32 Tomorrow may rain so I'll follow the Sun Part 3

Ok, boring. Yeah, the air was dirty. The water was full of chemicals, bubbly and oily. The streets had litter. The clothing was colorful. The cars were cool. The buildings were dumpy and falling down. The waterways and empty lots were filled with garbage of all kinds. There was less plastic though and the people were less plastic too. Just like 70's movies.

Along the Hudson

The day arrived. I don't remember the details of when I got there. People weren't thinking "Gee. I should keep track of every little thing so that 50 years later I could tell a precise account." That's not how we thought. We were really worried about the future. A lot of people thought the world would have ended by now and I was one of them. Well, I guess I got there pretty damn early since I was one of the workers. Now what was I doing? They handed me an armband and said "Ok. Go stand inside the barricade over there. Keep people from coming inside. "What? Look at me. Am I supposed to tackle them when they mob the barricade? "Just stop them." Ok. I'm pretty damn tough. I'll stop them.

I was positioned right near the stage. Who knows why? Ok. It was before things got really crowded. Pete Seeger showed up and hurriedly went to talk to someone in the important group by the stage. Big deal to me. "Where Have All The Flowers Gone." "If I Had A Hammer." "Turn, Turn, Turn." These songs meant so much to the "movement" back then. He got up and sang a couple of songs. He was leaving. He had on his cap, I remember that. As he was walking out of the barricades I went to him. Told him who knows what the hell and shook his hand. That puts me in one or two degrees of separation from a lot of cool people. In awe. I guess he took his boat down to Washington DC to speak.

Maybe there are people with clear memories of when the speakers started. I don't remember those things. I barely remember watching any of them even though they were right near me. It was all so strange and surreal and I was freaking out about keeping people out. There wasn't too much trouble with that except for a damn photographer from France. I tried keeping him out but he pushed right passed me. I don't know where he went. Hopefully he got some good photos. But where are they? In a box somewhere? How many times can I say that not everything out there made it's way online.

I don't remember eating or peeing. Food was not the glorious idol it is now. You shoved something down your throat and went on about your business. Let's see. I don't remember Ali McGraw at all. I honestly only vaguely remember Paul Newman. It's kind of weird but I remember that Leonard Bernstein gave a good speech. I felt was an honor to see Margaret Mead speak. I remember Ed Koch because I thought we was rather strange looking, like a cartoon. A caricature. Mayor Lindsay... boy oh boy... I vaguely remember Paul Newman but Mayor John Lindsay. I couldn't help but look at him. Not necessarily like I was in love with him, but I am a people watcher. I like to stare and observe and he had that hard to describe charisma. He must have emanated a powerful aura. He spoke at the library with Kurt Vonnegurt, but he made it down to Union Square too. I swear I remember seeing Vonnegurt. That's a haze though, like a lot of things that long ago.

There were enormous amounts of people. That was that. Earth Day was over and next I did a little bit of stuff locally. I worked with a super smart dude at school to get a group going at my high school called STEP. Students To End Pollution. Dorky huh? We did a lot of nagging & it succeeded in getting a county wide recycling program started. I never did the things like "pictures" in high school. Not in the group photo, but it's listed by my name in the stupid yearbook.

When it was all said and done, it did make a difference. Nixon set up the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and signed the Clean Air Act. The Clean Water Act was eventually signed by bipartisan effort. Do you believe that? There were also considerations given to prices and inflation by compromise. What a concept. Things took a while to clean up but over a little bit of time the progress has been incredible.

I had a button like this.