Around the Labor Day weekend in early September, I officially start college as a freshman at SUNY Potsdam, located up in the St. Lawrence River Valley in far northern New York. I have a very clear memory is my father talking to me in my room as I was going to bed the night before driving up to drop me off. He gave me a little pep talk and told me that he loved me. Now, I had been quite a thorn in his side ever since I was little, and I don't ever remember him telling me that before. So it meant something to me. Though in retrospect, it's possible and even likely that he was glad to see me go. I'm sue he secretly said "yes!" Above, my Mom and brother Brian in the Potsdam quad, around September 1, 1969.
I was now living in room 122 (I think) of Van Housen Hall, the first floor. Due to a housing shortage on campus, three students were crowded into rooms designed to accommodate two (like modern prisons, I guess), so a friend and I and someone I have no memory of moved in. My friend from high school decided to attend Potsdam because I was going there. It was also his idea to share a room, though I don't recall being wild about that. Across the hall were two guys from the Albany area, and next door were two Jewish guys from NYC - Billy Bernstein and Charlie Tuna. Billy was a huge Jefferson Airplane fan; Charlie Tuna was probably crazy and liked to light his farts to entertain us. Billy was dismayed to find some top 40 singles of bubble gum music in my collection. I don't suppose he called me a hick to my face, but a hick I was. Well, he kind of called me a hick, now that I think about it.
After a few weeks I was completely homesick and hopped a bus back to Rochester - it was around a five hour trip. A little bit later the father of a High School classmate would regularly give me rides home for weekends and holidays. I enjoyed his company tremendously, especially since he knew which bars to stop at along the way.
That Fall I had my first experience of heartbreak and lost love which lasted through my first semester. I took very long walks out into the countryside around Potsdam and generally felt miserable. It also rained quite a bit that Fall, and portions of the campus were under construction, so there was mud everywhere. Lots of mud.
My roommate later transferred to another school, wound up marrying a mutual friend, and eventually came out of the closet. I had no understanding of the possibility of being gay at that juncture of my life, but thinking back it explains quite a few things to me.
But Potsdam, before winter set in and I learned firsthand about North Country winters, was pleasant enough. There were bars galore (the drinking age in New York at the time was 18), girls, lots of live music, and even a small head shop called The Isle of You. There were three mens clothing stores, all beginning with the letter H - Harold's, Herman's .... and one other I don't remember. A music store, a movie theater, and a sub shop were also around. New things to do and try, interesting people to meet - a new life. I don't think that I drank a lot those first months of college, or tried smoking marijuana - that would come soon.
As far a classwork, I remember little of that time - History, Spanish, Philosophy, I think. I really didn't care much at all for it.
Boone's Farm Apple Wine was a discovery around that time - I remember sitting in the park and drinking a bottle with Annie McNamera. Anything to be around a girl.
Radio Hanoi announces the death of Ho Chi Minh, the long-time revolutionary and leader of North Vietnam. He was 79.
The Beatles release their final recorded album and probably their best - Abbey Road on September 26 (The album rumored to be called Get Back, recorded before Abbey Road, remained unreleased, but finally comes out the next year as Let It Be). I listened to this album again and again in my dorm room and it greatly helped me get over my private heartbreak. It's probably at the very top of my list of albums of all-time.
In a bloodless coup on September 1, Colonel Muammar Muhammad Gaddafi, the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council in Libya, assumes control of the North African country. The Colonel has maintained an interesting relationship with the United States ever since, and as of this writing is still with us.
The first ATM machine begins operation in Rockville Center, New York.
At the close of their first MLB season, the San Diego Padres lose their 110th game on September 30. They went on to win their final two games and finish the season with a record of 52-110. These days I am now a Padres fan, and as I write this they are - in last place!
Born on September 25, actress Catharine Zeta-Jones.
It is the heyday of Underground comix, featuring popular characters like Fritz The Cat, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Mr. Natural, most of which I am exposed to for the first time as copies are passed around our dorm.
On September 26, The Brady Bunch premiers on ABC. The show runs for five years.
Sugar, Sugar, probably the best-known song of the bubble gum genre and performed by the basically non-existent group The Archies, begins a four-week run at Number One of the pop charts. I was not a fan (thankfully) but will admit here a guilty fondness for The 1910 Fruitgum Company, another bubble gum band.
The Band release their self-titled second album on September 22. The album contains some of the group's best-known songs, including The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up on Cripple Creek, and Rag Mama Rag. Also released that month is Janis Joplin's first solo album I Got Them Ol' Kosmic Blues Again Mama.
