Proud Highway:Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (114 page)

BOOK: Proud Highway:Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman
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Bent forward, far back on the seat, and a rigid grip on the handlebars as the bike starts jumping and wavering in the wind. Taillights far up ahead coming closer, faster, and suddenly–zaapppp–going past and leaning down for a curve near the zoo, where the road swings out to sea.

The dunes are flatter here, and on windy days sand blows across the highway, piling up in thick drifts as deadly as any oil slick … instant loss of control, a crashing, cartwheeling slide and maybe one of those two-inch notices in the paper the next day: “An unidentified motorcyclist was killed last night when he failed to negotiate a turn on Highway 1.”

Indeed … but no sand this time, so the lever goes up into fourth, and now there's no sound except wind. Screw it all the way over, reach through the handlebars to raise the headlight beam, the needle leans down on a hundred, and wind-burned eyeballs strain to see down the centerline, trying to provide a margin for the reflexes.

But with the throttle screwed on there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It
has to be done right … and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get back to your ears. The only sounds are wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it,… howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica … letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge … The Edge.… There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others–the living–are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.

But the edge is still Out There. Or maybe it's In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definition.

THE
PROUD HIGHWAY
HONOR ROLL

David Amram

Joan Baez

Bob Braudis

Douglas Brinkley

William Burroughs

Johnny Depp

Donna Dowling

Wayne Ewing

Stacey Hadash

Hal Haddon

Laura Heymann

Abe Hutt

Don Johnson

William Kennedy

Lee Levert

Annie McClanahan

P. J. O'Rourke

Julie Oppenheimer

Beth Pearson

Curtis Robinson

David Rosenthal

Shelby Sadler

Madeline Sloan

Juan Thompson

Virginia Thompson

George Tobia, Jr.

Oliver Treibeck

Gerald “Ching” Tyrell

Townes Van Zandt

Jennifer Webb

Jane Wenner

Jann Wenner

Lawson Wills

Jennifer Winkel

Molly Wright

Warren Zevon

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF LETTERS
1955
“Open Letter to the Youth of Our Nation”
“Security”
“Night-watch”
1956
September 22
To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell
September 29
To Virginia Thompson
October 18
To Elizabeth Ray
October 24
To Jack Thompson
October 25
To Ralph Peterson
November 3
To Henry Stites
November 10
To Sergeant Ted Stephens
November 11
To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell
November 18
To Judy Stellings
December 1
To Porter Bibb III
December 12
To Rutledge Lilly
1957
February 3
To Judy Stellings
February 5
To Virginia Thompson
February 6
To Porter Bibb III
March 3
To Judy Stellings
March 10
To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell
March 17
To the Athenaeum Literary Association
April 11
To Virginia Thompson
May 3
To the Chamber Music Society
May 11
To Kay Menyers
June 6
To Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Robert Rutan
June 26
To L. J. Dale, National Association of Schools and Publishers, Inc.
June 29
To Susan Haselden
July 13
To Susan Haselden
August 5
To Susan Haselden
August 23
From Colonel W. S. Evans, Chief, Office of Information Services, U.S. Air Force
August 25
To Susan Haselden
August 28
To Virginia Thompson
October 17
To Kraig Juenger
October 24
To Joe Bell
October 30
To Larry Callen
November 4
To Kraig Juenger
November 8
From Hunter S. Thompson, News Release (regarding his honorable discharge)
November 29
To Lieutenant Colonel Frank Campbell
November 29
To Virginia Thompson
December 12
To Larry Callen
December 14
To George Logan
December 14
To Mrs. Spencer, Automobile Association of America
December 15
To Joe Bell
December 23
To Kraig Juenger
December 27
To Susan Haselden
December 28
To Virginia Thompson
1958
January 2
To Fred Fulkerson
January 6
To Lieutenant Colonel Frank Campbell
January 9
To Henry Eichelburger
January 15
To Carol Overdorf
January 17
To Sally Williams
January 23
To Virginia Thompson
January 28
To Captain K. Feltham
January 29
To Arch Gerhart
February 17
To Susan Haselden
March 17
To Kay Menyers
March 18
To Susan Haselden
March 18
To Kraig Juenger
March 31
To
down beat
magazine
April 2
To Sally Williams (including “Debt Letter”)
April 13
To Susan Haselden
April 22
To Hume Logan
April 29
To
The New York Times
May 1
To Susan Haselden
May 19
To
The Village Voice
June 4
To Ann Frick
June 6
To Larry Callen
July 4
To Larry Callen
July 4
To Kraig Juenger
July 14
To Larry Callen
August 29
To Ann Frick
September 5
To Ann Frick
September 26
To Paul Semonin
October 1
To Jack Scott,
Vancouver Sun
November 12
To Susan Haselden
November 22
To Kraig Juenger
December 7
To
Editor & Publisher
December 19
To Ann Frick
1959
January 7
To Ann Frick
January 23
To Ann Frick
January 31
To Virginia Thompson
February 21
To Ann Frick
March 1
To
The New York Times
March 3
To Ann Frick [not mailed]
March 25
To Ann Frick
March 27
To Judy Booth
March 30
To William Faulkner
June 3
To Roger Richards
June 7
To Larry Callen
June 8
To Ann Frick
June 12
To Ed Fancher,
The Village Voice
(including press release)
June 17
To Robert D. Ballou, Viking Press
June 20
To Rust Hills,
Esquire
June 25
To Rust Hills,
Esquire
June 26
To Ann Frick
August 9
To William J. Dorvillier,
San Juan Star
August 9
To Virginia Thompson
August 10
To the New York Department of Labor
August 25
From William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
August 30
To William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
September 4
To William Styron
September 5
To Jack Benson, Viking Press
September 8
From William J. Kennedy
September 10
To William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
September 12
To Elizabeth McKee
October 1
To William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
October 20
To Whom It May Concern
October 22
From William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
October 29
To William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
November 6
To the Municipal Court Magistrate
November 8
To Elizabeth McKee
November 25
To
Puerto Rico Bowling News
December 14
To Philip Kramer,
Puerto Rico Bowling News
December 14
To Robert Bone
December 28
To Mark Ethridge, Louisville
Courier-Journal
1960
January 14
To Home (Virginia Thompson)
January 15
To Distribution Manager, Brown-Williamson Tobacco Company
January 26
To Sandy Conklin
March 22
To Angus Cameron, Alfred A. Knopf
March 22
To Ann Schoelkopf
April 7
To Sandy Conklin
April 13
To Davison Thompson
April 17
To Sandy Conklin
May 25
To Laurie Hosford
July 2
To Home (Virginia Thompson)
July 16
To William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
July 24
To Editor, Grove Press
August 9
To Virginia Thompson
August 10
To William J. Kennedy,
San Juan Star
August 17
To Eleanor McGarr
August 26
To Eugene W. McGarr
August 28
To Eleanor McGarr
September 11
To
The New York Times
October 1
To Sandy Conklin
October 3
To Sandy Conklin
October 19
To Eugene W. McGarr
October 22
To Editor,
Time
October 25
To Mr. Dooley,
San Francisco Examiner
October 25
To Abe Mellinkoff,
San Francisco Chronicle
“Down and Out in San Francisco”
October 28
To Sandy Conklin
November 15
To Laurie Hosford
December 8
To J. P. Donleavy
December 15
To Abe Mellinkoff,
San Francisco Chronicle
December 23
To Ann Schoelkopf

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