I had planned on spending my summer back home in Hartford Connecticut in the Summer of 1974. Hartford was a long ways away from Anchorage Alaska and with the expense of airfare, one had to carefully choose the times in which to visit home. I got a job generating leads for an aluminum siding company and was enjoying spending time with my mom again. I got the strong sense she was enjoying my time back home as well.
The plan was for me to spend the summer in Hartford then return to Anchorage sometime in September shortly before the new semester was to begin...then I got a call from David Trent my friend and college roommate. David too had left Alaska for Kansas City for the summer and I assumed he'd remain there till it was time to return to Anchorage.
David "You're coming out to Kansas City Crosby Stills Nash and Young are at Royals Stadium you'll stay with me and the day after the concert we'll drive back to Anchorage!"
David also mentioned that the Beach Boys and Jesse Colin Young were on the bill but all I could hear was Crosby Stills Nash and Young and Alaska I loved Crosby Stills Nash and Young and although Stephen Stills was my overall favorite, my favorite solo album was David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name. The title itself seemed to represent the times we were living in. I loved Alaska too. It was a dream come true dating back to the days of loving Jack London stories.. Mountains, Moose, breathtaking landscape and with Alaska being dubbed as the "Last Frontier", I found myself meeting some of the most interesting characters one could meet. There was also the intoxicating feeling of freedom ,not only being away from home for the first time but 5,000 miles away from home for the first time!
I did feel bad about cutting time with my mom short and while the job generating leads was boring as hell,I seemed to have a knack at it and I was making decent money at it. However with a little more prodding by David and with one call to Dewey Kornegay, the manager at the campus cafeteria where I had worked during the school year assuring me I had a job through the summer ,I gave notice at my job and informed my mom I was returning to Alaska earlier than planned.. couple weeks later I was on a flight to Kansas City. I had already made enough money to afford the flight as well as money to afford the roadtrip that was to take us through the Alaska Highway (or Alcan) back to Anchorage.
David was driving a 1964 Ford Falcon Stationwagon I worried about its ability to get us to Alaska but the Alaska license plates were enough to where some kind people on the way to the same concert we were going to in the midst of traffic that was barely moving at all let us pass them. We got to Royals Stadium in time to catch the entire Beach Boys set and of course Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Each had their solo moments during an incredible and memorable show.
The next day we were on our way to Alaska. The radio in the Ford Falcon Stationwagon worked but in 1974 the chances of David and I finding a radio station with music to our liking travelling through the states of Missouri,Iowa,the Dakotas and Montana was about zero. Our tapes became the radio.
The tapes would often go into repeat mode and while every so often we'd change things up as we both liked the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, If I Could Only Remember My Name ran most often. Song with No Name seemed to fit the mood as often our journey was delayed by long waits for trains in scorching cattle country heat.
I'm pretty certain If I Could Only Remember my Name was in the tape deck when during a search at the Sweetgrass Montana USA/Coutts Alberta Canada border a jar of marijuana seeds was found by the Border Patrol. David and I were forced up against a wall,searched and the car was ransacked. The radio/tape deck was torn apart
They didnt find anything else to bust us with and there were more adventures in store for us on the way to Alaska but those stories are for another time.
To this day ,that trip remains as the most memorable roadtrip taken by yours truly and the music of David Crosby is forever linked to that trip.
Thanks David
