meshugginah posts

[Doug Millison]

Thanks for your message, Greg. I've made some comments below. Then let's
continue off-line if you want.

At 1:01 PM 7/3/97, Greg Montalbano wrote:
>Maybe should take this off-list (as I'm sure the others would rather spend
>more time on the great "small-town librarian debate"):
>
>At 12:42 PM 7/3/97 -0800, you wrote:
>
>>The only thing I might quibble with is "we all KNEW we had a future" --
>>well, maybe. My youth also includes atomic bomb preparedness drills at
>>school (what to do in case of a nuclear attack, sort of the Sputnik-era
>>equivalent to the fire drill, for those who weren't there), and it was
>>pretty clear to me and my close friends that the bomb meant there may not
>>be a future at all,
>>
>>Regarding "sexual freedom" --
>>p it's also clear just how
>>sexist so many of those noble hippes were; Jules' writing drips of it, of
>>course.  Likewise for race relations -- lots of progress, although I still
>>wouldn't take my non-white wife and mixed race child back to live in the
>>Louisiana town where I spent the first 12 years of my life.
>>
>>I agree that lower level drug dealers didn't carry guns back then as a
>>rule, in my experience, but  I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the drugs
>>back then really WERE a lot mellower and less threatening than now". LSD
>>was available in doses far stronger than what is generally sold now;
>>amphetamine was readily available and potent as ever;
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>What I was mainly trying to convey were the PERCEPTIONS that were prevalent
>& popular at the time.

I agree with this. I do remember that general feeling of hope and a future,
and I agree that it's quantitatively different from the general, bleak
outlook of young people today (boy, does that sound like my old man or
what!). Back then I was just beginning to see the dark side of things, and
that of course, in the eyes of today's kids, simply been confirmed and
re-confirmed. I have a young son (10), and he's learning from the get-go
about what really went on between the Cowboys and Indians, for example,
without me having to do any de-bunking, he gets it straight at school.

>Yes, with the benefit of hindsight (as TRP did in VINELAND) it's easy to
>see the bullshit, self-deception and general lameness of the "revolutionary
>hand-job" so many of us were involved in... all I was trying to describe
>was the FEELING of being alive then, contrasted to the feeling of being
>alive (and young) today.

I think I share that feeling; I was just trying to speak of some of the
darker underpinnings that came with it, which you may even share...
>
>And as for the DRUGS -- the standard $10 lid of Mexican weed would, smoked
>one joint at a time, got you about as fuzzy as a couple of good beers.
>The LSD and amphetamines I indulged in liberally, and yet -- CRIMINAL that
>I have been -- neither I nor my (then) large circle of friends ever stared
>at the sun 'til we burned out our eyes, jumped off a building thinking we
>could fly, robbed and raped any grandmas or little school girls, or
>indulged in any of the other folkloric horror tales that surrounded the
>media terror over "the drug scene."  I DID, however, know of a great number
>of fellow youths who got drunk & impregnated their girlfriends (or got
>drunk & were impregnated by their boyfriends), got drunk & wiped out their
>dad's car, themselves, and more than a few "innocent bystanders", etc etc
>etc ad nauseum.  I mean, come on, this is one of the oldest, most
>hysterically-prone debates in the book.  YES, there were abuses of drugs;
>there have always been, & always will be (not just in this culture, but in
>every culture that posesses drugs).  YES there were assholes in the
>"movement" and the "revolution" -- but you don't have to look too far to
>see that they were, are, and always will be everywhere.

Agreed. The real drug horror stories come with crack and speed over the
past 10+ years.

>'Nuff said?
>
>Now back to librarian-trashing!



Thanks again,
Doug


D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com