Could Have Easily Draft Dodged Over Into Canada

My official notice to go take pre-induction tests for the Army came during the summer of 1969. I knew that some American men were avoiding the draft by going to Canada. I do not hold it against them for going, considering how our society was all screwed up over the Vietnam War. Since then, some men who got us into the war have said it was not right. I do, though, object to the draft dodgers having been allowed back into our country. I was 19-yrs-old in '69, and Canada was 35 miles from where I was working as a Bear Hunting Guide, in the Patten, Maine area - at my Korean War Vet Uncle's Katahdin Lodge. My Uncle Finley Kenneth Clarke won a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for his actions in combat.

Every Friday, I drove one of the Lodge's trucks to the end of I 95 North, and as I drove onto the last exit in the USA, I could see the border crossing station a short distance away. My task was to pick up bear bait - 55 gallon drums full of slaughterhouse leftovers - at a meat processing plant there on the edge of Houlton, Me.. I could have parked the truck there and walked to Canada in 5 minutes. Anytime I drove out of the Lodge's driveway by myself, I could have been to the border in an easy 40 minutes. 

I chose not to do that, because I could not leave my family & friends, deeply wounding some and angering most, and to leave my country. I thought of all those guys in my age group who were in and going to be in the US Military - many drafted against their will. The thousands of other guys at the Baltimore Civic Center Rolling Stones Shows and other Rock concerts I attended, how much great fun we had, the other teens on the boardwalk of Ocean City, all the guys and girls from all the high schools I'd shared laughs and great times with. I could not turn my back on all those whom I cared so deeply for by going to Canada. I stand by that - thoroughly thought out in 1969 - decision today.

I would have had an easy time getting work in Canada, back then. I was good & honest at - and enjoyed the challenges and accomplishments of - working well with shovels, rakes, brooms, lawnmowers, weed trimmers, firearm safety & uses, people of many types, showing out of towners good times where I lived & worked, I was good at handling a farm tractor - learning to handle it first when I moved snow off the Lodge's driveway for over 36-hrs out in a blizzard (only a few 15-min breaks), I was way above average at driving trucks and cars on every kind of paved or unpaved road - especially in rough weather, all done with a solid dose of humor, rarely over the edge of safe living. And I was wanting to learn more and experience more in life.   

 I split a lot of wood and loved it. 

My Uncle Finley is looking at the camera, I am facing away from it. The other 2 men are from the Lodge's paying guests (bear hunters) who are enjoying being out of their city and volunteering to help clean up after I split and stacked 19 cord of wood during the previous 2 weeks. 
In the background, that is my favorite vehicle to drive of all times. A '68 Chevy truck with a straight six, 290 cu in motor, 4 speed shifter on the floor with a granny gear (1st gear is very slow and high torque for heavy loads), and all around all season snow/mud tires on heavy duty rims. 

Gary Glidden (top notch Maine Guide), Finley and I did the bear tracking, then skinned what we retrieved from the North Maine Woods. That Bear Season of 1969, our Katahdin Lodge hunters killed over 50% of the bears taken in Maine. I was the youngest and by far the least experienced of the Lodge's 3 guides, but I was key to the highly successful season - including how much fun everyone had at the Lodge. The backwoods/out in the country farmland humor endemic amongst the Mainers was flyin', flipin', wonderful. 

My Aunt Marty had local Maine women working with her in the Lodge's kitchen and on housekeeping. It was all good by them. Marty is on the left, can't recall the next gal's name, then there is Gary's wife Cathy - making funny faces - they did not believe my camera was taking photos because I wasn't using a flash - that is Chuck the local Air Base stationed Airman friend of Fin & Marty's, and I think that other woman was Chuck's fiancee. We all had great times at that table with many other peoples - eating, drinking, talking, laughing, playing Cribbage and other card games but no gambling, Yatzee was popular, etc.. 

 I was a suburban raised boy who got right into snowshoeing out in the woods.

Five of us caught those trout. I did not get to fish much in Maine and wanted to do it a lot more and eat the fish, too. At the Lodge, we ate those fish, and all winter we ate a lot of venison, but not when paying guests were there because it was against the law to use wild game meat for commercial cooking.

I was good at snowmobile riding, too.

 At a Patten, Me. birthday party. That's me second from the left, and right in with them country women I love so much.

My family from Maryland visiting us at the Lodge. Left to rt - my mother, me, dad, sister Jeanmarie, Uncle Finley's wife Aunt Martha.

That is me on the left, next to my work partner Gary Glidden (top notch Maine Guide), with bears our paying hunters had harvested. There are a lot of hunting lodges in Canada, but I would not have tried for employment at any. The type of Americans who went hunting there were the kind of people who were against war protesters and draft dodgers, and completely supportive of - and sometimes veterans of - American Military Personnel. 

Besides, I have always wanted to guide groups of people who include ladies my age - on outdoors adventures based upon camping, canoeing, swimming, wading - (as a teen, I had completed 5 levels of Red Cross Swimming and Safety Courses), hiking, photography (I was trained in and worked as a photographer in the Army), snowmobiling, dirt biking, 4-wheel driving, etc., out in the wonderful woodlands where the air is clean and clear night skies are infinitely deep with bright stars & glowing planets.