NOVEMBER 1968: BRISCOE QUAD: FALL SEMESTER: ROOM 1017::___::.......Music that dominated floor November 1968: little green apples AWFUL, fire-arthur brown (actually, I never noticed this song until Ken bought the album so maybe I didnt notice it until Early 1970!, SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, susie Q, PIECE OF MY HEART- a lot of guys had this album with the weird R.Crumb cover, for once in my life, PLUS the Sept and Oct leftovers,,,, THE LONG WALK BACK FROM STANDARD STORES: I am guessing that this happened in November due to the cold. On a Saturday I walked all the way out from Briscoe to the Standard Store supermarket at the COLLEGE MALL. I vaguely recall pushing a wagon around and buying some things. It was the only time I went grocery shopping while at Briscoe- at least for a LOT of groceries. I figured I would worry about how to get it all back later just as I did with suitcases on trips. They only had PAPER BAGS in those days. So here I am leaving the mall with all this stuff and Briscoe so far away and even uphill at the end. I guess I had three or four bags and they were mostly CANS AND BOTTLES as we were not allowed to have refigerators. So here I am trying to hold UP all these heavy paper bags all that distance. I had to put them down every block or so as my arms hurt. I had to balance them and then put them down without dropping them. So I somehow walked back along East Third Street from the mall. Then I eventually got to FEE LANE. My route in between I dont recall. But I sure recall FEE LANE. I was hurting and tired as it was and NOW I was going UPHILL! And then it stated to SNOW! And it was cold and I wasnt dressed for it. I recall as I got closer to Briscoe I would put one or two packages down on whatever I could while carrying the others up the hill, putting them down, and then going back for the others. It took me FOREVER to get home. I very much recall stopping at a place down FEE LANE near FOSTER and putting the bags on some stone fence to rest. There were times on the way that I was seriously thinking of just abandoning most of the crap. But it continued to snow- not a lot but just enough to stick and make it slippery uphill to boot and to cloud my glasses so Id have to stop and clean them off. I finally made it. If not for the snow i would have guessed this to be Oct 68, not Nov 68. One of the things I had in a bag was the first SOFT MARGARINE I ever bought. I planned to put it between my window and the screen on the tenth floor so it would keep cold. But it warmed up and I only got to eat a little of it before it SEPARATED. I dont think heat separates it nowadays but it sure did then. Guess I must have had some bread as well. And bottles of baby food,,, ______ELECTION DAY!! 1968: This was a hell of a big deal in 1968. I recall eating in the OTHER lunchroom that day for some reason and standing on the line at the very end with my tray where the coffeee was and wondering if HUMPHREY would pull it off and beat NIXON or if WALLACE would throw it into the House of Reps. I recall Adam, who was black and is now a physician, asking me who I wanted and Im sure I offended him by telling him that I wanted Wallace to throw it into the House of Reps as I didnt like the ELECTORAL SYSTEM (Now that I understand the math behind it I support it) But we all stayed up all night following it and I recall everyone going back and forth in the hall. Nixon had been way ahead but day by day HHH was catching up. Luckily, being a time zone west I had an hour less to wait for all the returns. But it really went down to the wire in the middle of the night before NIXON squeaked it out,,, ...... ______ARMISTICE/VETERANS DAY: Monday, Nov 11,1968.:: THIS wasnt merely Armistice Day; it was the FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY of Nov 11, 1918 when the First World War ended. But nobody cared about war anniversaries anymore due to VIETNAM ..... ///// SOMETIME IN NOVEMBER 1968 MY PARENTS MOVED TO YORK,PA FOR GOOD. MY BIRTHDAY BLACK DEPRESSION WAS BAD ENOUGH SO ITS A GOOD THING I DIDNT ALSO REALIZE WHAT CATASTROPHES WERE TAKING PLACE BACK IN ASTORIA AND YORK: A bunch of kids on the block led by Dales younger brother Wayne broke into our basement and stole most of my belongings. All sorts of old collector stuff that would be worth a fortune today. Most of my thousands of comic books I kept every one of since I was a kid including most of the #1 Edition of the MARVEL titles and Superman since 1955 plus a few from the 1940s. AND all my old toys of the 1950s and my collection of board games from the 50s and 60s. Gone forever!!!!! And moving to York destroyed my parents finances forever. Neither one of them ever got a 'real' job again. DOWN from Upper Middle Class to minimum wage grunt jobs from then on to this. __________ ///// GENERAL: In Nov 1968: Really followed Joe Namath and Jets, Vaguely followed ABA, had bad ulcer I took medicine for, worried about money, grades, success,,, insomnia, Draft over head,,, Vietnam,,, Wondering how I could ever afford to get married and if all girls divorced by then when Catholics cant marry divorced women,,, worry, worry, worry, How the hell could I ever afford a car or a wife and kids when i couldnt even figure out how to pay for all the college everyone expected me to pay for? How can one simultaneously get tens of thousands of dollars for college, get good grades in something like Astrophysics, get a car, get married, have kids??? How can one go to college which means youre not working and yet have an income for all these things??? 1-29-00,,, ________THE NOVEMBER 16, 1968 HOME FOOTBALL GAME WHERE WE WERE TRAPPED IN THE ELEVATOR: This had to be that day. Ken and I got back to Briscoe B right when the football crowd was there. I wanted to show him the trick I pulled on it weeks earlier. We pushed the down button so the crowd would let us get on alone. Then on the way up I opened the doors just a little to pass the first floor and up we went while the crowd screamed. Typical 1968 'boress'. But there was also someone else in the crowd who knew how to pop the doors. So he popped them on the First Floor and the elevator stopped immediately betwen floors. I think either between 6 and 7 or 5 and 6. So we are between floors and we cant get the doors open. We call for help and one guy out on the upper floor says he'll bring some help. The wag then comes back and throws packages of saltines between the doors and squirts a water pistol in for water. Now we are on our own. Then he tells us someone will rescue us on Monday. But we eventually get the doors open enough to get out which was scary as we could have fallen down the shaft or the elevator could have moved and cut us in two,,,,, On that same day the baseball owners voted to start the 1969 World Series on Oct 11, 1969 due to the new playoff system. Little did I know my Mets would be in that Series,,, ______THURSDAY NOVEMBER 21: Fresco Thompson of LA Dodgers dies,,, ________THE HEIDI GAME: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17,1968: Jets were beating Oakland in final minute, NBC switched to run Heidi movie and Oakland got two TDs to win! 1-11-00 ,,,, ________THE CHAIN GAME 1968:. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 23,1968. 1-11-00. Wouldnt you just know it: The most important game of 1967 was the Purdue game but it was the only game to fall during a vacation so it was the one game I missed. But this year, when IU wasnt going anywhere the game was played before Thankgiving vacation started. I was in my room listening to it blare out of, I believe Val's room. We were now trying to beat Purdue just to be in the final Top Ten rankins. Of course, in those days, only the best team in the BIG TEN was allowed to go to any bowl game at all and no team could go twice in two years anyway. So neither Purdue nor IU could go to a bowl game although they both had good records before this game. But this was a close game that was close all through the four quarters and played up in West Lafayette and IU was behind near the end and they decided to go for a first down on fourth down to win the game! And WE GOT IT!! Our 1967 luck held! Well, wait. Purdue wants the distance re-measured. They say there was a kink in the chain. They re-measure it- and WE LOSE IT. And we lost the game!!! We wound up in the Top Twenty.1-11-00 Funny how when in 1967 Thanksgiving was on Nov 23 I had to leave before it yet in 1968 when it was on Nov 28 I was still there. Too bad it wasnt the other way around so I could have seen the BIG GAME in 1967.. ... ______WENT HOME FOR THANKSGIVING 1968:.Well, this was it. NOW we were fully Yorkers. When I left Astoria, Queens in early Sept 1968 I left my Astoria home for the last time forever. Between then and Thanksgiving Vacation my parents had quit their NYC jobs and moved everything we owned to York,Pa. For some paranoid reason I always packed two suitcases to overstuffing and had to sit on them. Then Id get stuff to read and eat or whatever and always wound up lugging way too much stuff back and forth. Packing was always an ordeal. I guess I took the bus from Bloomington to Indianapolis and then I guess I flew stand-by, half-fare from there to Baltimore (or it could have been Harrisburg). I guess I may have changed planes in Pittsburgh. I KNOW I got off the bus at night at the Greyhound station and it was dark and I carried my bags down South George Street. Was I too broke for a cab? Was I being frugal? But I know my parents werent expecting me. I had a hard time with all my stuff I was carrying for some reason and I would carry some down George Street and then go back and get the rest and then walk past my other stuff. I did this all the way down George at night with no thought of crime. I had no idea they had a race riot in Summer 1968. I didnt know that until the 90s!. I thought it was all just as safe as 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967. I got to the Newstand that was at Boundary Ave for many years and the guy was getting close to closing up. I asked him if he'd watch my stuff in front of his shop while I carried the rest down a ways but he turned me down. So I kept doing it all the way to Cottage/George. Then I did it slowly and painfully west on Cottage Place. FINALLY, I made it to the front porch which was in perfect condition in a FAMILY neighborhood that was quiet then. I fumbled for my key while noticing the lights were off. I was wondering all the way there whether my parents were there or still in New York City and I was thinking that I may have guessed wrong. I finally got the door open and who is on the other side but my father holding the red metal put-together shovel above his head. He thought I was a burglar as I told them I probably wouldnt be able to afford to come home..... _______ THANKSGIVING DAY, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 28, 1968: I guess we ate turkey that Thanksgiving. Im sure that I must have run into Viola and Loralee and that they were both rotten and snotty towards me as they could always hide behind my father. (Didnt they ever think that Id outlive my father or just get older and tell them where to go? Dont stupid nasty reptile people ever look ahead? ) I probably watched the parade in NYC on TV and part of the football games. Sure I was downtown a lot. Downtown York was still great in 1968. It would be half-empty by Thanksgiving 1969. 1-11-00, 1-29-00 ..... ,,,____ ___BACK TO COLLEGE AFTER THANKSGIVING 1968: This was my first return to college from York,Pa and I dont recall how I went. Plane from Olmstead Airport in Harrisburg? Allegheny to Pittsburgh? Down to Baltimore-Washington Airport? Greyhound bus? I think I even took the train a few times from Harrisburg to Indianapolis. Packing was an overstuffed ordeal as always. I should look up the weather in York during that Thankgiving vacation.......
DECEMBER 1968:::___:::. Music that dominated the floor in December 1968: ABRAHAM,MARTIN and JOHN, BOTH SIDES NOW, MAGIC CARPET RIDE, WICHITA LINEMAN AWFUL! plus the music of the previous months. Lots of DOORS stuff from albums. Val, Ken and I were into the DOORS and the MOTHERS OF INVENTION,, WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN, WHITE ROOM, MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS, I heard it through the grapevine,,,,, RETURN TO BRISCOE FROM THANKSGIVING VACATION: This had to be in early December as Turkey Day was Nov 28, probably the latest it could be. It was always good to get back. I either took the bus down from Indy or shared a cab with other IU people. If I took the bus it meant a cab from the Greyhound station. Despite what a political ad in 1967 said I recall NO buses in Bloomington or else I would have been taking them to and from the Greyhound to the dorms. NOW there is a bus that stops right near the Greyhound on tenth street and heads East into the campus. It was always good to get back to Briscoe and kid around with Val and Ken after my obnoxious relatives in York,Pa. And we'd have a day or two before classes to run around and maybe have all-night bull sessions. .... DEC 1, DEC 2, Tuesday Dec 3, ______ Dec 4: BASEBALL TO LOWER PITCHERS MOUND AND STOP THE 1963-1968 "ERA OF THE PITCHER",,, DEC 5:, Dec 6: GENERAL ECKERT OUT AS BASEBALL COMMISSIONER,,, ___Saturday Dec 7: Pearl Harbor Day: ___Sunday Dec 8: Dec 9: ____Dec 19: MICHAEL BURKE #1 CONTENDER FOR NEW BB COMMISSIONER, CHUB FEENY NUMBER 2,,, ________ ///// GENERAL DECEMBER 1968: Followed Namath and Jets for years,,, College mall being decorated for Xmas,,, Im sure we did a lot of hard partying in Dec 1968 as mid-term were in October and Finals wouldnt be until late January 1969,,, shouting matches with McNutt,,, Vietnam,,, Draft worries,,, ulcer medicine,,, money worries,,, insomnia,,, following the ABA vaguely,,, rushing back and forth between Briscoe and Swain, especially for lunch,,, None of the adults pushing me for life to go to college, be a scientist, get a car, have a wife, have kids, etc. ever told me how to PAY for it all. How does one GO to college if one cant be in two places at the same time to work for an income? How could I spend all my money for OUT-OF STATE HIGHER FEES and yet have money for a car and family of my own while studying and attending classes instead of having a full-time job??? THAT did not help my ulcer.///// ........ ______CAROLERS 1968: 1-12-00:: I dont recall if this was before or after the Xmas party. Ken,Val and I were on the 10th floor and we heard Carolers below. Ken and Val and some others surprised me by going down to be with them. Naturally I stayed up on the tenth floor in the lounge alone. I then opened the window and yelled down to the large crowd: BAH HUMBUG!!!! Then I heard silence instead of singing and wondered what happened. Suddenly I heard a lot of voices at once yell in unisom: "KARWICKI SUCKS!!!" My God! I thought they got them to come after me and throw me in the snow or in the Jordan 'River' (7' across and a foot deep). So I ran to my room and locked and barricaded it.,,,,, ......__________ BORESS CHRISTMAS PARTY 1968::: Everyone was supposed to get a 'boress' Xmas present that was something crude. I did a quick one in a box with two gumdrops and a hotdog. To decorate the Lounge for the 1968 Xmas party we were all in there one day when the wild guy came in with a tree that he chopped off someones front lawn right in front of their house!!!!! This was the same guy with the bus. (Was it also the guy who 'stole' all the fire axes or was that someone else back in Parks-Wright??)) On the day of the party we were all in line to share in chocolate candy from a huge box that the maids got us (The richer floor guys gave them a bunch of money)I think the maids left us each a card. Im there behind? Val and who shows up in the open door but John M. Not with his monkey juice but with a trash can full of water. He throws it and most of it hits Big Val. Val chases him down the hall (other side of the 'A') and then all the way down the stairwell. All the other guys follow to see what will happen. Im left alone in there with another guy from way down the hall. We're alone with the candy. We grab handfuls of it and run back to our rooms to stuff our faces. Later, much later, Im back in the lounge and most of the presents for the party are still there after all the commotion. Val opens mine at random. He says, "Hey, this looks pretty good". I proudly say it was mine. I forget if I was going to give it to him,,, .... ,,,,, _____GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS 1968:.... Overpacked and struggled with suitcase again. Flew? Bus? Train? I sure rotated a lot. Probably took bus from 10th/Walnut to Indy and struggled with suitcases. Probably waited with crowd to get on transportation which is always a boring pain,,,1-29-00,,, _____CHRISTMAS, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 25,1968:.. This was our first Xmas as all 'official' residents of York,Pa. Was this the Christmas when I asked for and got Aristotles 'Politics' and his 'Ethics'? Or was that during one of the next few Xmases??.1-27-00 .. _____SUNDAY DECEMBER 29, 1968: Jets beat Raiders 27-23 to be AFL champs at last!! On the same day the Colts beat the Browns 34-0 to be NFL champs. The two teams I wanted to go all the way in 1967 now did it a year later! ..... ________NEW YEARS EVE 1968/1969: TUESDAY DECEMBER 31,1968.: Well, I was in York,Pa. Dont recall what I did, ....
JANUARY 1969:____ NEW YEARS DAY: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 1,1969..... ::: BOWL GAMES 1969:.... ,,,,,______ JANUARY 12, 1969: SUPERBOWL 1969: After all the years of following the Jets, even BEFORE Joe Namath, they FINALLY make it all the way to the SUPERBOWL. I watch it in the room right next to the lounge on the right which, I think was Kens room. He was in there with me and some others. We see Namath squash the Colts who were 13-1. When its all over and the Jets bring in their scrubs the Colts bring in Johnny Unita who gets a meaningless touchdown to stop the shutout. I liked Unitas, too and wished he could have played in 67 or 68. He never once won when I wanted him too but this time I was glad he didnt. /////_____///// GENERAL January 1969: Ulcer, gelusil medicine, Vietnam draft, depression, worry, nightmares, insomnia, money troubles, how ever get married?, when could I ever afford a car and a normal life with all these college expenses???,,,1-29-00,,, ..... MUSIC that dominated the floor in January 1969: TOUCH ME, hooked on a feeling, stormy, crimson and clover AWFUL, BOTH SIDES NOW, everyday people, going up the country, I started a joke, build me up buttercup AWFUL, and lots of DOORS and MOTHERS OF INVENTION and Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour, Lonely Hearts Club Band, Yellow Submarine cuts and late 1968 music still on radio and still played on stereos.////// GENERAL: ulcer, gelusil, chinese PJs, bull sessions, walks to mall, worry, Draft, Vietnam, insomnia, nightmares, ABA, racing back and forth to eat between Briscoe and Swain, following Namath and Jets, 1-29-00 ,, age 19,,, ///// Sometime in January 1969 I walked into Kens room by the lounge and I think it was Bob T. (or someone else while he was there) trying to get me to say bad things about some people. I guessed something was up especially as a)I had that tape recorder in 1967 at college and b)in 1967 that guy Steve Z was hiding in the suitcase closetr above the clothing closet. So I let them have it. I went out of my way to say everything nasty that I could think of and Bob saw I must have guessed what was going on so he threw in the towel and admitted it. It was up there, alright... ,,,,,______ FINAL EXAMS 1969:.. Im sure I pulled some all nighters here. And was bent over in the toilet stall with my ulcers burning at 3am with Finals the next morning each day. And remember reading that graffiti on the stall walls that was still there in Nov 1991 and showering to keep awake. Studying in my room but only after hours of it in an empty Swain West room. Usually 221. I pulled out so many classes at the last minute when my ruined attention span could live again for a short while. Many months of College Physics for Physics majors in a couple of nights of intense studying,,, ,,,,, ___ FINALS END: At some point John M. learned he was going to flunk out and his father had NO idea. So when his father showed up to bring him home John M. had to tell him it was for good and EVERYTHING had to be taken out of the room. I was down the hall by Vals door when Val told me that John M. was right then telling his father and what a shock it would be. Very good chance he'd wind up in Vietnam!! in bloody 1969 1-29-00,,, ______BACK HOME FOR SEMESTER BREAK 1969:. Had to fight with my suitcases at the last second again. Bus to Indianapolis for over one hour. From there to? Bus to York? Train? Plane? Always an ordeal, especially as everyone travelled at the same time and seats were tight. No fun after the first few times in 1967,,, 1-29-00...
FEBRUARY 1969:::___::: RETURNING TO COLLEGE FOR WINTER SEMESTER:... ,,,,,REGISTRATION FEB.1969:... MUSIC dominating floor in february 1969: this magic moment, you showed me, PROUD MARY, SON OF A PREACHER MAN AWFUL!, traces, dizzy AWFUL plus the preceding ones mentioned,,,, ,,,,,DROPPING OUT 1969:..