A Bizarre 18th Birthday | Life in 1972 - 04

Monday, July 17, 1972 - Page 199

LOCATION: Bethlehem, Rapid City & Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

[This is the day I turned 18... but I didn't tell anybody]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME,

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME-EE

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

(9:00 AM 7/18/1972)

This was a fairly big day of which I can record only the highlights. At around 9:30, Me, Brad, Greg, Tim, Mike, and Bruce went in the van to the airport (One tire was low so we had to change the right front tire B4 we left). There was a fairly large crowd at the airport -- between 500 & 1000. This was because a guy named George McGovern was going to fly in. To pass time before he got there, we picked out the various Secret Service men milling about. Mike, me and Greg picked out an obvious one and shadowed him everywhere he went -- we knew him as the Guy in the Purple Tie. Bruce sauntered around, appearing as if he too were an S.S. man -- so did Me, Mike & Greg. Greg bought a newspaper and a Vote Republican Button, and stood in front of the Guy in the Purple Tie. I stood on his left, walking back and forth. Mike stayed on his right. We stayed very close to him all day.

[Grady2013 says: My gang and I couldn't resist mocking these Secret Service agents who were bravely trying to blend in despite their sunglasses, black suits, ties, and earplugs. I appeared particularly ridiculous wearing a corduroy jacket, blue jeans, boots, sunglasses, long hair & mustache, positioning myself discreetly against a wall, occasionally placing my hand against my head as if listening to an invisible earpiece and then whispering into a hidden microphone in my sleeve. These agents were clearly aware of me and my friends. I was expecting one of them to walk up to me and say, "Knock it off, punk." But as I look back on it today, I think they probably didn't confront us because we were doing pretty decent impersonations of SS agents, and maybe McGovern would have approved of bodyguards disguised as hippies.]

Norman Rockwell was a McGovern supporter

McGovern came in and I got within handshaking distance of the guy, but I didn't. Fr. Gilbert was there, and he exchanged a few words with him. There was a big speech of course (Greg wandered thru the crowd whispering "Nixon!... Nixon!... Nixon!..." An old lady kicked him in the shin). I kept an eye on a second S.S. agent all the time. When the thing was over, me, Bruce, Mike, and Greg executed a masterful feat of tailing the Guy in the Purple Tie all the way to his car in the parking lot. Bruce stood a car away to his left, I stood closer by on the right, Mike walked slowly and casually right up to the Guy, and passed him. There was an antenna on the center of the car's ceiling, and he had lots of electronic equipment inside.

Greg, Mike and Bruce posted themselves in different areas of the road his car had to take when he drove out -- I stood behind his car, watching. He stayed parked for about 15 minutes, then he walked back to the terminal. I followed. So did Mike. Then Bruce and finally Greg. Brad and Tim by this time had left the parking lot and were waiting. We walked cas- [here the text is continued on the next sheet - page 200, July 18] ually to the van, the van moved, and we all sprinted to it, jumping in and took off for a fast getaway -- We went to K-mart after that, and I had some food. Mike saw the Guy in the Purple Tie there. We looked all around for his car and couldn't find it.

We then went to McDonald's, and then proceeded to Mt. Rushmore, where I met -- guess who? -- No! Not the Guy in the Purple Tie. I met the Latkas, coincidentally. They were going to Beth when they left there.

[To me, this was a stunning moment of synchronicity that I will never forget. I unexpectedly found myself at Mt. Rushmore, and suddenly I noticed that Sue Latka was standing beside me. "What the hell?" The Latka family had magically appeared at the same time & place as me, even tho I thought they were in Chicago and they thought I was in California.]

You can't visit Mt. Rushmore without remembering "North by Northwest"

Our gang went to Rapid from there, picking up a few hitchhikers on the way. In Rapid, Mike and I went to see "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" [4th in the original series of 5 movies]. Greg and Tim came to see it too. Brad stayed in the Van, and Bruce hitched home.

Original theatrical poster, 1972

After the movie we went to Alex Johnson's for a Coke (Greg, me and Tim), and Mike and Brad went to Penny's to buy stuff. Then we went back to the Van, but before that I stopped at "Leather Unlimited" and bought a hat. $21.00. They haven't made it yet tho. Then we drove home.

This trailer pretty much tells the whole story

The Latkas were there. Sooz is playing hard to get. Ken [Latka], me, John and Tim talked some up in the Reception Center. Ken slept with us in the Abbott's Cabin, and we all told dirty stories till One, then we went to sleep. Tha's all. --

[For future reference: The Latkas are a family from Chicago who I'd met on a tour of Europe in 1971. The Shrine of the Nativity arranged frequent tour groups to various locations as a source of funding for the Church. The five Latkas consisted of the father, Ted, the mother, Stephanie, the son, Ken, and two daughters, Peggy and Sue (who also called herself Sooz, Soozwol, & Rusty). Peggy did not accompany them on this trip to South Dakota, but I saw her again when we arrived in Chicago.]

A hardhatted Sue Latka preparing for her Bethlehem Cave tour

TOMORROW: About Bethlehem Cave & The Shrine

Also born on July 17

Donald Sutherland, actor

James Cagney, movie star

David Hasselhoff, actor

Diahann Carroll, actress

Phyllis Diller, comedian

Mark Burnett, TV producer & writer

F. Gary Gray, director

Erle Stanley Gardner, writer

J. Michael Straczinski, writer

Angela Merkel, German politician

Camilla Parker Bowles, duchess

DISNEYLAND! (Broke ground: July 17, 1954 -- Opening Day: July 17, 1955)

For more like this, go to  Top 20 Entries from 1972
ALSO, see Life in 1972:
Whitewater April - 01, Races May - 02, Oxnard/Newport June - 03