wanted to see it, and then decided he was going to keep it and his was bigger than me.
** "Bagel Buddy." Bagels had gotten big in Albuquerque a few years earlier and I was a fan. (Plus they were Jewish food!)(See previous post regarding my infatuation with the Chosen People.) Anyway, Vance and I had plans to someday open a little Bagel and Brew place.
Next entry:
Date:? It's been so long! Rick's fucked up on the army.So, what are the implications here? What are these two pages about? Fuckin' adulthood smacking the shit out of you, that's what. Here's the deal. When you graduate from high-school, you may not be mature, you may not be responsible, but you are a fucking adult and, like it or not, you've got to put on your big-boy underpants and get on with it.
I'm fucked up on life. And martin's fucking in his Pinto! I hope rick comes home from boot camp before school.
For me, I had the shit whipped into me by two black drill-sergeants who were just two-years out of the bush in VietNam. I cried like a fucking baby through the whole thing, but when I came out of boot camp, I was thrust into a world where... Ummm... OK, I was supposed to acting like a man, but the world of the military is surreal and so who knows what I was doing. I didn't have to pay rent, or buy meals, and to that end, it was like living at home, only with stricter parents and shorter hair,
Vance, on the other hand was left sitting there wondering what the fuck just hit him. one minute he's skipping along merrily, ditching class and smoking pot in the dugout at Eldorado High School, and the next he's got to do something resembling getting his shit together. Here on these pages, Vance is trying to run backwards in time.
Neither of us knew what the fuck that meant. We didn't really have any great examples. Jesus. our role models were the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
This is were I really faded in 'the stretch' as they say. I used money as an excuse not to go, how lame. I had backpacked for 30 days in Wyoming, climbed mountains all over Colorado and New Mexico. I even taught a snow/ice rescue class on top of Baldy Peak in Santa Fe. Why was I affraid to put my thumb in the wind and go to Memphis? Sorry Rick, I guess I just didn't have the nuts when it counted.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was that you were too smart to do it, eh?
ReplyDeleteAs I said in our phone conversation, I would have been the one to go, regardless of the money, and then wound up broke in the middle of Oklahoma of something.