1966 a Year of Nightmares and Dreams - new version
1966 a Year of Nightmares and Dreams
1966 was a challenging year for me from January onward.
In January I was busy working 7 days a week at two jobs at WXYZ-TV located across 10 Mile Road from my college where I was in my senior year of my BS in Architecture degree.
We had a freak 12 inch snowstorm. Only the first day did I miss work not driving the 14 miles from my parents' home to WXYZ in Southfield.
Here is a Google map of my route 7 days a week from early 1964 until January of 1966
The day after the 12 inch snowfall my route was very erratic as I drove on 8, 7, 6 mile back and forth in between stalled cars, snow drifts and other obstructions in my path.
BUT......Wandering Alan usually ends up getting where he is going.
A week or two later I had been staying over night on Friday night staying at my fiance's parents' home sleeping in a little telephone room and I drove up Southfield to the Northwestern Hwy interchange and during that S bend my car hit a patch of ice, spun 360 degrees, knocking me out in the process when my head hit the glass of the drivers' side window, at least a few times causing my car to roll and bounce finally hitting a light pole at about 15 to 20 ft in the air before it came to rest upside down with all 6 support posts sheer and me waded up and squashed into the passenger floor well unconscious.
Two young Southfield Police witness the accident in action while they were traveling southbound on Northwestern Hwy. Somehow the got through the cloverleaf interchange to the site of my car and rescued me using a set of JAWS FOR LIFE.
I know nothing first hand only through what my parents told me later after I woke up in the Hospital that evening.
This what my car looked like when I saw it the last time a week later.
I was carried away. I did not walk away. By Friday that week I returned home, minus my car and my two jobs because I no longer had a car to get me there.
The WXYZ-TV News Editor visited me in the hospital, Bill Fyffe, no relations to Barney. He said I could keep my jobs. But I chose to tell him no because I no longer had any way to drive the 28 miles back and forth 7 days a week every morning.
That is NIGHTMARE ONE for 1966
There are more to come just from the next 6 months in 1966.
1966 a Year of Nightmares and Dreams - a 2nd One
My year started off with Dreams of Marriage, college graduation and the nightmare of my near death auto accident.
June was filled with
1. reporting for the Draft at Ft. Wayne in the Detroit area
2. graduation ceremony - BS in Architecture from LIT
3. marriage
#1 became the next NIGHTMARE in 1966.
I received the letter inviting me to go for the Draft physical on the 1st Friday in June.
In preparation I gathered letters from different doctors hoping they moved prove I should not be drafted. Over the days until the schedule day I tried not to get overly stressed.
That didn't work.
I was stressed.
I showed up early that Friday morning with my folder of letters.
Stage by Stage, step by step I traveled through the process at the induction center.
During each stage one letter after another was read and rejected.
Finally that afternoon of being another one of the SHEEP in line after line I arrived at what would be the last check point.
All of us in the room were in our underwear only, t-shirts and tighty whiteys and barefoot holding our clothes and whatever else we had been carrying with us all day long.
I began talking with the fellow in front of me and learning his story. He was a high school graduate who was working in the tool and die trade much like my father had many years before he became a gear engineer. The fellow told me how he had lost jobs because of his feet and his inability to stand for long periods of time.
His toes on both feet were curled underneath. I had send that before because my middle brother had had the same condition as a teenager but it was corrected by a podiatrist who helped him straighten his toes out to almost normal. My memory was that our parents were told that his feet had grown so fast that they couldn't fit inside of his shoes and instead curled under.
When my fellow potential draftee got to the head of the line the doctor almost inducted him.
We were standing in one of two side by side lines of young men in their underwear. Ahead of us against the far wall was a 3 x 6 table with two older men with clip boards in white doctor like coats standing or sitting next to the ends of the table.
When I got to the table I handed the "doctor" by file I had been carrying throughout all the stages that day.
He scanned through it like all the others had throughout the day and said:
"Open your mouth."
"Looks like it was repaired."
The other line was empty by then and the other doctor overhead the doctor at the head of my line and then he asked me:
"Do you ever have problems drinking from a water fountain or a soda bottle?"
I responded immedately:
"Always. The water or pop comes thru and out my nose every time unless I block the gap with my tongue."
He shook his head. I took that as a hopeful sign.
The doctor I was being inspected by looked pissed or annoyed at least. He then wrote something in my folder and handed it back telling me to report to room ____. I don't remember now 52 years later.
I put my clothes back on and went searching for the next point in the process.
After going down many hallways following several right and left turns I finally arrived at room _____. Inside I found a huge walnut paneled room with many framed certificates and photos and a single man in uniformed, a very fresh, pressed looking uniform, this was nearly 5 in the afternoon.
He was standing in a rigid at ease pose with his elbows out and curled wrists on his waist.
He turned my day long or weeks long nightmare into a sudden dream with these words.
"Well young man it appears your President, your country are not going to use your services."
He handed me back my file that contained these words
"PERMANENT 4-Y" status
That meant I was FREE......read that again FREE
Because of my birth defect I would not or could not EVER be drafted.
The second nightmare in 1966 turned into a DREAM.
My life from then on would be mine to live
however I chose.
1966 was a challenging year for me from January onward.
In January I was busy working 7 days a week at two jobs at WXYZ-TV located across 10 Mile Road from my college where I was in my senior year of my BS in Architecture degree.
We had a freak 12 inch snowstorm. Only the first day did I miss work not driving the 14 miles from my parents' home to WXYZ in Southfield.
Here is a Google map of my route 7 days a week from early 1964 until January of 1966
The day after the 12 inch snowfall my route was very erratic as I drove on 8, 7, 6 mile back and forth in between stalled cars, snow drifts and other obstructions in my path.
BUT......Wandering Alan usually ends up getting where he is going.
A week or two later I had been staying over night on Friday night staying at my fiance's parents' home sleeping in a little telephone room and I drove up Southfield to the Northwestern Hwy interchange and during that S bend my car hit a patch of ice, spun 360 degrees, knocking me out in the process when my head hit the glass of the drivers' side window, at least a few times causing my car to roll and bounce finally hitting a light pole at about 15 to 20 ft in the air before it came to rest upside down with all 6 support posts sheer and me waded up and squashed into the passenger floor well unconscious.
Two young Southfield Police witness the accident in action while they were traveling southbound on Northwestern Hwy. Somehow the got through the cloverleaf interchange to the site of my car and rescued me using a set of JAWS FOR LIFE.
I know nothing first hand only through what my parents told me later after I woke up in the Hospital that evening.
This what my car looked like when I saw it the last time a week later.
I was carried away. I did not walk away. By Friday that week I returned home, minus my car and my two jobs because I no longer had a car to get me there.
The WXYZ-TV News Editor visited me in the hospital, Bill Fyffe, no relations to Barney. He said I could keep my jobs. But I chose to tell him no because I no longer had any way to drive the 28 miles back and forth 7 days a week every morning.
That is NIGHTMARE ONE for 1966
There are more to come just from the next 6 months in 1966.
1966 a Year of Nightmares and Dreams - a 2nd One
My year started off with Dreams of Marriage, college graduation and the nightmare of my near death auto accident.
June was filled with
1. reporting for the Draft at Ft. Wayne in the Detroit area
2. graduation ceremony - BS in Architecture from LIT
3. marriage
#1 became the next NIGHTMARE in 1966.
I received the letter inviting me to go for the Draft physical on the 1st Friday in June.
In preparation I gathered letters from different doctors hoping they moved prove I should not be drafted. Over the days until the schedule day I tried not to get overly stressed.
That didn't work.
I was stressed.
I showed up early that Friday morning with my folder of letters.
Stage by Stage, step by step I traveled through the process at the induction center.
During each stage one letter after another was read and rejected.
Finally that afternoon of being another one of the SHEEP in line after line I arrived at what would be the last check point.
All of us in the room were in our underwear only, t-shirts and tighty whiteys and barefoot holding our clothes and whatever else we had been carrying with us all day long.
I began talking with the fellow in front of me and learning his story. He was a high school graduate who was working in the tool and die trade much like my father had many years before he became a gear engineer. The fellow told me how he had lost jobs because of his feet and his inability to stand for long periods of time.
His toes on both feet were curled underneath. I had send that before because my middle brother had had the same condition as a teenager but it was corrected by a podiatrist who helped him straighten his toes out to almost normal. My memory was that our parents were told that his feet had grown so fast that they couldn't fit inside of his shoes and instead curled under.
When my fellow potential draftee got to the head of the line the doctor almost inducted him.
We were standing in one of two side by side lines of young men in their underwear. Ahead of us against the far wall was a 3 x 6 table with two older men with clip boards in white doctor like coats standing or sitting next to the ends of the table.
When I got to the table I handed the "doctor" by file I had been carrying throughout all the stages that day.
He scanned through it like all the others had throughout the day and said:
"Open your mouth."
"Looks like it was repaired."
The other line was empty by then and the other doctor overhead the doctor at the head of my line and then he asked me:
"Do you ever have problems drinking from a water fountain or a soda bottle?"
I responded immedately:
"Always. The water or pop comes thru and out my nose every time unless I block the gap with my tongue."
He shook his head. I took that as a hopeful sign.
The doctor I was being inspected by looked pissed or annoyed at least. He then wrote something in my folder and handed it back telling me to report to room ____. I don't remember now 52 years later.
I put my clothes back on and went searching for the next point in the process.
After going down many hallways following several right and left turns I finally arrived at room _____. Inside I found a huge walnut paneled room with many framed certificates and photos and a single man in uniformed, a very fresh, pressed looking uniform, this was nearly 5 in the afternoon.
He was standing in a rigid at ease pose with his elbows out and curled wrists on his waist.
He turned my day long or weeks long nightmare into a sudden dream with these words.
"Well young man it appears your President, your country are not going to use your services."
He handed me back my file that contained these words
"PERMANENT 4-Y" status
That meant I was FREE......read that again FREE
Because of my birth defect I would not or could not EVER be drafted.
The second nightmare in 1966 turned into a DREAM.
My life from then on would be mine to live
however I chose.
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