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About 'Carbondale After Dark And
Other
Stories'
"The
following is
not a fable -- it all really happened and it has no morals."
So begins H.B. Koplowitz's "Layman's History of 'The Strip'," a
self-described "chronology of events that have contributed to
Carbondale's reputation as a party town, drug den and radical outpost."
"The Strip" takes up less than half of "Carbondale After Dark," a
self-published
anthology of history, essays and short stories about a small college
town in the Midwest called Carbondale, Illinois. But it is what has
made the book memorable.
The history begins with Carbondale's founding
in 1852, and Southern Illinois University's in 1869, up to 1982,
when CAD was published.
But it focuses on the decades of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, when
Carbondale was invaded by hippies and freaks, and protest rallies and
massive street parties became the norm.
It provides a blow-by-blow account of the political and cultural
upheavals that led to the May 1970 riots in Carbondale, and their
evolution
into a Halloween street party. It also chronicles streakers, bands,
bars,
hangouts, protest movements and street people, and efforts by city and
school officials to control the madness. In other words, all the things
that get left out of official histories and Chamber of Commerce
brochures.
Ironically, Koplowitz wrote "The Strip" only when he realized that the
book he started out to produce -- an anthology of his writings going
back to high school -- would
never sell. By focusing on the strip in Carbondale he had limited his
audience, but found one.
The
manuscript was
composed on a used typewriter in Buckminster Fuller's former dome home
in Carbondale. Deb Browne did the design, layout, typesetting and much
more. Koplowitz
also realized that people like pictures, and filled CAD with historical
and contemporary photos and illustrations by the likes of P.S. Mueller,
Dan Wood and Marvin Hill, who drew the cover art. The graphics are the
other thing that makes CAD memorable.
The rest of CAD is what the original book started out to be -- a
collection of Koplowitz's writings from what he calls his "Blue
Period." Included are such titles as
"Kidnapped by Jesus Freaks" and "Kid Clyde: An Existentualist's Horror
Story"; rants on such subjects as women's lib and "niggercommiekikes";
new journalism treatments of the 1976 Republican National Convention
and a visit to Jimmy Carter's White House; and a poem, "The Horny
Blues." Let's just say Koplowitz's instinct was probably correct -- it
never would have sold. But tacked on to "The Strip," the stories
continue to explore the terrain of teenage angst, and the illustrations
are fun.
As Koplowitz says in the introduction to CAD, "the artistic endeavor is
essentially an act of self-gratification." And no one was more
surprised -- or gratified -- than the author, to discover that nearly a
quarter century later, used copies were selling for 10
times the original asking price.
Why would anyone besides the author care about "Carbondale After Dark"?
Most people don't. But for those who grew up during a certain time in a
certain place, and a lot of those who came after, CAD is perhaps the
only written account that documents "the times of their lives."
Like a yearbook for dropouts.
|
Blackspanic
College
funny, provocative, uplifting
Lost
in
Cyberspace
a
collection of H.B.'s writings
About
H.B. Koplowitz
Who is this guy
anyway?
Lost History of
Carbondale
watch
CAD video on YouTube
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