Radio Airwaves and Hoops

Before the internet or cable tv came into existence, one of the best ways to get a perspective from outside one's home town was to have a good antenna on your radio, station surf at night,and hope for clear airwaves. No matter what,one had to count upon a certain degree of static as well as stations fading in and out..

From my Hartford Connecticut home,the New York City stations came in the easiest..sometimes with very little static. All news all the time from 1010 WINS was my go to station. Some nights I’d get WTOP in Washington DC which was always fun because I knew that was my grandparent’s favorite station and I’d always feel connected to them by listening. I’d also get WBZ in Boston,but there was something about that Bostonian tone that irritated me,so I seldom tuned in.

I’d do most of my listening while doing homework on our dining room table. One night while station surfing I came across a station that was not from New York or Boston. It was coming in fairly clearly and the broadcast captured my attention immediately. The station was WHAS in Louisville Kentucky and the broadcast was an ABA game between the Kentucky Colonels and the Indiana Pacers. The ABA! ..American Basketball Association.

From its inception in 1967,I had declared myself as a fan of the ABA. Already a budding rebel,I took to the idea of a sports league challenging the existing order. I liked their Red,White and Blue Basketballs,and loved the idea that one got three points for shots made from 25 feet out. There were also Connecticut connections to the league. Growing up,I’d listen to University of Connecticut basketball games and one of its former stars,Wes Bialosuknia had signed with ABA’s Oakland Oaks. Hartford had a minor league basketball team called the Hartford Capitols. I would attend their games.My favorite Capitols player was ‘Spider” Bennett who upon the league’s inception signed with the Houston Mavericks.

There was one problem in following the ABA. They had no TV contract. They only had one player in Rick Barry (who jumped from the NBA) recognizable to the general public.The media regarded the ABA as a minor league thus only seldomly were their boxscores published in the newspaper. It’s first year only its first game highlights were shown on TV and a Life Magazine article on the New Jersey Americans was about as good as the coverage got. To follow the ABA,one had to studiously check the sports section as even daily scores and standings were published sporadically. A subscription the The Sporting News helped,but there was also word of mouth. I knew this league was right for me as one of its early superstars was named Mel Daniels..no relation but having the name was good enough.

The league went through some rough times in the beginning..bounced paychecks,poor attendance,franchises moving from city to city.There were always rumors of its soon demise,but somehow they managed to survive and by the time the 70-71 season rolled around,they had been successful in signing some of college basketball’s better players such as Kentucky’s Dan Issel,North Carolina’s Charlie Scott as well as Spencer Haywood from the University of Detroit. It was in that season where WHAS came across my airwaves.. Once discovered,Kentucky Colonels games became a regular part of my homework routine. The broadcast team was Van Vance and Cawood Ledford. Cawood Ledford would also do University of Kentucky games and from the accent alone,you knew he had to be a born and bred Kentuckian.

I had called myself a New Jersey Americans turned New York Nets fan,but it was hard not to become a fan of the Colonels. They had Issel,sharpshooters in Louie Dampier and Daryl Carrier.Walt Simon had played in Hartford against the Capitols and Spider Bennett,but what I loved most were the characters on the team Cincy Powell,and Jim “Goose” Ligon. The NBA of the late 60’s -early 70’s was a buttoned down league. Great basketball players but little flair. The ABA was different and signed players who for one reason or another banned from the NBA and players who wouldn’t fit into a mold. Cincy Powell liked to talk and wasnt afraid of giving himself credit for being the star of the game those times when he was.Listening to Cincy Powell and Cawood Ledford post game was like a downhome version of Ali and Cosell. Goose Ligon was a forward for the Colonels. A stint in prison kept him out of the NBA. Average scorer,great rebounder,but his greatest role with the Colonels was as an enforcer. His elbows were weapons when rebounding.He wasnt afraid to make hard contact on the floor and would openly dare opposing players to mess with him. Goose Ligon was my favorite and when I found myself playing high school varsity basketball,I patterned much of my game after that of Goose Ligon.

Then there was the experience of finally listening to the ABA on a regular basis. Colonels always did well attendance wise,but games in Pittsburgh one could hear the dribbling on the court and what players and coaches were saying and you knew there were rabid fans in places like Indianapolis and Salt Lake City

The following season,the Colonels signed my favorite college player, Jacksonville University’s Artis Gilmore. That season,the ABA began playing NBA teams during the exhibition season. A game between the Colonels and the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was treated like a championship game by Kentucky’s broadcasters.(Colonels lost and Jabbar outplayed Gilmore)

Over time it seemed like the ABA began to gain more respect. ABA players such as Spencer Haywood were having successful careers in the NBA,and an occasional All Star Game and Championship series would be broadcast on TV. By the time I left Connecticut for Alaska,I didn’t have to tune into WHAS for ABA coverage as WOR in New York began to broadcast Nets games. Of course by then,there was quite the buzz over an old University of Connecticut rival,a player who I thought was going in over his head by leaving the weak Yankee Conference where he played college ball to a league I was convinced was every bit as good as the NBA now. His name? Julius “Dr. J” Erving.

I was living in Alaska when the ABA’s leading franchises left to join the NBA. I hated to see the Kentucky Colonels left out of the merger deal,but in Alaska there was no NBA or ABA Basketball to listen to anyhow..

Afterschool TV News

Growing up,one of the best parts of elementary school life was afterschool TV. For a few hours until either Walter Cronkite or Huntley and Brinkley would appear with the news,one could count on afterschool TV capturing my attention from beginning to end. Starting in 1963 when I was in third grade,I'd watch the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite too,but that's another story for another time.

The afterschool TV fun would begin with the Ranger Andy Show. Ranger Andy would bring schoolchildren to his "cabin" to sing songs,play with live animals,and watch cartoons. I was on the Ranger Andy show once and got in trouble with my mom for refusing to do the hokey pokey with the rest of the kids. That too is another story for another time.

Following Ranger Andy came reruns of the Adventures of Superman. I must have seen every episode several times,but I didn't care,I loved Superman ..Faster than a speeding bullet..More powerful than a locomotive...It's a bird,it's a plane. It's Superman!

After Superman,it seemed like reruns of three shows would be rotated. Two were Westerns,Cheyenne and Maverick. As much as I loved Westerns,Cheyenne wasn't one of my favorites. Maverick on the other hand was a favorite. There was a way I identified with the Bret Maverick character played by James Garner. He was one that seemed to use his smarts to escape from situations that in other Westerns would have meant using a gun. Bret Maverick had a brother named Bart. He was more prone to get into trouble. My brother and I would play Maverick.I'd play Bret and Howie would be Bart. The third show was much more modern..Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford. The common thread with all the programs following Ranger Andy was the good guys vs the bad guys,good triumphing over evil.

A commercial that often ran during those programs had a similar theme. It was a commercial for US Savings Bonds. The commercial featured Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Nikita Khrushchev in these commercials was a menacing figure. He looked mean while giving speeches. Sometimes he would be seen banging his shoe against a desk,and in big letters across the screen,a Khrushchev quote would appear.WE WILL BURY YOU. According to this commercial,the way to defeat Khrushchev and Communism was to buy US Savings Bonds.

Now I was too young to buy US Savings Bonds on my own,and I remembered hearing the names Khrushchev and Communism when we were certain the world was going to blow up over missiles in Cuba so after a period of time of watching these commercials,I had to ask my mom "What is Communism?" I knew my mom would know. My mom,when she wasn't  at home was likely at a Board of Education meeting,or at a meeting of the NAACP or Urban League,and if she wasn't at any of those meetings,she probably was organizing for the Democratic Party somewhere.

Mom's answer horrified me. "It's a system of government where the government tells you what you can and cannot do." Mom was telling this to a boy who chafed against parental authority pretty much from the time he was able to and who on a regular basis,challenged and worked at undermining that authority. By the time I was 8,I was already looking forward to the day I wouldn't have to pay such a high penalty for when doing what I wanted to do ran contrary to what my parents wanted. Now my mom was telling me about a government that would try to tell me what to do as an adult?

The Independent Roots run deep...

Marijuana: The First Encounter

I must have been destined to smoke marijuana..after all,I was thought by some to be smoking it years before I actually did.

The year was 1967,and as was considered normal in the Daniels household,Mom,Grandma,my brothers and I gathered in front of the TV to watch CBS Reports. My mom was a firm believer in the Daniels boys keeping up to date on current affairs. This particular episode focused on the cultural events taking place in the Haight-Asbury District of San Francisco and what was known as "The Summer of Love"

The folks flocking to Haight-Asbury seemed to look at life in a different manner than many Americans at the time. They dressed differently. They listened to different music,but most importantly,these "hippies" as they were called, seemed to challenge many accepted notions of American life. My mom, a Civil Rights and Democratic Party activist also was one who challenged certain notions of American life,but what we were seeing on TV was different. My mom attended meetings to change the world. These folks seemed to think that music and love was going to change the world. On the program,it was said that perhaps the reason these people looked at the world differently was because of their rampant use of marijuana.

It was at that moment,I spoke out. "If marijuana helps people become peaceful, I said, "then maybe it's a good thing" The words were barely out of my mouth when I realized I had said the wrong thing in front of my mom.
"If I EVER,find out you smoke marijuana she said "then woe be unto you." When mom said "woe be unto you", it amounted to the most serious offense in her eyes.

In 1968,the Vietnam War was raging and a soft spoken,rather intellectual poet and Senator Eugene McCarthy challenged incumbent President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination for President. McCarthy ran on an anti Vietnam War platform. Many "hippies" got involved in the McCarthy campaign and got "Clean for Gene". Johnson later withdrew from the race,and his Vice President,Hubert H. Humphrey became a candidate carrying the Johnson banner. In 1964,my mom worked for the Johnson-Humphrey ticket. Hubert Humphrey was her political hero. As a seventh grader,I spent my weekends stuffing envelopes and leafletting for the McCarthy campaign. A rumor was going around at the time that with so many hippies behind the McCarthy effort,his campaign headquarters were a hotspot for marijuana smokers. I never witnessed any marijuana smoking at McCarthy headquarters,but my mom,partially out of parental concern,and partially as a Humphrey supporter looking for ways to discredit the McCarthy effort would interrogate me about marijuana use when I would return home. "Woe unto you if I find out you are smoking marijuana at McCarthy headquarters." she'd say.

In eighth grade,at Mark Twain School,I'd go to school wearing a suit jacket and sometimes a tie and I would carry my books in a briefcase. I'd also wear a "Nixon's the One" button. Because I went to a different school in seventh grade,no one knew I had volunteered for McCarthy previously and that my Nixon button was part of my protest. There was one student however who seemed to see through me. Deborah Caskey. She told me,she knew I was a hippie and she would invite me to her house after school where we could smoke weed. I said no,but Deborah,like my mom seemed to sense I was a pot smoker in the making.

Fast forward to 1972 and my senior year in High School. Marijuana smoking had been widespread since my sophomore year. I had not smoked it myself yet,but one of the things I had done was to read information about it both pro and con. One of the pro marijuana pieces I had picked up was a book titled "A Child's Garden of Grass" It was funny,quirky and much more interesting than any other piece of literature I had read on the subject. After reading the book,I knew it was inevitable that I would try marijuana. At this point,seeing as I had been accused and interrogated enough on the subject I felt as if I had nothing to lose if I tried it.

In 1972,the Senior class at Watkinson School went on a camping expedition at Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York.Teachers knew that students would drink on this trip and attempted to place limits on the amount of alcohol brought. Of course high school students were going to exceed any limits and our first night in the outdoors was nothing short of a debacle. I drank everything that came my way..beer,wine,tequila,and it didn't take long before I began to feel sick. Most students were by then to drunk to notice I was in trouble. There was one exception however.

Her name was Roberta Markowicz.She had come to Watkinson for her senior year after the school she attended previously,The Austin School, had folded. Watkinson was a private college prep school,and most of us prep school students had a certain "air" about us. Not Roberta. She was rather down to earth.In talking with her,it was clear she didn't really like prep school life The drinking was taking place in a cabin. When I stumbled outside to get some fresh air,Roberta followed me out and stayed with me till I felt better.

While the days on this trip were full of hiking,canoeing and observing nature,the evenings were full of drinking and high school debauchery.The second night of the trip was turning out much like the first. As students were beginning another night of drinking in front of the campfire,Roberta tapped on my shoulder and asked me to come with her.
I remember her words."I have something that's better for you than alcohol" as she along with another student,Lori Redfield took me to their tent. It was inside Roberta and Lori's tent where I saw my first marijuana joint. I immediately enjoyed the aroma the joint had.

We smoked two joints that evening. I felt nothing from it that night,but I knew and understood life was not going to be the same from here on out.

Skip

Sometimes in life,one comes across a person whose impact on ones life isn't fully realized till long after they've gone from it.


Stanley "Skip" Jarocki was one of those people. I knew him from my four years at Watkinson School.
"Skip" was my high school basketball coach. He had been a star athlete at Haverford College in Pennsylvania where as the story goes,until he coached the Varsity Basketball Team at Watkinson,had never been associated with a losing team in his life.

Let me emphasize:UNTIL he coached the Varsity Basketball Team at Watkinson. Watkinson's Basketball team was a collection of wannabe and never-will-be players,and that's being generous. If not for the fact that Watkinson was a small school of 120 students,there were some on the team that would be hard pressed to make a third grade roster at other schools. My stint on the Varsity team was the result of a failed lesson in teaching a predominantly white student body that all blacks cannot play basketball.
Our team never won more than 4 games in a 15-20 game schedule during my entire 4 years on the Varsity team.
Coaching a losing team was not  an easy task for Skip. His coaching style was hard nosed. I would compare him to noted Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight. He'd harass the refs and was prone to receiving technical fouls. He'd slam his clipboard onto the court. On one memorable occasion,after a 40 point loss,he smashed a can of soda pop against a locker,causing the can to puncture,the end result being soda sprayed all over his suit. Just like Bobby Knight,he did things that in today's world would be unacceptable such as clutching my throat following a series of errors by the team.
One would think given Jarocki's temperament and history that his memory at best would be a negative one. Truth is,the voice of Skip Jarocki sometimes still coaches me today. In playing for Watkinson,there was rarely a game where we didn't face adversity from the moment of the tip off. In many cases,for all practical purposes,the game was over within minutes of the first quarter. At that point,there would be players ready to quit and quitting was precisely what Skip Jarocki would not permit you to do unless you wanted a seat on the bench. It didn't matter if we were losing by 10,20 or 50 points..Lost a game by 73 points once..players played,quitters sat.

Sometimes life has been like the equivalent of losing by large margin with a hostile audience on one's case. Sometimes one "loses" but quitting is not an option and once we beat a previously undefeated team that had never faced adversity.

Skip Jarocki was also my English Teacher at Watkinson School and playing a game in the evening was no excuse for not finishing an assignment the next day in his classroom. He was known to pick on members of the team for answers,figuring that if we cant play basketball we were going to know our assignments. I once thought a snowstorm was going to cancel class and there was no need for me to study for an English exam. The snowstorm never materialized and Skip never hesitated in giving me a 0 for my efforts.
Given the description of Skip Jarocki on the basketball court and in the classroom,one might get the impression of a teacher,especially one teaching in a Connecticut prep school such as Watkinson as one leading a rather traditional and morbitly dull English class. Let me give you a partial list of required reading in Mr.Jarocki's classroom:
                                                       In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
                                                       Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
                                                        Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
                                                        Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
                                                        The Greening of America by Charles Reich

Sometimes subversives come in the form of a Bobby Knight impersonator..



Watkinson School

 
                                                       

A story about Mom and her Oldest Son

Shortly after November 22,1963,I decided I wanted to be President of the United States. Most third and fourth graders at the time thought I was a little nuts,and especially because no black person was ever thought could ever be elected President. The one person who took my dreams seriously was my mother.
Mom never once told me my dream was impossible, though she did caution that by being black,I might have to work two or three times as hard to get to where I wanted to be. Rather than say my dream was impossible,she would advise me as to what career choices I might want to consider,and what courses I might want to take. She once encouraged me to become a lawyer,and that in high school,in order to understand the law,I should take Latin..

I think it excited my mom for me to take an interest in politics. She after all was active in the Urban League,NAACP and attended many a Board of Education meeting. She was also active in the Democratic Party. She was on a first name basis with Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff. I remember once,Senator Thomas Dodd coming off the Senate floor to greet my mom when we visited the Capitol in Washington DC.

One of the things my interest did was to allow me to spend time with my mom in ways that my other brothers didn't because she could take me to the various functions she attended knowing I wouldn't be bored and ask my mom to leave within 5 minutes. Once she  took me to a cocktail party attended by Connecticut Governor Thomas Meskill and soon to be Senator Lowell Weicker.

Of course,my most memorable outing with her was attending the 1964 Democratic Platform Committee meeting where I met Dr.Martin Luther King,nearly literally ran into Robert Kennedy,and had lunch with Connecticut Secretary of State Ella Grasso who later became the nation's first woman Governor.
Being the independent sort even at a young age,I didn't completely fall in line with her politics. In 1964,she organized for the campaign of Lyndon Johnson,and his running mate,her political hero Hubert Humphrey. I informed her that for my school's mock Presidential election,I was going to vote for his opponent Republican Barry Goldwater. Furthermore,since I was the only one in the entire school voting for Goldwater which would require me to make a presentation. Mom knew it was important to make a good presentation,and though it pained her greatly,she went to Goldwater Headquarters and obtained for my presentation a Goldwater poster and a Au H20 bumper sticker.

For my tenth birthday in 1965,my mom arranged for my birthday party to be held at a Downtown Hartford Italian Restaurant known to be a hangout spot for Hartford's politicians. Hartford's Mayor,William Glynn briefly appeared to wish me a Happy Birthday. I knew for a fact that my mom and the Mayor had frequent run ins,so I found it amazing he would show up to my party. It gave one an idea of the influence my mom had in the community. No politician wanted to be on the bad side of her!
Having the birthday party at the restaurant was just the beginning. Mom saved her present to me for the end. It was in an envelope. When I opened the envelope,it contained an airline ticket(my first) to Washington DC as well as an invitation to attend the inauguration of President Lyndon Johnson. Apparently,Mom forgave me for supporting Goldwater.

No politician in Hartford wanted to be on the bad side of Mom,but her oldest son found ways to be as four years later,Mom found me volunteering for President Johnson's and later her hero Hubert Humphrey's opponent,Senator Eugene McCarthy.

That however is a different story..

Geno at the Roundtable

I & I was Hungry and you gave I & I Food.

I & I was Thirsty and you gave I & I  Drink

I & I was a Stranger and you took I & I in

Yes JAH was ALIVE at the Roundtable 'cause Geno was there.

Natural Mystic..The Ripple in Still Water with some Bad Brains too

Yes JAH was Alive at the Roundtable 'cause Geno was there

Living Peace Living Wisdom along with the sometimes  not so quiet voice.

No Empty Glasses here 'cause it's the Roundtable.

Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain Mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see JAH

Yes JAH was alive at the Roundtable 'cause Geno was there..

Musings on December 7th

I heard the stories many times from both my mother and my grandfather. Mom was in her living room doing homework as my Grandfather was in the same living room listening to WTOP Radio in Washington DC. There was a football game on the radio. Washington vs the New York Giants. The living room was where my mom did her homework. It was also the location of the radio. My grandmother wasn't much for football and none of the stories I heard involved her,so I imagine she was in the bedroom or kitchen,away from the action.
                                                   This was December 7,1941 and my Grandfather never got to hear the end of the game..
When the bulletins came across the radio about the Pearl Harbor Attacks,both Mom and Granddaddy seemed to know that War was inevitable.

My Grandfather knew a little bit about war. He was drafted out of his South Carolina home to fight in World War I. He didn't object to being drafted  as initially he thought this was going to give him,a South Carolina farm boy a chance to see a world he normally wouldn't see. There was something else going on with my grandfather. Given this was the era of Jim Crow laws,he thought by giving a good account in the war,that the United States Government would reward black soldiers by repealing such laws and affording black people equal rights and protections under the law.

The US Army was segregated in World War I. The white general in charge of the Black Battalions was Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing. If you wanted to make my make my grandfather mad,one thing you could do is mention his name or ever worse,refer to Pershing as a war hero.
World War I was fought in trenches and featured such things as mustard gas and other poison gases.
Black Battalions were on the front lines facing the worst of the German attacks.
As the story goes,my Grandfather rescued a number of wounded soldiers,risking gunfire and gas to do so. My grandfather got a medal,but Pershing became a war hero as did Sgt York,who received the highest Congressional medal and became a screen star for rescuing far fewer soldiers than my Grandfather.
My grandfather was a gentle man and his mannerisms were still very much rural despite living in Washington. I heard the name Marcus Garvey first from my grandfather,and when,on TV news,the images of Stokely Carmichael or H. Rap Brown would appear,my grandfather would often shout "Black Power",and in doing so would sometimes irritate my mom,a mainstream Civil Rights activist working with the NAACP,Urban League and Democratic Party.

It wasn't long after Pearl Harbor when my Dad was drafted into the Army. My Dad was the son of a Texas sharecropper who by strength of will to become a Doctor, made it to Howard University,the cream of the crop of black colleges.

Dad didn't have any problem with being drafted either. His motivation however was far different than my grandfather's. Dad had no illusions about helping to change the racial climate in America.
For Dad,it was all about staying alive,so that when the war was over,he could finish Med School through the GI Bill. Before going overseas,Dad was stationed at Fitzsimmons Army Base in Denver where I heard stories of him cruising the jazz clubs in Denver's predominetly black Five Points neighborhood. He later was sent to Italy towards the end of World War II I did hear a story about a white wounded soldier refusing to be treated by my Dad,but mostly I heard about black soldiers having fun with the Italian women.
The GI Bill  allowed Dad to finish Med School as well as put the down payment on the Connecticut home I grew up in.

When it was " my turn" to serve,this time in Vietnam, I refused. I began my resistance by,when it was time to consider which colleges to attend,I immediately eliminated any college which had an ROTC Program on Campus. This angered my Dad who considered me "soft" for refusing and thus eliminating the possibility of a GI Bill assisting me. Dick Gregory's quote rang true with me
"What we're doing in Vietnam is using the black man to kill the yellow man so the white man can keep the land he took from the red man".

My stance also eliminated any possibility of assistance in college from my Dad. Undaunted,my resistance to all things military continued in college by working for noted anti war Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska and later in one of my more harrowing experiences, assisting a Draft Dodger escape to Canada,a story briefly covered in my first Spoken Word CD Talkin' Roots (Tlingit Story)

My stance didn't end the family involvement with the military when my daughter announced to me that she was joining the Army. Needless to say,not only did we butt heads over the decision,it seemed as if I was going against the family grain by opposing her service.
Now that she's out,I still like to give her a hard time about it,but as she met her husband in the Army,her comeback is "Well,you got two grandchildren out of the deal"

That much is true..

Top photo: My Grandfather
Bottom photo: Howard University ROTC 1942