pink and purple polka dots
Look, Ma, I'm steering the ferry
Crone
7
b anita c
x.
rp1HERE COMES a time in
every writer's existence when
you find yourself forced to write
something that you wish you had
nothing to do with. Instead of
about writing was was assigned,
you find yourself with an entirely
different story that has little to do
with the original assignment.
Anyway, that's what happened
this weekend, and instead of writ-
ing a review of the Grateful
Dead, the Who, and George Har-
rison and Ravi Shankar, I'm
writing about steering the Staten
Island ferry between Staten Is-
land and New York City.
I really intended to review the
Dead. The last time I saw them
(Michigan State University, last
March), they had me almost
wanting to be a groupie. I have
never seen a group so together
and with the ability to take over It was a fine day to hitch, once
5,000 persons with them. we got started. Sunny skies, not
So, when I heard they would too hot, everything was fine-
be playing at Gaelic Park in New until we got about 100 miles from
York City, it was natural for me New York. Then the first bad
to want to see if they could do it luck made its appearance. It
again. started to pour buckets. Not just
the light buckets that let up after
FIFTEEN HOURS on the road a couple of hour, but the kind
hitching to New York was not that continue for days.
too high a price to pay, consider-
ing the fact that there was a pos-
sibility that we could get into the
Who concert on Saturday night
and see the Harrison - Shankar
concert on Sunday.
So, early Thursday morning,
making the supreme sacrifice, I
dragged myself to the corner of
Washtenaw and Hill at 5 in the
morning. Even the sun wasn't
sure if it was going to wake itself
up.
420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
Tuesday, August 3, 1971 News Phone: 764-0552
NIGHT EDITOR: ALAN LENHOFF
Summer Editorial Staff
MARCIA ABRAMSON LARRY LEMPERT
Co-Editor Co-Editor
THE FARMERS in the mid-
west are crying for rain. But
they don't get it. The only far-
mers around New York that I
know of are tourists. They don't
want rain. I didn't want rain.
Rain I can get in Michigan. But
nonetheless, it did rain. It rained
Thursday, and Friday until about
3 p.m. Thank goodness, the radio
kept proclaiming that rain or
shine, the Dead would play if the
people would come out to hear
them.
So the people came, but the
Dead didn't. When we got off
the subway, about 1,000 people
were still there--all incredulous.
People had come from as far
away as Michigan and Ohio, we
had met them on the road-all
to hear and see the Grateful
Dead.
When we got off the subway,
we also saw a sign saying that the
concert was cancelled. It was.
Police were standing around--
the same policemen who would
patrol the outside park for the
concert. This time, however,
their function was to inform peo-
ple that the concert would not be,
AT THAT TIME, I began to feel
all the bad things that happened
while we were hitching. The
hour-and-a-half wait outside of
Cleveland for the ride that lasted
ten minutes; the policeman stop-
ping us on Washtenaw and Hill
and searching my pack; getting
let off in pouring rain; and at
times thinking that no one would
pick us up. When you're all set
to write a fine review, it is dis-
appointing to think of wasted ef-
fort.
I stopped crying after about
an hour and began to hope that
that was the end of the bad luck.
There was a slight possibility
that we could get into the Who
the next night. This woman was
working on it. Spirits started to
get higher, and the possibility
became more than a probability.
Hut there was a day to wait be-
fore we would know for sure.
It seems that the Who are so
famous now that they feel that
they don't need press. The tour
managers have neglected to leave
press tickets set aside. This
means that people can pay money
and about a hundred lucky peo-
ple can fill the press seats-at a
cost, of course. The same thing
is happening at the Who concert
scheduled for Detroit. There are
no press seats. But one can al-
ways hope,
Saturday we got the bad news.
She had tried, but there was no
way we were going to that con-
cert either. At this point, although
we were used to disappointments,
we decided we would ride the
Staten Island Ferry, probably the
cheapest tourist and fun cruise
in New York,
ALL THE WAY to Staten Island
we looked at the green Statue of
Liberty, raising her fist "right
on".
It is almost possible to see how
an immigrant might get choked
up about her. I mean, she's all
lighted up, standing on her own
island-but after about ten min-
utes of looking, I think that the
overheard comment "she might
make a good wife for the jolly
green giant" was more apropos.
But enough - bored with look-
ing at Miss Liberty, I decided to
see what was going on in the pilot
house while the rest of the people
on the boat were looking in the
water.
That's how a music reviewer
ended up steering the boat. I
didn't intend to do anything of
the sort, but Tony, one of the
deck hands, sent us to the cap-
tain, who explained all the in-
tricacies of being a skipper be-
tween the two points.
We watched the radar pick up
ships, tugboats and pleasure
craft in the area, and change the
circle of the radar from I to 1
mile radius. Meanwhile, other
people were turning the wheel.
I'm sure that there is a nautical
term for this, but we had the
ship on course, which was more
than I could say for the week-
end.
ft
Letters to The Daily\
4
Misinformation
To The Daily:
THE DAILY has done a great
disservice to all draft-age males
in the Ann Arbor area by publish-
ing an article concerning the
draft (Daily, July 29) that was
grossly inaccurate at best and a
mockery of factual reporting at
worst.
More than half the information
was incorrect and the conclus-
ions drawn by the reporter have
no basis in the facts known at this
time. My own comments were mis-
quoted three times in the article.
Individuals who would like in-
formation about the draft would
get more reliable information by
contacting their local board or by.
coming to the Draft Counselling
Center at 502 E. Huron. The
center will, be glivng out informa-
tion on the new draft law as we
receive it.
-Steve Gard
Ann Arbor Draft
Counselling Center
August 2
People's store?
To The Daily:
I RECENTLY had occasion to
sell a several months old law book
-bought new for $16.50. Natur-
ally, I went to the student-owned
and run University Cellar - you
remember, the store that was go-
ing to end the rip-offs in the used
book industry. They searched
their souls and magnanimously
offered me $5.00, whereupon I re-
treated to Overbeck's and, at
least got $8.00, not quite one half
price. . . plus ca change..
-C. Michael Abbott
July 30
Fair to fair
To The Daily:
I MUST COMPLIMENT Larry
Adelson on his fine and forthright
art review (Daily, July 24). He is
so right about the Ann Arbor
Street Fair production of the
more ambitious sort and many of
the others too. It needed to be
said, and he did it very well.
-Jean Paul Slusser
July 25
Letters to The Daily should
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rector or delivered to Mary
Rafferty in the Student Pub-
lications business office in the
Michigan' Daily bullding. Let-
ters should be typed, double-
spaced and normally should
not exceed 250 words. The
Editorial Directors reserve the
right to edit al letters sub-
mitted.
It
t