"The 'riots' were cool. The
Gov set up these long wooden 'horses' at the streets
in and out of town and sealed entrance and exits off,
with maybe some national guard guys watching. It's
hard to remember. But I think if you took the one
side roadway to the left on exit you could get in
and out. I was driving a green 2 door Plymouth 1949
salesman's coupe, so maybe it was not spotted. I gave
some people rides on the hood of the car up and down
that main drag. I picked up some people at Little
Oney's hamburger stand. It must have been about '63
or '64 July or August. It may have happened several
times. We came down from Tacoma, UPS. I wasn't all
over or trying to get into trouble, but recall it
as being more general cain raising with maybe underage
people mixed in, college Freshmen and Sophomores.
I think the residents probably didn't like the town
being tied up like they couldn't get in and out and
people driving and walking on lawns. I think it might
have grown to that, getting worse and worse for several
consecutive weekends. I don't think there was any
theft or window breaking of home or car windows of
locals. Maybe the town bull was afraid he couldn't
handle it. It was more just hundreds of students milling
about, sleeping on the beaches in sleeping bags and
burning fires on the beach at night.
But
I could see how the adults would pretty much be out
of their trees about it. When the party got really
going probably revelers inside the town called people
outside. We may have called people in Tacoma and said
get on down here quick it's a really wild party. Probably
others were doing it. I don't know if it was on the
radio about the governor calling some sort of a state
of siege and the state trooper cars at the wooden
horse barriers. There were no shots fired or anything.
No firearms on anyone in town, more or less just major
pandemonium and hell raising. That main street that
goes up and down, promenade type thing, was jam packed
with cars and people going back and forth, but pretty
much in the correct lanes. I don't recall any authorities
trying to enter in force; I think they just tried
to contain the melee. I think they didn't want to
provoke anything. I remember people yelling something
like, 'They called the State Patrol' or 'they called
the National Guard.' I think locals pretty much confined
themselves and their daughters to barracks. It was
probably a horrendous thing for seniors. But there
was no mean spiritedness that I recall.
The
only thing that could have capped it off is if the
Wailers had started playing at night down by the turnaround
at the end of the promenade. The Oregon people might
have wanted the Kingsmen to show up but the Washingtonians
would have booted them out and demanded the Wailers!
Somebody,
maybe the Wailers, did a song called, 'Doing the Seaside'
which probably came from the riots. (Yes-
track down the WAILERS AND COMPANY LP- currently out
of print)
All the stuff I read now about the Wailers goes on
and on about early 60's. That's crap. It was '57,
'58 and '59. Really creative. Tacoma had a lot of
Battle of the Bands at the Tacoma Armory. Seattle
groups would come down. Those Battle of the Bands
were usually 'All School' dances. There would be some
representative of the Tacoma constabulary around and
maybe an adult couple from each of the schools. There
was stuff in Seattle, too. Seattle really was 'The
Big City', but their bands were not the Wailers. That
was Tacoma, 'The city of Destiny's pride.' I don't
recall any fisticuffs at those affairs.
You would have to ask Kent, but I think the Wailer's
debut was at Bellarmine Preparatory School, then Bellarmine
High School, a Jesuit institution Kent and I attended.
Kent was a real mild and gentle guy. They had this
band and for our dances in the cafeteria ('Bell Hall'),
which were usually student DJ'd 45 rpm music affairs,
somebody approached the faculty member in charge,
maybe Father Free, to have this group (The Wailers)
play. I think they did it 'cause Kent was a student
there, don't know if they tried anywhere else. In
those days, you didn't have people from other high
schools having anything to do with your schools affairs.
Maybe they were afraid of someone getting out of hand
after a football or basketball loss or something like
that. I think because they allowed the band that had
guys from other schools (Lincoln - the rough side
of town and/or Stadium), they may have allowed a few
guys from the other (public) high schools in. By popular
acclaim I think we (student body) tried to get the
Wailers back. And they played several times after
that. I think the school administration then started
banning outsiders from coming in as, as soon as the
word about our fabulous band got out, we started getting
swamped by outsiders. I think we had to show our student
ID's at the door and mostly we would have been recognized
(it was a small parochial school of about 300-400)
and we might have had to buy tickets. You normally
couldn't go to any other schools dances without getting
permission first. Also, people would notice you and
wonder what the hell you were doing at their dance.
From there the Wailers took off. We also had the Fleetwoods
('Mr. Blue') in Olympia, but that was a different
deal. After the dances people generally took off to
the major drive ins like Busch's, The Dug Out and
The Frisco Freeze (still going strong) and maybe some
of the band guys and friends hanging out at Boots
(or Flying Boots, something like that), a late night
cafe in the south end.
Later on, in early 60's, Dick Cope who was manager
of the Wailers, went a few semesters to University
of Puget Sound (UPS) in Tacoma and drove, I think,
a yellow Ford convertible. Rockin' Robin Roberts want
to Stadium High School and then to UPS where he was
a Sigma Nu, which got all the supposedly cool guys
out of Stadium plus the kind of student body politician
types.
The
guys bought the coolest threads (roll collars and
such) and those loose one button sough hewn sports
coats at Bernie's Men's Wear on Broadway in downtown
Tacoma. The cool salesman was Carl, distinguished
bald with white hair and a mustache and, I think their
son, Jeff, sold there some of the time. He later and
is still prominent, I think, with Costco. His mom,
Pearl, was one of the coolest ladies and was our expert
picker outer of the coolest duds. In 8th grade going
on the HS, we were still wearing pegged (mostly black)
pants, with narrow suede belts (mostly white) with
suede shoes (white or blue) or brown leather 'wedgies'
and roll top (often pink) shirts and DA haircuts.
(We called them Duck Tails in polite society. [Parents.])
We could wear long raincoats (Western Washington-
rainland, remember), usually black. Sometimes the
pants were pleated. And 'White Stag' (by Jantzen of
Portland, Oregon) zip up jackets. Copies by national
firms such as Lee didn't come close. Maybe Seattle
had some good stores, but I think some people did
come from Seattle to buy at Bernie's.
By the way, the Louie, Louie book said Rockin' Robin
went to 'Coliseum' High in Tacoma. Never heard of
it. Must've meant Stadium.
People
keep talking about Louie, Louie and forgetting the
Wailers. I think they were playing that around Tacoma
before anyone else, but maybe I'm wrong.
The
big station was KJR in Seattle. 'Rock Around the Clock'
was a big hit in Seattle/Tacoma. Then died down. Later
it became big all over from the film 'The Blackboard
Jungle'.
Cherry
Cokes were good, especially with burgers from The
Dug Out which had shredded lettuce. They were nothing
like the commercial Cherry Cokes now, and had real
sugar, not the fake corn crap, and tasted better.
(They did too change the Coke formula.) The topping
on the Frisko Freeze burgers (Stadium High's place)
was distinctive, mostly chopped white onions and mayonnaise.
Burgers were grilled on a flat grill, as were the
buns. There was no McDonalds crap. If you wanted a
cheapie you could go to Smithy's and get 5 for a dollar.
Busch's were king with their jumbo bacon cheeseburger.
That was the Drive In people drove round and round
and the cops showed up to make sure you parked and
ate or they could ticket you. Busch's and Dug Out
had carhops on roller skates. The good fountains gave
extra shots of Coke syrup, none of that watery McDonalds
dishwater.
If
you had anything to do with or had been in California
you had a leg up on cool. But the Pacific Northwest/Puget
Sound summers were coolest as you went to the Beach
at Point Defiance with 80-85 degrees, blue water,
green forests and mountains. Heck, that's why the
Wailers did not go on that big tour and missed the
boat back in the Northeast. They didn't want to miss
that Pacific Northwest summer.
I
think Kent played in my folk's basement the night
of our high school graduation. The US Presidential
Ball wouldn't even come close. And I have no idea
what Ashcroft would have made of the Seaside Riots.
Maybe B-52 it. Then nobody would have gotten in or
out for sure.
Be
sure to peel out as a symbol of freedom when you leave.
Unless you've got mommy's car with a slush box. The
Wailers start playing at 8 pm sharp at Bell Hall.
You wouldn't want to miss it for the world."
"I
enjoyed your web site and think you did a good job
on it. I was a classmate of Robin at the University
of Puget Sound. His legal name was Lawrence Fewell
Roberts II. He was born on November 23, 1940 in New
York City, New York. He graduated from UPS in 1964.
We were both geology majors and spent time together
on field trips and in the classroom. He attended Oregon
State University working on a Biochemistry degree
from fall of 1965 through the summer of 1967. You
can contact the Register at OSU to verify this. He
did not receive his degree. He then went to San Francisco
and worked for Crown Cork and Seal Company. He was
in the Marine Reserves from 1962 to 1967. He died
on Dec. 22, 1967 at 1:50 AM in San Mateo County. He
was the passenger in a car going the wrong way on
the divided freeway. He was DOA at San Mateo County
General Hospital. Most of this information is listed
on his death certificate. My picture is in the UPS
yearbook for 1964 with Robin's picture. I also was
in the same class as John Greek of the Wailers and
we both graduated in 1959."