60's Remembrances

Remembering the 1960's. . .

Subject:  My Woodstock Story 5/22/2007
August 15 & 16, 1969. Gerry Komrowski, Louis Green and I went to Woodstock. Yes, that Woodstock. All of the things in this story really happened, but it`s way too long to put here, so click this link
- Dick Lavallee
Subject:  Going to UB (University of Buffalo) 6/23/2007
Marcia Kane, Karen Wells, Bill Welser (anybody else?) and I all headed west on the Thruway and shuffled off to Buffalo. During all the turmoil there, I always thought it had to be pretty mild compared to other schools because UB was a state school - NOT! I think it had something to do with being near the Canadian border. Many draft dodgers stayed overnight in Buffalo on their way north. Some memories include LSD in the punch on the quad offered to everyone coming back to school in the fall, the cops wanting to bust up my string bass (my HS graduation present) because something rattled inside when they shook it and of course it had to be drugs (it was old, dried up wads of gum), getting teargassed during a physiology final (what you handed in counted as your grade), the townies driving through campus looking to get some hippies, rows and rows of police in riot gear with their dogs. On a fun note, Mohawk Airlines used to offer unlimited flying on weekends for $30. We would plunk down our money and fly with a buddy and compete against other pairs to see who could fly the most miles or to the most cities in a weekend. And thanks to Marcia Kane who always let me know when a big test was coming up....
- Sally Huntington
Subject:  RIT first half 7/30/2007
I finished off the 60`s decade attending Rochester Institute of Technology. I flunked out of my major of electrical technology in my second quarter, but returned in the fall as a second year student in the school of business. During my first year I took some sign language classes because I wanted to say "hi" to a deaf boy in my church in Baldwinsville. Because of my interest in sign language, I was offered a job right after my second year to learn how to become a sign language interpreter. This started me on my first career.
- Hal Huntley
Subject:  The "IN" 8/7/2007
Boy did that bring back memories..!!! As you may recall the various church youth groups took turns volunteering, so as members of the CYO, we volunteered. I remember working in the kitchen and cleaning up !! I remember the first time my parent`s let me drive the tan Chevy stationwagon to a basketball game and to the "In" after, did I feel grown up !! Steve Jakway, I gave you a ride home ! Steve Carris was the first person to ask me to dance at the "In" and he introduced me to Stu Whalen !!!
- Karen Peach Carter
Subject:  Strange Days 8/7/2007
I think the statute of limitations allows me to talk about the 60`s with out getting myself in any more trouble. I don`t have children to hide my history from so here goes. I went to Cortland State because us guys had three choices in those days - get married, get drafted or go to college and get a deferment - 1H I think it was called. I played football there and did pretty well - started every game. Just barely had the grades to stay in school. After football season I got drunk for the first time and finally lost my virginity - that was quite a night from what I remember. It was a crazy time as you all know. Trips to Washington DC to protest the war - getting tear-gassed by the cops - the Cortland draft board getting burned to the ground. I read an article in Life magazine about Ken Keasey and the "Electric Koolaid Acid Tests" in San Francisco and was fascinated with the idea of altering my mind with hallucinagenic drugs. So, I found some guys who were experimenting with hash, pot, acid, etc and started my own experiment. I loved it all. I went from football jock to psychedelic freak in no time. Things got very hairy over the next couple of years. I looked like one of the guys in ZZ Top. I was always an entrepenuer. My room-mate and I saw the money that could be made selling drugs instead of just consuming them so we were off and running. It was like living in a Hunter Thompson novel - "Fear and Loathing in Cortland NY". Everyone I knew was a dealer it seemed. The money and drugs flowed through my hands and it seemed like it would never end - trips to FLA, Arizona, San Francisco, Jamaica. Sex, Drugs and Rock `n Roll. It lasted until the early 70`s when I got busted in Cortland after bringing a load of pot and mescaline back from Aspen, Colorado. A couple of my associates got nailed in Ithaca and worked with the police to get a lighter sentence. They brought an undercover state trooper over to my place and I sold him some hash and acid. About a month later at around 5:00 in the morning the door was kicked down and a bunch of cops with guns came charging into my place. They made my girlfreind and I stand there naked for about a half hour while they searched the house. I went through the whole court process. I had enough money to get a good lawyer so I managed to stay out of jail. It was about 1972 or so from what I remember and I decided it made more sense to work for a living at something legal. I couldn`t picture myself doing real jail time like some of my freinds that ended up in Attica and Auburn. So, I moved on. It took me a while longer to get into the "real" world.
- John Mann
Subject:  The beginning of the adventure 9/11/2007
After graduation from B’ville, I FINALLY captured the attention of Charlie (Chuck, Sonny) Edmonds (’67), and we had a whirlwind romance. I was at Brockport, trying to figure out what I was doing there, and he visited every weekend. No coed dorms, no visitors of the opposite sex, no hanky panky back then for us!! Anyway, the following year, I planned to tour the US for a whole summer with my parents and my older sister, Susie (’65).As we were leaving, Charlie kissed me goodbye and told me that he had enlisted in the Air Force, and that he would be leaving just when we were getting back. We spent about 8 weeks camping across the northern route and back the southern having stopped in Lemoore, CA near Fresno to visit my brother. Sue stayed in California and Mom, Dad and I headed back by way of Mexico, Texas and the Blue Ridge Mountains. We visited all of the National Parks, camped in the Grand Tetons, and had a glorious time. Charlie deployed in August, and the next time I saw him was for 2 days in Feb ’69. Then he came home the night before our wedding in May of ’69. July found us traveling cross country to Merced, CA where he was stationed at Castle AFB. We ran into Don Swartz (’67) in a department store one day! We camped at Yosemite, played in glacier rapids, put thousands of miles on our tandem bike, and just had a blast! We made great friends, and still stay in touch with them.
- Martha Rauch Edmonds
Subject:   5/9/2008
Mr. Datz, our senior year Guidance Councilor, had posed this question to me, ”What are you going do with yourself after graduation?” good question! In consideration of my rather mediocre academic performance as a result of my junior and senior high school years’ attendance, I had no aspirations of being college material and I had no monies for tuition, as well. Truthfully, I offered that a branch of the armed forces would most likely be my chosen fate. He suggested I hold off on that line of thought and apply to an institution of higher learning—Onondaga Community College. He’d formulated that applying for their Mechanical Technology curriculum might be a worthwhile venture for me to consider. Subsequently, I applied, was interviewed and to my great surprise was accepted! Okay…… that’s where I’m going after getting my high school diploma. Fast forward to August 12th, 1967—13 days after my 18th birthday—a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon, my future was clearly and definitely determined. Attending O.C.C. was no longer in the immediate future. See: Life’s School of Hard Knocks. A freakish in nature working accident; at my first ever paycheck generating job!, caused me to suffer a traumatic brain injury as a result of being blown off the back of an already moving truck by some poorly placed tree branches. CRAP! 100 miles from home, and my best friend was experiencing the horror of our lifetimes, as well! Two weeks later I was transported from Elmira to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse to begin my rehab. I had to “wake” up my right arm and leg and learn to walk again. You suddenly learn a lot about life, the professional women and men that are working in their disciplines to put you back into better working order, and how your interactions with people you knew well were never going to be the same. Sports were a fond memory now. I had a classmate visitor that came to see me several times and she and I faintly recognized at that point that we were on different paths now. (where were you at the 40th?) I unexpectedly saw a couple of our female classmates that were attending nursing schools passing through Upstate’s rehab departments in 1968. (Linda Scherfling Mayer told me at the 40th reunion she continued along to become an RN, and still is working in that discipline) I did eventually attend O.C.C. in 1968 for one semester, and then left after not being allowed into machine tool labs because of shaky balance issues. CRAP…again! Most of my activities were related to attending out patient therapy appointments at Upstate, but it opened up new opportunities after I started driving myself around again….I taught a child to swim in the S.U. Student Activities Building’s pool as a result of Occupational Therapy Department’s trips to that facility with developmentally impaired kids. An Olympic size pool for freebie swimming after teaching kids to swim….. Wow!! After all that started happening as a result of my becoming independently mobile again, the memories of the rest of that decade aren’t as vividly remembered. But, I never sat down and felt sorry about the whole deal. Oddly enough I became friends with Dick Hatten’s older sister and family and became interested, of sorts, with motorcycles. I couldn’t walk without a cane at that time, but certainly didn’t believe that limited my future endeavors towards anything….. Eventually found and purchased 2 old (in retrospect ,1953 wasn’t too old at that time) Harley-Davidson 3 wheeled motorcycles that became great learning tools for my formal understanding of mechanical systems…..and great entertainment when one of them went on the road in 1971 and I got my motorcycle license to boot. Just prior to meeting and marrying my wife of 35 years, Patricia, is continued in the-- Where were you in the 70s!
-

What happened after you graduated in 1967? What do you remember from the decade that brought us the Summer of Love? Add your 60's remembrance here:

Subject: My Woodstock Story	5/22/2007
August 15 & 16, 1969. Gerry Komrowski, Louis Green and I went to Woodstock. Yes, that Woodstock. All of the things in this story really happened, but it`s way too long to put here, so click this link
-	Dick Lavallee

Subject: Going to UB (University of Buffalo)	6/23/2007
Marcia Kane, Karen Wells, Bill Welser (anybody else?) and I all headed west on the Thruway and shuffled off to Buffalo. During all the turmoil there, I always thought it had to be pretty mild compared to other schools because UB was a state school - NOT! I think it had something to do with being near the Canadian border. Many draft dodgers stayed overnight in Buffalo on their way north. Some memories include LSD in the punch on the quad offered to everyone coming back to school in the fall, the cops wanting to bust up my string bass (my HS graduation present) because something rattled inside when they shook it and of course it had to be drugs (it was old, dried up wads of gum), getting teargassed during a physiology final (what you handed in counted as your grade), the townies driving through campus looking to get some hippies, rows and rows of police in riot gear with their dogs. On a fun note, Mohawk Airlines used to offer unlimited flying on weekends for $30. We would plunk down our money and fly with a buddy and compete against other pairs to see who could fly the most miles or to the most cities in a weekend. And thanks to Marcia Kane who always let me know when a big test was coming up....
-	Sally Huntington

Subject: RIT first half	7/30/2007
I finished off the 60`s decade attending Rochester Institute of Technology. I flunked out of my major of electrical technology in my second quarter, but returned in the fall as a second year student in the school of business. During my first year I took some sign language classes because I wanted to say "hi" to a deaf boy in my church in Baldwinsville. Because of my interest in sign language, I was offered a job right after my second year to learn how to become a sign language interpreter. This started me on my first career.
-	Hal Huntley

Subject: The "IN"	8/7/2007
Boy did that bring back memories..!!! As you may recall the various church youth groups took turns volunteering, so as members of the CYO, we volunteered. I remember working in the kitchen and cleaning up !! I remember the first time my parent`s let me drive the tan Chevy stationwagon to a basketball game and to the "In" after, did I feel grown up !! Steve Jakway, I gave you a ride home ! Steve Carris was the first person to ask me to dance at the "In" and he introduced me to Stu Whalen !!!
-	Karen Peach Carter

Subject: Strange Days	8/7/2007
I think the statute of limitations allows me to talk about the 60`s with out getting myself in any more trouble. I don`t have children to hide my history from so here goes. I went to Cortland State because us guys had three choices in those days - get married, get drafted or go to college and get a deferment - 1H I think it was called. I played football there and did pretty well - started every game. Just barely had the grades to stay in school. After football season I got drunk for the first time and finally lost my virginity - that was quite a night from what I remember. It was a crazy time as you all know. Trips to Washington DC to protest the war - getting tear-gassed by the cops - the Cortland draft board getting burned to the ground. I read an article in Life magazine about Ken Keasey and the "Electric Koolaid Acid Tests" in San Francisco and was fascinated with the idea of altering my mind with hallucinagenic drugs. So, I found some guys who were experimenting with hash, pot, acid, etc and started my own experiment. I loved it all. I went from football jock to psychedelic freak in no time. Things got very hairy over the next couple of years. I looked like one of the guys in ZZ Top. I was always an entrepenuer. My room-mate and I saw the money that could be made selling drugs instead of just consuming them so we were off and running. It was like living in a Hunter Thompson novel - "Fear and Loathing in Cortland NY". Everyone I knew was a dealer it seemed. The money and drugs flowed through my hands and it seemed like it would never end - trips to FLA, Arizona, San Francisco, Jamaica. Sex, Drugs and Rock `n Roll. It lasted until the early 70`s when I got busted in Cortland after bringing a load of pot and mescaline back from Aspen, Colorado. A couple of my associates got nailed in Ithaca and worked with the police to get a lighter sentence. They brought an undercover state trooper over to my place and I sold him some hash and acid. About a month later at around 5:00 in the morning the door was kicked down and a bunch of cops with guns came charging into my place. They made my girlfreind and I stand there naked for about a half hour while they searched the house. I went through the whole court process. I had enough money to get a good lawyer so I managed to stay out of jail. It was about 1972 or so from what I remember and I decided it made more sense to work for a living at something legal. I couldn`t picture myself doing real jail time like some of my freinds that ended up in Attica and Auburn. So, I moved on. It took me a while longer to get into the "real" world.
-	John Mann

Subject: The beginning of the adventure	9/11/2007
After graduation from B’ville, I FINALLY captured the attention of Charlie (Chuck, Sonny) Edmonds (’67), and we had a whirlwind romance. I was at Brockport, trying to figure out what I was doing there, and he visited every weekend. No coed dorms, no visitors of the opposite sex, no hanky panky back then for us!! Anyway, the following year, I planned to tour the US for a whole summer with my parents and my older sister, Susie (’65).As we were leaving, Charlie kissed me goodbye and told me that he had enlisted in the Air Force, and that he would be leaving just when we were getting back. We spent about 8 weeks camping across the northern route and back the southern having stopped in Lemoore, CA near Fresno to visit my brother. Sue stayed in California and Mom, Dad and I headed back by way of Mexico, Texas and the Blue Ridge Mountains. We visited all of the National Parks, camped in the Grand Tetons, and had a glorious time. Charlie deployed in August, and the next time I saw him was for 2 days in Feb ’69. Then he came home the night before our wedding in May of ’69. July found us traveling cross country to Merced, CA where he was stationed at Castle AFB. We ran into Don Swartz (’67) in a department store one day! We camped at Yosemite, played in glacier rapids, put thousands of miles on our tandem bike, and just had a blast! We made great friends, and still stay in touch with them.
-	Martha Rauch Edmonds

Subject:	5/9/2008
Mr. Datz, our senior year Guidance Councilor, had posed this question to me, ”What are you going do with yourself after graduation?” good question! In consideration of my rather mediocre academic performance as a result of my junior and senior high school years’ attendance, I had no aspirations of being college material and I had no monies for tuition, as well. Truthfully, I offered that a branch of the armed forces would most likely be my chosen fate. He suggested I hold off on that line of thought and apply to an institution of higher learning—Onondaga Community College. He’d formulated that applying for their Mechanical Technology curriculum might be a worthwhile venture for me to consider. Subsequently, I applied, was interviewed and to my great surprise was accepted! Okay…… that’s where I’m going after getting my high school diploma. Fast forward to August 12th, 1967—13 days after my 18th birthday—a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon, my future was clearly and definitely determined. Attending O.C.C. was no longer in the immediate future. See: Life’s School of Hard Knocks. A freakish in nature working accident; at my first ever paycheck generating job!, caused me to suffer a traumatic brain injury as a result of being blown off the back of an already moving truck by some poorly placed tree branches. CRAP! 100 miles from home, and my best friend was experiencing the horror of our lifetimes, as well! Two weeks later I was transported from Elmira to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse to begin my rehab. I had to “wake” up my right arm and leg and learn to walk again. You suddenly learn a lot about life, the professional women and men that are working in their disciplines to put you back into better working order, and how your interactions with people you knew well were never going to be the same. Sports were a fond memory now. I had a classmate visitor that came to see me several times and she and I faintly recognized at that point that we were on different paths now. (where were you at the 40th?) I unexpectedly saw a couple of our female classmates that were attending nursing schools passing through Upstate’s rehab departments in 1968. (Linda Scherfling Mayer told me at the 40th reunion she continued along to become an RN, and still is working in that discipline) I did eventually attend O.C.C. in 1968 for one semester, and then left after not being allowed into machine tool labs because of shaky balance issues. CRAP…again! Most of my activities were related to attending out patient therapy appointments at Upstate, but it opened up new opportunities after I started driving myself around again….I taught a child to swim in the S.U. Student Activities Building’s pool as a result of Occupational Therapy Department’s trips to that facility with developmentally impaired kids. An Olympic size pool for freebie swimming after teaching kids to swim….. Wow!! After all that started happening as a result of my becoming independently mobile again, the memories of the rest of that decade aren’t as vividly remembered. But, I never sat down and felt sorry about the whole deal. Oddly enough I became friends with Dick Hatten’s older sister and family and became interested, of sorts, with motorcycles. I couldn’t walk without a cane at that time, but certainly didn’t believe that limited my future endeavors towards anything….. Eventually found and purchased 2 old (in retrospect ,1953 wasn’t too old at that time) Harley-Davidson 3 wheeled motorcycles that became great learning tools for my formal understanding of mechanical systems…..and great entertainment when one of them went on the road in 1971 and I got my motorcycle license to boot. Just prior to meeting and marrying my wife of 35 years, Patricia, is continued in the-- Where were you in the 70s!
-

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