It was the Summer of 1969 and I was one day out of the army with the intention of cramming the three years I missed of the great culture changes into one Summer, I succeeded in that with the greatest Summer of my life.
Beginning on my first day as a civilian it was time to try that LSD thing everyone was talking about. So Howie and I found some Orange Sunshine and that evening went to Milwaukee’s only psychedelic rock bar, O’Brad’s, to see a California band called THE SHAG.
O’Brad’s was a low ceiling venue in the basement of an old building in a working class neighborhood. The LSD kicked in just as we were working ourselves down the dark stairway into what appeared to be dungeon full of so much LOUD I thought a Cobra Helicopter was taking off from inside.
Rounding a corner we saw The Shag playing. Three long haired hippies on a stage set with equipment covered in evil looking paper mache monsters and twinkle lights. In the middle of the empty dance floor was what looked like a big puddle of milk.
The puddle of milk soon began to grow with the realization it was a gigantic weather balloon. As the music build up faster and faster the balloon grew larger and larger, as it hit the low ceiling and began to spread out it suddenly came to me that this was all about the ending. So I had Howie hold my beer, walked up to the thing and with arms and legs spread laid into it and waited for it.
At the point it seemed it could grow no larger Howie tapped me on the shoulder to hand me a beer. I turned to yell at him, “FOR CHRIST SAKE HOWIE NOT NOW!” I turned around and it was gone and we were lost in a heavy cloud of talcum powder. The music was so loud there was no sound of an explosion. We not only became the Ghosts of O’Brad’s for the rest of the evening, but The Shag took their breaks with us and bought all the shots wanting to know if we had any Orange Sunshine left.
A great beginning to a great Summer.