Summer of Love 1967

Summer of Love
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The Summer of Love is a phrase given to the summer of 1967 to try to describe the feeling of being in San Francisco that summer, when the so-called "hippie movement" came to full fruition. (It is taken as an article of faith by some hippies that the word 'hippie' itself was invented to "cash in" on the movement.) (Some people mistakenly believe the Summer of Love was in 1969, perhaps because that was the year of Woodstock.)

The actual beginning of this "Summer" can be attributed to the Human Be-In that took place in Golden Gate Park on January 14 of that year. Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and Jefferson Airplane all participated in the event, a celebration of hippie culture and values.

John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas took twenty minutes to write the following lyrics for the song San Francisco:

If you're going to San Francisco,
be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.
If you come to San Francisco,
Summertime will be a love-in there.

The song was designed originally to promote the upcoming Monterey Pop Festival, in June. Scott McKenzie's cover of the song was released in May 1967 .

Later that summer, thousands of young people from around the nation flocked to the Haight-Ashbury district of the city to join in a popularized version of the hippie experience.

Pictured above is Philadelphia Naval Hospital.

My residual limb, or stump, of my right leg is 5" from the perinium to the tip of the femur. After my stump healed I was fitted with a rough leg at Philadelphia Naval Hospital. I received the leg at the prosthetic shop, at that time the Navy made our prosthetics, and walked back to Ward K where I bunked. It was about 200 yards. When I took the leg off, the bottom of my stump sock was drenched with blood. The bone, my right femur, had pierced right through the flap covering it. It was May 5, 1967.

To compensate for the lack of tissue to cover the femur, a plan was devised to fashion a pedicle skin flap from tissue on my left thigh and attach it to the right thigh of my residual limb. This would entail cutting the flap on my left thigh and attaching it, like bridge to the tip of my stump. My legs would be attached while the tissue adhered. This would necessitate a full body cast to insure I would not rip any surgeons handiwork asunder.

I would be in that body cast from July through September of that year. I had been about a month from going home. I would not leave Philly until January of 1968 though discharged on December 17, 1967. The Marine Corps could not find me, to discharge me, in December.

I went nuts in that body cast. I wouldn't eat after having to defecate in a bedpan, a process that involved 4 other people. I drank the rest of the time. I had people bring me in pints of liquor. I bought pain drugs from the Corpsman.

I saw a Navy head shrinker, actually he saw me, as I wasn't going anywhere. Ever have a Lieutenant Commander do a pyschiatric evaluation at bedside with 40 people listening? It is less than fruitful.

My friends were discharged. It was summer in Philadelphia. I was placed across from the Nurses station so they could keep an eye on me. Lights on 0600, lights out at 2200.

How I spent the Summer of Love, 1967.

What do I do when my love is away.
Does it worry you to be alone
How do I feel by the end of the day
Are you sad because you're on your own


A Little Help from My Friends Lennon/MacCartney Sgt Pepper released June 2, 1967

Mr. Amputation

Edward Alanson acquired a reputation for having induced a "revolution" in amputation technique: by combining the flap-technique with the immediate post-operative union of the skin-edges by apposition, he hoped to achieve healing by first intention. Feeling responsible to the public when changing the technique of amputation - an operation "terrible to bear, horrid to see, and (which) must leave the person on whom it has been performed, in a mutilated imperfect state" (Alanson 1782, p xi-xii) - Alanson substantiated the superiority of this innovation by comparing the results of his new method numerically with those he had previously observed using the old technique. Alanson presented the results of his analyses using this 'historical control group', and referred frankly to some of its hidden pitfalls in the preface to his influential Practical Observations on Amputations (1779). A second English edition appeared much enlarged by the favourable judgment of many colleagues in 1782; a French translation appeared the same year; and a German translation was published in 1785.

"…such trials should likewise previously have been made, as are sufficient to demonstrate that the doctrine recommended will bear the test of general experience... Had I been aware of the utility of such an attention, I would not have omitted taking an accurate history of every amputation at which I have been present. However, the following heads of success may be relied upon, and I hope will answer my present purpose" (Alanson 1782, p xii-xiii).

Judged by his mortality and morbidity statistics, Alanson's new technique was an improvement: whereas 10 out of 46 patients had died after the old procedure, none of the 35 patients he treated with the new technique had died, and the postoperative course had been much less complicated following the new procedure. Alanson insisted that the 35 patients whom he had treated with the new procedure had been unselected referrals to the Liverpool hospital, "where the practice has been made as public as possible", rather than in private practice (Alanson 1782, p xv-xvi).

From:
Tröhler U. Edward Alanson 1782: responsibility in surgical innovation. In: The James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org).

Martin Estate

This picture is ancient as most of the houses on south side of Lawton Ave from the entrance to the Martin Estate to Essex Street have not been built yet. The Martin Estate was where I spent much of my youth. It was good for such diverse activities as hide and seek, rock fights, baseball, football, drinking, explosives experimentation, making out with girl friends, guns, sledding, throwing rocks at winos, forts, destruction of government property, so on and so on. Anything requiring the absence of adult eyes.

The Martin Estate was our back yard preserve. There were wooded trails, rock formations, a cave and a meadow. You could walk in the woods all the way to High Rock Tower. This was our playground. It was and still is, the home to VFW Post 507. The area was used by kids from different neighborhoods but we lived there. It was ours. We shared of course, but we claimed ownership. This spot was probably 60/80 acres right in the middle of a city.

One of the most dramatic changes at the Martin Estate was Hurricane Carol. August 31, 1954 Carol hit New England, I was 6. Carol put more trees down than any hurricane I've seen. Rogers Ave was barricaded by some of the biggest trees on the street, totally impassable for a day or two. It was paradise for us kids. Huge branch formations, like caves now were accessible, everywhere. The streets were transformed into jungles. The Martin Estate was now a green playground of stacked, crisscrossed giants which remained for months. Trees were bulldozed into giant stacks perforated randomly with space enough to fit 4/5 kids comfortably in a secret cavern.

It really was Eden as I remember it. I have this fascination with built up defensive positions. Cavalry forts, Castles, the caves dug in the defense of Iwo Jima all hold my interest. I think that springs from those years.

Development came to the MarinEstate in the form of a Marine Corps reserve bulldozer. The Little league wanted our meadow for their Central Division field. The hoped to include a left field wall like the Green Monster at Fenway. There was no fucking way. They had Frazier Field and any number of ball parks around town.

Well the Marines, naively, left their D-9 bulldozer unprotected in the middle of a half finished field. It died there and stayed until they found something big enough to haul it out. Seems local vandals filled the gas tank with all sorts of debris, ruining it's engine. The field was not a ballpark for an extra year. The rear guard action only delayed the inevitable. It was a sad day indeed. Later the Central Division folded and the field lay barren for more than a decade. But the damage had been done. There is a ball park there today.

It was possible, one year of incredible snow, to sled from high above that ballpark on a very rocky hill all the way to the corner of Rogers and Essex Street with good timing and a clear field. The two biggest problems were, first, getting to the post building and the road from out of the woods, a trail that needed some hand paddling. And second, dodging cars on Lawton Ave. There were two broken arms in one season from car collisions that I remember. On good day, there were a gazillion kids sledding so there were plenty of lookouts.

The apartment Mac lived at the base of Essex and Lawton fronted a huge cliff face, that was later entirely fenced in, as it presented in lawyer terms, an attractive nuisance. You could easily fall forty feet of the cliff face. We kids were all over it. There were passages through rocks where you could crawl through on your belly. A small cave lie in the face of the cliff. There was a spot where you could jump between rocks over that 40 foot fall. I never heard of anyone falling.

I remember the days they fenced it in. One of the crew asked us kids who wanted to earn a quarter, I jumped at the chance, only to see him go to unzip his fly. That hurt me, I still remember it. I felt cheap behind that gesture, ashamed. I was embarrassed. I associate the loss of the cliff with the sexual humiliation.

The view from the top of that sledding hill was astounding. You could see easily to Boston. The weather light from the Hancock Building was indecipherable but you could make out the skyline easily. Nahant stood in bold relief of the blue Atlantic. All of Lynn was visible to the south and east. Before Nixon shut the Boston Navy Yard, there was occasionally the stray aircraft carrier or cruiser visible off the coast.

Lawton Ave

Lawton Ave runs from Essex Street to Western Ave., It is one way heading East from the corner of Rogers Ave to Essex Street. The entrance to the Martin Estate is along this one way stretch.

Many of my oldest friends lived here. Ritchie at 17 Lawton. Charlie at 25, I could reach out the 2nd floor window in my house and touch his basement wall. I used to escape out this window, when I had to get out of the house. It lead right into Charlies driveway. And Bruce lived futher up the street on the hill across from this church.


That stone step at the entrance to the church was used to bounce a rubber ball in a game called outs. You tried to bounce the ball off the angle, the corner of the stone to simulate fly balls or grounders. Your opponet need to catch the ball to make an out. You had three outs. This church was empty except Sundays and had a number of different congregations and denominations.

They had a couple of good Church Fairs in the fall and at Christmas and in the back was a fenced yard with a large metal fire escape. I once made the mistake of taking Hope there to make out. We had a good time and she had no problem climbing the fence. But my 'friends' were viewing from the many hiding places afforded in the back yards. They gave me a blow-by-blow of my private moments for weeks. They caught us again up the Martin Estate sequestered in a cozy den of trampled grass between some trees. More agony for our neophyte Romeo at the hands of his droogies.