16 I Loved Abbie Hoffman

Boy, did I love Abbie Hoffman. He was just so opposite to the straight and uptight. It's OK that Pete cracked him over the head at Woodstock. He didn't need to dampen the spirit with politics but "he can be forgiven." I lived where most of the Yippee action took place. Abbie and Jerry were basically on the news nightly and Abbie always had a smile on his face. Movies just can't capture the beauty of that smile. He fought the stagnation with happiness and laughter, and a little active rebellion. Stunts and LSD. Gotta hold on me.

There was also a WMCA disc jockey that was a counterculture friend. Alex Bennett kept me up late at night. He did night after night on how Paul was dead. John Lennon made weekly visits. A.J. Weberman, the man who rifled through Dylan's trash, reported on what he found. George Carlin made it on a lot. But Abbie Hoffman was the best guest ever. The guy never stopped wise-cracking. I just loved him.

Ronnie Bennett, Alex Bennett, John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Now I've tried to find an exact date, but I'm tellin' ya... information on the internet has big gaping holes. I could probably spend forever finding microfilm, but I'm leaving that to someone else. Sometime in 1970 WMCA fired Alex Bennett. If you read Wikipedia, someone out there wrote it was due to WMCA picking up the Yankees. Everyone who listened knows that isn't true. I vaguely remember it may have been because of some incendiary language about the police. But anyway, after he was fired there was a protest out front. How did I even know about it since he was off the air and there was no internet. I don't remember. People printed underground flyers all the time. I took train trips into the Village a lot. I was weird. I went by myself. But this was the next day.

I was still in high school. Of course I cut the whole day and took the train into the city. Went to the building where the show was broadcast. I must have gotten there early. The police on horseback were there already and other cops were setting up barriers. Now since I used to go into the Village a lot, I already had run into David Peel before. David Peel was there early too. So I glummed up there right in front with him and one of his band members. The blonde guy.

The crowd started filling in. The cops on horses started to take position. Oh man. It wasn't Abbie, but Jerry showed up. He took position next to David and right in front of me. I mean right in front. Inches. I was breathing his breath. He was a tough mother. You could tell he built his muscle in fist fights. I just stood there looking him right in his eyes like a dumbass. But he went right to work. No hesitation. Fist up. I don't remember what he got us to yell, but I know the word fuck was used. Everyone jammed in there. There must have been someone working the rear. Because we kept using this tactic where we'd all start running around the corner and the horse cops chased us. Then we'd get to a certain point and run back into the other direction. Horse cops back and forth.

Then for some reason we got all worked up when city buses passed by. We'd run close to the barricade and flip everyone off in the bus, like the low-life degenerates that we were. The weirdest thing happened. There was a girl in one of my art classes that was my nemesis. I got along with everybody because I was the gleeful hippie, heavy metal girl. But this nemesis thought she was above others. Well, I swear on a stack of, well I better not say Bibles but something, she was on one of the buses that passed by. She probably had a lot of shopping. Right at one of the windows closest to the action. We went running up to the bus and just like the foul-mouthed low-lifes that we were, we flipped that bus off. You should have seen her face. Her eyes got as big as the law of nature would allow. Her jaw dropped down to her knees. When I went into school the next day I heard "saw you on the news last night." If you ever see footage I had on this black silk robe with different color stripes. Zelig. It's happened more than once.

My other interaction with one of the Chicago Seven happened in the 90's. I'll write some stuff about Naropa in another blog, but I met David Dellinger at one of the City Lights nights. I told him how much I loved Abbie and he told me what a good natured fellow he was. David Dellinger was an extremely friendly, good natured fellow himself. Talking about "Steal This Book," David handed me one of his little writings and said Abbie would want me to have it. He signed it as such.

I just want to mention that both Jerry and Abbie had issues later on and died. I don't care if you think I'm crazy, but the government vowed to get them for all the trouble they caused. Who knows what could have happened, but I am completely open to any possibility. Mind altering drugs in a bad way and so on.

Now within the last two years I have practically sold or given away nearly everything I have ever collected or owned. I came to a point in life where I said "What's going to happen to all this shit?" Whatever is left, I'm concerned with experience and story. It all turns to dust anyway. Who knows what will happen. I don't want to preach but maybe we better start practicing handing down our stories and not depend on the powers that be to deal with anything in a truthful way.