The New York Commune adventure happened between the fall and winter quarters of the events cited below. I’ve posted the poem below preiviously, but this is where in the scheme of things it belongs.

Lorain County Community College (LC³) – ‘67

Started taking classes, the basics, including English, Psychology, Western Civilization, Philosophy. Tuition was pretty cheap there and then. I had moved to an upstairs apartment on Garden Ave with two other guys, Jim C. and Jeff N. Jim worked at Fruehauf Trailer Corp. Jeff was a student at LC³ with me. He was also subsidized by his parents. His dad was a local physician. I got a job at the Ford Plant in Lorain, working nights on the line building interior engine covers on the Van Truck Line.

As noted previously, Ted A. and I had gotten to be pretty good friends and performed together frequently. By then, both Guy and Janie had other interests and seldom interacted with us. Janie was still persuing George H., and Guy was still playing with The Rights of Spring. I was riding to school with either Ted or Jeff in those days, having lost my driver’s license for a year, too many points from traffic tickets. In those days, speed traps were the norm, how all municipalities paid for their new police equipment and jails. Also, cops just loved to stop me and my red, convertible GTO. Can’t imagine why…; -)~

Needless to say, due to the night shift work hours and missing or sleeping through many of my classes, I didn’t do very well that quarter or the next and dropped out shortly thereafter. I did re-enter in the fall of ‘69 after living in Ann Arbor for a while and my Tanglewood adventure, which I’ll repost in its proper order. But while I was attending LC³ I made a few friends, and when Hendrix came to Cleveland for his first concert there, we all went together to get tickets for the show. That’s where I met my first ‘true love’, Gail P.

Gail P. – First Love Lost

met in the ticket line
for Hendrix’s first show
at the Cleveland
Music Hall

we went to lunch
gave her my number
she said she’d see
me at the show

called the next day and
canceled wasn’t
going – made other
plans wished me well

doubled with a friend
blind date – to bitter end
no spark, no fire, just
long with no desire

ran into Gail in stair-
well before the show
apologized said she’d
soon seek me out

gave her my address
and went to my seat
show delayed a bomb
threat called in

the show went on
Hendrix made love
to his guitar on
stage then burned it

two days later, she
arrived at my door
took me to my bed
became my first love

a summer of reverie
then a sad ending
she was pregnant
by her old boyfriend

decided to marry him
me a temporary
distraction while
making her plan

marry into ‘good’ family
wealth connected social
elites would satisfy her
ambitious plans

despondent I moved
to Ann Arbor
recovered moved on
new adventures, new songs

To be Continued

–LE