50th Anniversary

This anniversary kind of snuck up on me. The only time I think of it is around this time each year mainly because the 25th is my sisters birthday so it triggers a memory.

If you've read my first book, "The Smartest Generation", (available exclusively on Amazon), then you know that I've managed to do more than my share of stupid things in my life. What happened fifty years ago this weekend takes the cake to be sure. It was stupid, funny, scary, and interesting all at the same time and I promise you it made me make sure I didn't have a repeat performance ever again.

Meet Northern Illinois University criminal #75763 on the bottom above, and Dekalb County criminal #753397 on the top above. This disheveled, drunk, high, hippie is me on the early morning of October 26, 1975. And by early morning I mean around one AM. So, how did this come to happen?

It was a typical Saturday night at NIU. My roommate was back home in the Chicago area to see his girlfriend, as many students did at NIU. There were only a handful of us around at the Plaza dorm where I lived, one of them was a friend of mine who I will call Fred to protect him. He suggested we go to downtown Dekalb and hit the bars, which was what one did on a Saturday in the middle of nowhere Illinois.

We hopped on the university bus which conveniently had regular service from the campus to the bars downtown. Of course it was 1975 so we had ourselves a pregame warm-up of a bowl or three on the bong back in the dorm before we left, just to get things started.

Once downtown we determined that McCabe's was the place for us so we joined the mass of humanity inside and worked our way to the bar for the first of way more than we needed $0.50 beers. It was around six PM when we arrived. Just after midnight Hulk and Bulk the two bouncers politely suggested we vacate the premises as the bar was closed by picking us up and carrying us out to the sidewalk. Fred politely asked Bulk when they would reopen Sunday and he threw a rag at him and told us to get.

Sadly, the busses had stopped running by this time so we began the long walk back to The Plaza. This would take us past the lagoon, the radio station where I was scheduled to begin the morning shift in six hours, ladies dorms, the University Center, and then on to our dorm. Under normal sober circumstances it was a nice brisk twenty to thirty minute walk. Under our circumstances it ended up being around a seventeen hour adventure.

(The X on the left is where we were sitting and the X on the right is the dorm)

We made it to the Center where Fred announced that he needed to get rid of some beer so he used the handy trash receptacle in the parking lot while I sat down on the bike rack that held three, locked bikes and waited for him to finish. As he was relieving himself he shouted that when finished he was going to race me back to the dorm which was about three blocks away. There was no chance he could beat me so I laughed at him.

Suddenly he took off running around the side of the center. (The circle on the left is where we were and the circle on the right is where we ended up.) As I came around the corner I saw him trying to open the locked doors on the side and was about to ask him what the hell was he doing when I noticed the flashing lights and the order to get on the ground, face down. I did as was instructed and while laying there turned my head to see four police cars and multiple officers with guns and shotguns drawn and pointed at me. Now I needed to relive myself.

We were patted down and handcuffed and tossed into the backseat of two different police cars because the University Police were sure we were a professional gang that would work on our stories together. Off the the U cop shop for fingerprinting and mugshots. Officer goofball messed up the first mug shot by forgetting to give me the plaque with my numbers on it. They used a polaroid at the time so I asked him if I could have the mistake picture and he gave it to me.

After filling out the paperwork that charged us with two counts of over $150 theft of two bicycles, that apparently I knocked over when I leapt off the rack to chase Fred, we were taken to the Dekalb County courthouse in Sycamore where he woke up the night warden to process us and slam the cell block door on us. The warden asked him four times if he really meant to have us charged and he said he was determined to stomp out crime on campus. (Turns out he was fired from the county police for making too many unnecessary arrests so of course the University couldn't hire him fast enough.)

By now we were still pretty messed up as we made ourselves comfortable in the second of the four cells which we had to ourselves. We were laughing at the absurdity of the situation. With our one phone call I called my suitemates to explain where we were and that we needed $200 each to be bailed out. Luckily for us they were both local kids so I felt good about getting out soon.

What I didn't take into consideration was that it was Saturday night for them too and they were even more messed up then we were so it wasn't until the next morning that the lightbulb went off and they finally made arrangements to bail us out at around five PM.

We were joined in our cell block with two cousins that had stolen an eighteen wheeler, drove it into a farm field and then beat up four cops. We have one yellow arrest sheet with two counts listed on it. They had ten sheets with too many counts to actually count. The older cousin told us, as we were having breakfast, that they figured to be let out on their own recognizant shortly. Fred and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows knowing that was not going to happen.

We also had one guy charged with murder of his girlfriend and another guy who was in for reasons unknown and unspoken. We stayed away from both of them. The cell block was nicely appointed with a shower with no doors or curtains, a toilet with a built in sink on the top back and again, no doors or curtains, two metal picnic tables bolted to the floor, and a twelve inch black and white tv bolted in the corner near the ceiling.

We enjoyed two wonderful meals that we ended up giving most of the food away in order to make friends and not be attacked. And truth be told I was a bit queasy from the night before so food was not on my list of things to do.

To make a long story short we got bailed out, went back to the dorm where we were greeted with a standing ovation when we entered the cafeteria, and then to my room to call my parents and give them the good news. Dad took it well, Mom was out of her mind. Dad called a client of his in Dekalb who happened to live next door to the judge in our case and we were told to appear in court, don't say anything but yes sir, and leave as soon as he told us to. We did as told and after serving our six months of probation our case was dismissed and our records were expunged which is how I came into possession of the mug shots above.

The lesson learned here was to never run if cops were in the area, even if you didn't see them to begin with, and second, stay out of jail. I can proudly say that fifty years later I have lived up to both lessons.

Ah, youth.