He Ain't Heavy, He's my 40 Year Old (Damn!) Brother

Crofton Parkway, 1972. This is a guest post from my oldest brother Peter, second from the right.

I read Robert Stone's Remembering the Sixties. He's one of the writers from that era I really never heard of before. He was in the Navy during the 50s and wrote eloquently about the culture divide of dope. Although a contemporary of Ken Kessey, he never was "on the bus"...well, the bus stopped at his house in northern Manhattan as it drove from Oregon to Flushing, Queens for the '64 World Fair. So, as he said, his bus ride could have been done better with a subway token.

His best thought in the book was about the Manson family killing in Hollywood. In addition to the very dead Sharon Tate, it killed the hippie movement. He said some wondered if the killings were not a Military Nixon White House setup.

Other 60s note. I watched Tom Brokaw's 1968 History Channel program. It was OK, but it seemed mainly comprised of leftover interviews from Dateline/NBC Nightly News. The best one was of Arlo Guthrie who said they used to view marijuana as more organic than beer and liquor. Brokaw asked if anything had changed since those days, and Arlo's reply was the 70s/80s/90s had indeed changed his mindset - that Whiskey was not bad after all.

Bonus family story: Our mother, with Andy about 3 mos in utero, got a babysitter (I was almost 3, Jason a mere 1.5 yrs) and took our 50s frat square father to her younger cousin's dorm party at Princeton on the night Hendrix died, September 1970. So, dad, with a beer in hand, addresses the room at some point to ask if they heard the news that a musician died, Jimmy something. The crowd replied, most likely with joint in hand, "what the hell do you think we're here for?"

[Ed. note: You may recognize this as the "you guys playing cards?" scene from Animal House.]

CORRECTION: Mother Krucoff says the Hendrix revelation occurred at a Bar Mitzvah after-party in Baltimore. The Princeton trip was "another thing."

Pushing the family blogwagon even farther, she also got all Blottered on us. She wrote this morning with the subject, "Crofton Crime Wave":

Last week the next door neighbor's 50" TV was stolen from their home in broad daylight, between 10:00am and 4:00pm. Three neighbors on the block are in law enforcement and had their police cars parked on the street at the time. This morning dad woke me at 7:00am to tell me someone had stolen our red Honda Civic!! Along with many CDs. Hope the bastards like listening to Nat King Cole, the 4 Aces and Doris Day.

I dunno, stock up on tasers or something. We're pretty excited about the new season of The Wire too.