I'd been there nine days. It was time for the protesters to execute the final plan and shut down Washington DC. I could feel the tension in the air. None of the groups could agree on how to effectively pull off 'Mayday'. Meanwhile, army Hueys had been increasing their reconosance flights over the camp during the day. Passenger jet planes also continued taking off at full throttle just over our heads. The park is practically at the end of the runway of the commercial airport. Between the jets taking off and the choppers flying over head, it sounded a lot like Vietnam on an action packed day...
This day, someone yelling through a loud speaker from a Huey flying over our heads said, "If we weren't gone by tomorrow afternoon, the National Guard was gonna come in and take us all to jail." Everyone started freaking out. There was no prearranged action to take as far as some kind of plan if it turned into a military arrest situation. There wasn't any cohesive organization among the groups and so they just started packing things up and heading home. I thought I'd hang around until the last minute and see if the army was really gonna come in like they said. The next day, sure enough, the army started flying in with Chinook helicopters which could hold 25 or more people. I could see a lot of protesters running to get away from the army who was trying to bring them in. They hoarded a lot of them into the choppers and flew them off to jail. I don't remember how many got arrested, but there were quite a few who stuck it out and thought they could make some kind of statement by getting arrested. I didn't really want to go to jail, so I just walked on out of the other end of the camp, like I walked in...
I didn't have a bag, or anything much to carry. I think I had a little food in some kind of a small sack, or something. Anyway, it makes it easier to walk when you don't take much with you. I waved down a person or two in the street, to get me headed in the right direction out of town. The city was bustling with activity and I was able to get a couple of rides out of the city without much trouble. I was tired and just wanted to get back to my own bed and get some sleep.
The trip heading home didn't go as smooth as the trip coming out. People didn't want to pick me up as much once I was out of DC. Even though hitch hiking was more popular then than it is today, I remember a lot of times when I had to wait forever to get a ride. The weather heading back to Michigan wasn't as nice as it was when I left either. The blue denim jacket I was wearing over my flannel shirt wasn't keepin' me very warm. I forgot to realize that the farther north you go, the colder it gets...
It wasn't long before snow started spitting out of the sky along with some very cold rain. There were several times when I spent 2 or 3 hours just standing along the highway freezing, hoping to get a ride. I had to walk a lot and move around to stay warm. I'll never forget one ride I got, just over the southern border of Ohio. A baptist minister picked me up along with his daughter and son in law. They were all in the front and I was in the back seat of the car. The minister asked me if I had heard about Jesus. I said yes, and that I believed in the Bible. Apparently this didn't set very well with him. He started yelling at me, saying that I was on the wrong track...
I had long hair that looked a lot like the pictures of Jesus. He said, "Do you think Jesus had long hair?" I said, "Yes, I think so." At that point he was turning his head to me in the back seat more than he was watching where he was going while he kept yelling at me. His daughter looked uncomfortable with it, but he wasn't about to let that get in the way. Like the bullets in Vietnam, his unkind words just went over my head and landed in the background somewhere...
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