I cut class for the first and only time of my Oregon City High School career to participate in \u201csenior skip day.\u201d A cell had organized it for Milo McIver State Park, a 30-minute drive from Oregon City. There would be kegs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How that was done in those\ndays, I have no idea. I do know it certainly wasn’t sanctioned and\nchaperoned like \u201csenior skip days\u201d are today in many contemporary\nhigh schools. They go to water parks and zoos and take a school bus. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seventy-five dissidents\nshowed up at sunny McIver Park. When I arrived, the kegs were tapped\nand flowing, boys and girls drinking from plastic cups. Rock music\nwas playing loudly from muscle cars. Hackey sack was going on. The\nsmell of reefer drifted on the breeze. Oregon never produced a finer\nday for mellow teenage rebellion. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From my senior year\njournal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6-2-82<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last\nFriday I participated in the senior skip day. What an absolute waste\nof time, money and energy. These lizards and jocks sit around on\ntheir ass doing nothing but drinking beer, listening to mind\nshattering music and it\u2019s so senseless. I wanted to experience this\nphenomenon because I wanted to know what made seniors tick. Why they\ndid this? I went in with an open mind but shortly after there was no\nsubstance\u2014no depth. I\u2019m not any better than anybody else but my\npriorities are so different (and I feel somewhat more mature).\nDrinking beer in a park is not my idea of a of a good time. There is\nno use of this mind. I could go on all day about the waste but it\nwould accomplish nothing. Talking about it, and condemning it, it\u2019s\njust like drinking beer in the park. It gets you nowhere and serves\nno purpose. <\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I cringe when I read that\nentry today. I should have just enjoyed the moment, drank a single\nbeer, and rejoiced that only one week remained in my high school\ncareer. But I couldn’t. I didn’t know how. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n While I was there, I\noverheard someone say that during the Vietnam War, McIver Park had\nhosted a free rock concert where thousands of naked hippies took a\nlot of drugs and the cops did nothing. Apparently Oregon\u2019s governor\nput it on. It was called Vortex. For some reason, the casual mention\nof the rock concert at McIver Park intrigued me. I considered\ninvestigating when Sheriff deputies showed up and busted the scene.\nApparently, the campus cop had ratted us out. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will never forget a\ndeputy telling one of the boys, who happened to be holding a full cup\nof beer, \u201cSon, you’re going to have to empty that beer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boy said, \u201cYes sir,\u201d\nand drained the cup in a single chug. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deputies wrote a few\nminor-in-possession tickets and confiscated the kegs. I didn\u2019t get\nin trouble. I did remember the story of Vortex, and some 20 years\nlater, would do something with it as a writer. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Note to reader:\nIt is my wish that the reader will support the idea that Pioneer\nPride<\/em> is a \u201cbook.\u201d It is also my wish that the reader\nconsider \u201cbuying\u201d the book as it rolls out in installments. A\npurchase supports an author and future literary endeavors by Nestucca\nSpit Press. To purchase, look to the right on the blog to use Paypal\nor contact me to make other arrangements.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I cut class for the first and only time of my Oregon City High School career to participate in \u201csenior skip day.\u201d A cell had organized it for Milo McIver State Park, a 30-minute drive from Oregon City. There would be kegs. How that was done in those days, I have no idea. I do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,942],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-city","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5914,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912\/revisions\/5914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}