"Ford Fairlane and the Rolling Temple of George Harrison" by David Lusk

Wires dangled from under the dash leaving only silence and an emptiness of spirit

It was a time of meaningful conversations. George rode with me every day offering words of encouragement.

David Lusk is a retired consulting arborist/psychologist/writer living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has previously written several articles for the Winston-Salem Journal and the trade publication, Tree Care Industry Magazine. He lives in a beech tree woodland with his wife Amy, their three adopted, rescue-shelter dogs - Jessie Girl, Jack, Abbey and Maple Tree the cat. He often retreats to the Pamlico Sound with the idea of learning to sail but happy to paint or play guitar in view of a marina full of boats and the occasional sighting of a bald eagle he named Churchill.

Author’s Talk

David Lusk

In 1971 I graduated high school and started college at UNC Charlotte. I was only 17. In hindsight, I was academically prepared but nowhere close to being prepared financially or emotionally for life in a city that was far larger and intimidating relative to that of the familiarity of my hometown, Winston-Salem. I was the first in my family to go to college. My parents were encouraging but did not offer much more than the proposal that I could live with my aunt as a way to get started without having to pay for a dorm room or food. My aunt’s offer became more clear when I found her to be a vivacious personality by day but a lonely alcoholic by night. She would talk nightly, a lot, drink and smoke cigarettes till she passed out in her chair. I was careful to make sure her Virginia Slim was not still burning in her hand. After one semester I moved into a low-rent apartment. 

My existence and daily commute to class became less anxious and lonely by listening to my beloved 8-track tapes and the incredibly good and meaningful music being produced in those days. I think I have an identifiable mark in space and time for every Beatles and Jimi Hendrix song I had ever heard in my young life. George Harrison’s first solo album, All Things Must Pass, became a guiding light as I struggled to make sense of this new world that I found myself in. The Vietnam War was raging and the nightly news coverage of the daily death toll of soldiers and the poor people of Vietnam had the country divided. College campuses had become centers of protest. College life was chemically, colorfully, and rebelliously intense in those days. We were certainly not without purpose and a just cause. I felt a kinship with the long-haired minority as well as other minorities struggling with the prejudices and corruption of the Nixon administration.  

Writing this essay about those youthful days made me realize how strongly they have influenced my life and my view of the world, particularly now, with the injustices and threats to American democracy that the current administration now poses. We are old now, but this is not our first rodeo. We will overcome.—David Lusk