RUDIMENTS, pt. 88
Making Cars
I look back now and I realize how
much of everything from those 1967
days was nothing but a pretense. It
was so very simple to put something
over on people, there being so little
foundational knowledge, by the common
schmuck of the level I grew up with.
In about 1968, for instance, there was
this really almost horrid, pretentious,
little musical group called 'The Incredible
String Band.' I've always disliked performed
live music in every way, so that, in my entire
adult life, I've only attended two concerts,
both quite minor. One was a Sarah Vaughn
songbook/Gershwin thing, with a live,
symphony orchestra (I was given 2 free
tickets), and the other was this String
Band Concert. It was high Hippie-dom,
beads, bangles, wispy girls in flowing
skirts, and weak-looking guys. They
played mandolins, lutes, guitars, chimes
and stuff, and sang about ducks and birds
and dreams and wishes. It was a sort of
quasi-mystical, tribal-gypsy, medieval
operation. How they named themselves
'String Band' is actually beyond me, the
only real strings being on the guitars and
other instruments. The group was British,
or Scottish or something, and they trailed
behind them clouds of incense and aromas
that lingered. I have to tell you, the only
thing that really caught my eye were the
two or three girls they had on stage, part
of the group. It was very late 60's, the
whole bunch, and I just got bored - but
the idea was the gimmick, the entire
ethos of what was going on was the
transcendent idea of elevating oneself
into a higher, or at least taller and more
distant, mystical realm. It was all that
Hippie-nation was about, and it was a
complete, blank lie. Once, of course, the
merchandiser dweebs got hold of it, it
was completely over. On the one hand
we were left with the likes of Abbie
Hoffman, and his ilk, throwing dollars
down onto the Stock Exchange floor,
and on the other hand all the wise-guy
bagel types in their suits and ad agencies
having meetings on what to sell that was
'Hippie cool' and how to fleece the public.
It was a complete disaster and - yep -
the public bought it; just ate it up.
-
When I got to Pennsylvania, there were a
few commune-like places strewn about,
but I kept away from all that. It was the
last thing I ever wanted to see - celebratory
music, people in fields, nudity, crops, group
baby-tending, 'the family' and all that crap.
Up by the Water Gap - far away from me
actually, and of no consequence at all,
there was a big one. It was run by a guy
who called himself Peter Coyote, the
'Coyote' reference being to some
mystical mushroom-cult Central American
religion of which the mystic 'coyote' was
a shape-shifting, fantastic creature that
wove spells and altered events. He named
himself after that. Point of fact, under that
Peter Coyote name, he actually later became
a famous actor. This commune thing he ran
was on the remnant of his once-really large
family farm. Everyone was gone, his real
family, I mean, and he somehow he got
the place and had turned it into a really
big, functional hippie commune. It went
on for years. Portland, NJ, or maybe it's
PA. The Delaware River is the border
there, and depending on which side
of the often washed-out bridge you
ended up, that's the state you were in.
Of course, the hippies never cared;
they were nowhere; it didn't matter.
I can hear it now, with a slow,
patterned, drawn-out vapor-cloud
drawl: 'State, man? What state is that?
And what's a state? It doesn't matter,
man; it's just like where you are, now,
that's what counts.' Yesiree Bob,' as
my father was wont to say.
-
Whenever people just assume you're
just like them, that's when things go
awry, real quick. It's not, of course, like
you can simply ask: 'Hey? Are you just
like me?' That would be totally stupid.
It's more that it all begins to conflict
once the wheels get turning. Much
of the real, outside world, is like that.
I've been fortunate (and that's one
thing beneficial for me to mention;
ain't much else), because in the vast
majority of my endeavors people
have known right off that I wasn't
particularly 'normal'to their frames
of reference, yet it mostly always
worked - I got my tasks done, was
civil enough, and bothered people
little. One time I had an uncle who
turned on me, in that fashion, right
in his car, driving me somewhere.
I was supposed to be 'sponsoring'
his kid, for confirmation or something
(yes, actually it was confirmation, so
I don't know why the 'or something'
went in there). It was the kid's choice,
not mine; I just said, 'yeah, OK, I'll do
it.' Probably not even thinking much.
This was the rehearsal or the practice
run, a day or two before. This uncle was
a pretty hard-assed guy, and I suppose,
thinking back on it now, (it was light-years
thinking back on it now, (it was light-years
ago), that I in fact - (my 'presence') -
most likely embarrassed him, among
his friends and all, and that was the
real root of the problem. Anyway, out
of nowhere he just starts saying, 'What
are you doing here? You don't fit in
here. You don't belong here' - it kept
on. He was pretty mad by the time he
was done, and I frankly can't even
remember what transpired after that
- because I really don't remember ever
actually going through with the ceremony,
or forking a gift over to the kid. But what I
ever did to deserve the calumny, I never knew.
I was just being me, best I knew how to.
-
So, now I'm pretty old, yeah, and I still
never know what people want out of
others. The whole wacky mess of this
life just messes with my head. I'll take it
for what's left, but I'm kind'a done too.
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