heres a story you may like. back in the late sixties an uncle of mine became known as captain speed because of jis abilty to play lead guitar insanely fast. in 1969, he was drafted and in vietnam he broke his pointer finger under a crate and when he returned home he no longer could play as fast as he did before he broke his finger.....scince then he established him self as a local blues legend and he is responsible for any blues you will here in my area. he tought countless people how to play music and over all was an amazing person, but the people will allways remember and long for the days of captain speed. sadly his death in 1994 left a hole in the local blues sceen that will never be patched up. wehn i picked up th guitar about 4 years ago, his former band mates and local musicians told me when the time came for me to form a band, the name was captain speed or else......so i have tooken on the priviledge of carrying on the legacy of captain speed. but had it not been for vietnam, my uncle wouldve been able to continue with his fast leads. but it happened because it was part of a plan, and i cant argue with fate.....
The first demonstration that I had ever participated in was a NO NUKES rally against the Long Island Lighting Company. After that I had done a few marches on Washington (DC) for gay rights. I never participated in any rallies opposing the wars.
I was at a protest at griffift Park sometime in earily 64, I cant remember the date.. I'm an Old Hippie hard to remember somethings like time(s) and date(s). I do remember WHY I went. I am guessing I was around 14, and a lot of my guy friends where being drafted to Nam. (I was the youngest of three girls and I ran with the "older" crowd) One dude I knew went to Nam and came back with out some of his parts( right leg right arm) and was spat upon by middle amerkia. After he gave up body parts for them.. his thanks was a kick in the ass. He didn't want to go to war he was a peace freak, but he went with his mother and father(s) blessing.( I wonder if the would give their blessing again). Me the shotup dude and several other went to this peace rally in the park, we were protesting the war peacefully with our signs n t-shirts. We chanted .. Make Love Not War.. we dropped acid n was smokin' the good stuff, enjoyin' our little demonstration thinkin' we were doing something of importance. People were dancing merrily singing songs of protest with flowers in their hair. I was drinking some wine and as I was handing the bottle to the one sitting next to me, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a black shinny wave comming towards us up the side of the hill. As the black shinny objects got bigger I saw what will be engraved in my mind forever in terror. I felt like I was going to throw up when I relized what I was seeing. The black shinny things I saw were the black shinny helmets of the LA tac squade the helemts had dark faceguards on them and gave an ombeiance of doom alien if you will. In their gloved hands were long clubs, leaded pipes with rubber on them. Straped to their sides were guns and they had on thick vests and padded leggings. Mind you we were ALL trippin' hard. The feeling that wahed over me was so intense I almost threw up. A black cloud covered the park as the approching figures began their attack. We were defenceless against them. They surrounded us on that hill in griffith park and shot teargas at us, while we were gasping for air they pounced on us with their clubs, kicking us and beating us. The dude shotup dude in a wheelchair had on his marine uniform and they mased him n drug him out of his chair and spit on him. I wanted to run, but I couldn't leave the dude to face it all alone and stayed to get my butt kicked as I threw my body over him screaming for the WHITE LIGHT of the HOLY SPIRIT to save us. As I Prayed for mercy from the GODDESS the sky opened up and and all Heaven broke loose. The loud claps of thunder a sharp points of lightening shooting through the sky freaked the pigs as they looked at me laying on the shotup dude bloodied n torn. I was a child of 14 and I think they relized that I could be their daughter or sister or at least a couple of them did cuz they stoped battering me and went to join the other "troops". I lay there a second then rolled off the shotup dude onto the wetness of the cool grass, I was beyond pain. The rain was splashing against my skin leaving little rivers of blood flowing down my face and arms, the shotup dude was moaning and coughing. I took my bandana out of my pocket and tried to clean him up and check for broken bones, as he came to I saw in his eyes the question mark of an injured child, the lost hope of ever finding peace. I told him that that he hadden't lost, that he was found and that there was a higher power watching us and a small miracal had just happened to us..we were both alive The pigs arrested 50 or so people for durgs and drinking and was busy packing the paddy wagon with protesters. Me and a couple of others helped the shotup dude get back in his chair and helped load him in the van. Our cuts and bruises healed but the memory remains forever. After a couple of of other eppisodes with the pigs at love-ins, rallies and verious other gatherings, I learned to run like hell... Peace >shameless
