I don't remember where I
was when I first heard Don Maclean's American Pie. The song was
released in April 1971 and at that time I was just beginning at
internship at the Idaho State School and Hospital in Nampa, Idaho. I
probably heard on the radio because I was still driving back and
forth from Boise to the state hospital daily during the first part of
my internship. I love the song the first time I heard it. The song
had so many twists and turns and subtleties that totally intrigued
me. The song was long compared to other pieces of music on the radio
at the time. The piece is full of acoustic art that painted all kinds
of images on my brain as I navigated the interstate to the state
hospital.
My residency – if I dare
call my time at the state school and hospital residency – – put
me in the clinical hospital in the department of behavioral
modification. I spent my days working with residents on the
“crib-one”. Supposedly the worst of the worst developmental
disabilities in Idaho. These were residents who were so involved with
her disability they would never have a normal life not even close.
Kids with hydrocephalus, I mean major hydrocephalus heads that were
twice as large as they were. There was a little guy called Tony that
was covered in hair, a very fine black hair. He was obviously
Hispanic but he was nonverbal about the size of a four-year-old any
kind of acted like a four-year-old. He was like 27, supposedly and he
would never get any larger are any more functional. Tony was a
forever kid, everyone loved him. One of my main jobs was to work with
a couple of the folks were severely disabled on teaching them to
respond to their names and spoken. I spent our after hours shoveling
applesauce into their mouths after verbalizing their name and they
would turn her head in the direction of my voice. Much of the staff
of the hospital at the time were conscientious objectors to the war
in Vietnam which was kind of cool. Needless to say there is rock
music piped into the Crib Ward at least 20 hours a day. That summer
it seemed Americans Pie was everywhere.
During my residency I got
a small stipend I think it was $100 a month which didn't go very far
driving on 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air back-and-forth from Boise to Nampa
and back. I got another medical director of the state hospital and he
liked me and offered me a place at his small farm just off the state
hospital grounds. The name of McIntyre affectionately known to all as
just Mac. We spent hours after work listening to American Pie trying
to discern all the imagery MacLean was putting forth. We passed a
wonderful summer just hanging out in the trailer behind his house
called the Plantation for obvious reasons it look like a set from
Gone With The Wind. Mac was a
Savior for me and I think I was for him that summer and fall 1971.
Every time I hear the song instantly transported back to that
unfinished trailer in Nampa Idaho thinking I can accomplish anything.
“Bye-bye Miss American Pie.
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