KHJ – Humble Harve – Wednesday, May 27, 1970 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
It’s May and you have less than a month before you’re free. According to your teachers and your guidance counsellors you are going to graduate. After June you won’t have to get out of bed for anything – you can listen to records all day, every day if you want to . You can stay out late – you won’t have school the next day. Suddenly, life is jammed with possibilities – the world is your oyster – Freedom is amazing. No responsibilities – no more hassles – no more falling out of bed at 6.
And then you remember you’ll be turning 18 in September. That means a trip to the Draft Board – and if you don’t enroll at LACC in the fall you’ll be carted off to the Army in a heartbeat. Your folks said they would get you a car when you graduated – but then you have to get insurance for it. Mom and dad are springing for the wheels – but you have to cough up the money yourself in order to be legal. Your allowance comes to a screeching, grinding halt the day you turn 18 – that’s what they’ve been telling you since you were a Freshman. You’ve got to get a job. You haven’t saved any money – you’re always buying records.
You’re too old to deliver newspapers – you heard they were always hiring at Chicken Delight – you could deliver buckets of Chicken all over town. You hear they make good money in tips and you don’t need to cut your hair – and you drive your own car. That means you have tunes. So you go to College during the day and deliver Chicken at night – okay, that’s a plan. But that probably also means you won’t get to lay around and listen to records all day. And if you want to stay out of the draft you have to keep your grades up – that means you have to do homework. So – School during the day – deliver Chicken at night – homework after work. With any luck, you’ll be getting a solid 3 hours of sleep a night.
So much for freedom.
At least you have the radio.
Humble Harve and the KHJ Boss 30 for a Wednesday night – May 27, 1970.
