Historic Places in South Jersey

Historic Places in South Jersey - Places to Go and Things to Do

A discussion of things to do and places to go, with the purpose
of sharing, and encouraging exploration of South Jersey.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Vietnam Documentary Review and Personal Experience

Back in 1969, I was married to my high school sweetheart who had been drafted and to our great relief, sent to Germany.  I went with him.  My brother, on the other hand, had joined the marines and was stationed on the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.  My brother was only 19 at the time and I had night terrors and was also gripped by day terrors that he was injured somewhere in a rice paddy or captured and held in some bamboo cage.  It would just seize me out of nowhere, this terrible anxiety.

My brother survived and came home, and I came home too, and we both went on to have a child each, failed marriages, but happy and productive lives.  My brother lives in West Virginia now and we are both fairly old.  He is one year younger than I am.

Yesterday, while taking my ukulele lesson at Collingswood Music, I mentioned the documentary by Ken Burns that has been playing for the past couple of weeks on channel 12.  He saw parts of it.  I told him that one song I heard, continually over the years had brought back a single very short and entirely inconsequential memory, like a little color movie.

My ex-husband was a lieutenant and officers had the option to live off the army post (Wharton Barracks) in civilian apartments, which we did.  Periodically, I would walk the 3 miles to the post from our town, Heilbronn, to go shopping or take my German language lessons.  Once when I was walking through the army post gates, a young soldier in the barracks caught sight of me out his window and called to his buddies to come and see the "Fraulein" which they assumed me to be.  They all came running to the windows and were shouting out to me "Hey gutted tag fraulein" and so on.  Behind them, in the barracks, the song Season of the Witch was playing really loud.  

Needless to say, being young myself, and relatively shy, I was embarrassed to be a spectacle, but tried to hurry on my way in as dignified a manner as I could.  

Nonetheless, all these decades later, that one little moment, like a butterfly caught in amber, is encapsulated in my memory, wrapped in that song.  Here are the lyrics: 





"Season Of The Witch"

When I look out my window
Many sights to see
And when I look in my window
So many different people to be
That it's strange
So strange

You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch
Mmmm, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch, yeah
Must be the season of the witch

When I look over my shoulder
What do you think I see?
Some other cat lookin' over 
His shoulder at me
And he's strange
Sure is strange

You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch, yeah
Beatniks are out to make it rich
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch, yeah
Must be the season of the witch

You got to pick up every stitch
Two rabbits runnin' in the ditch
Beatniks out to make it rich
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch
When I go

When I look out my window
What do you think I see?
And when I look in my window
So many different people to be
It's strange
Sure is strange

You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch
Two rabbits runnin' in the ditch
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch, yeah
Must be the season of the witch
When I go
When I go

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