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pinto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 01:43 AM
Original message
I've got gum on my shoe.
We were young, once.

I lived in a three story house, some 13 rooms, with an extended family of blood and blood brother friends. Breakfast sometimes meant oatmeal, chocolate and coffee. Usually the full course, though - eggs, sausage, potatoes, and a project for the day, the job. We looked to the future, literally and figuratively. We had a good life.

We expected the revolution to be televised.

As always, with a bunch of people living under one roof, things went wrong. Someone didn't do something, or worse, did something. When challenged, we, as a family, came up with an all purpose rejoinder that everyone appreciated - "I've got gum on my shoe."

Vietnam was raging it's way through American youth in those days. Nixon had a plan and assorted officials intoned the "good news" of pacification while we got the second hand news of someone coming home in a body bag. These were the waning days of the draft lottery. I had a low number. Though I had registered as a Conscientious Objector, in the back of my mind, I assumed another option to conscription - as both my brothers had taken - a political 4F via the well known Dr. Feel-good in Boston.

As luck would have it, the good doctor was rousted by the feds just before my lottery date. As luck would have it, my number came up.

The 6:45 train into Boston had an extra car the morning I took it into Boston's North Station. Looking back, now, I realize we were just scared kids. Among the regulars - the New York Times crossword and Wall Street Journal riders - we each sat at our window seat watching the grey of late autumn in New England run by.

I didn't know what to do.

You know what happens next. Line up, sign in, take a test, get undressed...

I didn't know what to do...so I did what I knew. "I've got gum on my shoe".

On sign in I wrote it in every blank. On the test I answered every question, "I've got gum on my shoe". They asked me aside for a little talk and I said, "You don't want me, I've got gum on my shoe". I didn't know what to do, but I meant it.

They stamped all my paperwork as administratively passed and moved me on to the physical.

The line of skinny, skivvy clad kids wound through a cold Navy Yard gymnasium. Turn your head and cough. Read line number three. Height, check. Weight, check.

Finally, there was the last doc, white coat, MD badge. He looked me straight in the eyes - and I'll never forget it - said, "It's OK. You don't have to go."

The regulars were all on the train home that afternoon. But most of the kids I rode in with weren't. I know for a fact some of them never came back. I think about them often.


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Trevelyan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 02:03 AM
Response to Original message
1. k&r and bookmarked
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northofdenali Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 02:09 AM
Response to Original message
2. K&R
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Stockholm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 03:16 AM
Response to Original message
3. Nice one!
K&R :thumbsup:
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dipsydoodle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 05:10 AM
Response to Original message
4. At least you're here to write
that's the main thing. Yes - we were young once.

When I think of the troops in Iraq and the fatalities I'm reminded of some words from The Wall :

Daddy's flown across the ocean
Leaving just a memory
A snapshot in the family album
Daddy what else did you leave for me.

K & R your post
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darkmaestro019 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 05:14 AM
Response to Original message
5. This is wonderful, strange, and unforgettable.
I wish I could K&R. I'm running mouth as fast as possible to get to that point without being outright completely useless (though I cannot resist silly) because every day I see something I really, really wish I could raise my hand for.

This made my eyes wet, and I could not pinpoint why, and that is the power and the beauty of it. Thank you.


PS: Too young to have been there, too trans to probably ever have to be there, but I saw what Vietnam did to my stepfather. I'm glad for you that you didn't go.
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 07:50 AM
Response to Original message
6. Never forget.
Nice little memoir.
:thumbsup:

We all knew somebody that didn't come back; and we remember how they were when they did come back; and how long it took them to heal; and how shitty their own government was to them.
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nashville_brook Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 08:12 AM
Response to Original message
7. this is a wonderful parable
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hvn_nbr_2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 09:37 AM
Response to Original message
8. That reminds me of two things...
1. The old joke about "That's not it." But your story is real.

2. The Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement.
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DarkTirade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 12:26 PM
Response to Original message
9. Up until Bush took office...
I always considered my heart murmer and flat feet to be annoyances.
Never thought they could be a good thing. Of course, that's because up until Bush took office, I never expected the draft to be coming.
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MockSwede Donating Member (579 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 04:14 PM
Response to Original message
10. Alice's Restaurant
Edited on Fri Apr-07-06 04:17 PM by MockSwede
Arlo would approve. Puts me on the 'Group W' bench right beside you!
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Canuckistanian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 04:47 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. With all them father-rapers and mother-stabbers
To get inspected, injected and selected.
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whopis01 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 06:04 PM
Response to Original message
12. kick n/t
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Wrinkle_In_Time Donating Member (664 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-07-06 10:03 PM
Response to Original message
13. Is that you, Dr. Thompson? n/t
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