East Forsyth High School, Kernersville, NC - Home of the Eagles
Class Of 1973
Sing it James Gang
A June 11, 2020 Facebook post by our very own Wilderness Man, aka
Steve Easter:
The Year 1971. 8 track tape player in my 1963 Tr 4. James Gang Blasting Away. We were going through forced busing. Those who thought they were going to Atkins went to East and those who thought they were going to East went to Atkins. they said we had a RIOT at East, I remember it being more like a food fight. Vietnam War was coming to an end. The Festival at " Woodstock" still fresh in everyone's mind and YES !, of course I was there. Wasn't everybody? Jim Crow Era in theory came to an end in 1965. You want to see systemic racism? The 60s was a good decade for that. Back to my James Gang...they had this one song "White man / Black man with the Sweet inspirations as back up singers.Pretty much a social conscious song at that time. You had Neil young telling southern boy to get right and Lynyrd Skynyrd telling Neil we don't need your advice. They since have made up and said they were misunderstood.Fast forward 2020...What a very strange year. You can palpate the anxiety and frustrations and people being misunderstood. The whole country told to stand down. In 1971 if you wanted to make a call you best have a dime in your pocket. You wanted to get News there was the WS Journal and Sentinel ...yep 2 papers delivered to you on the same day. AND if you want TELE-VISION news you had 3 stations and you best be there at 6 to see and hear it...there was no second chance. So you would think with the age of instant News we would be better educated. At the click of a mouse or tap of a screen WAAAA LAAA ! INFO....this is the part where you laugh. TRUTH is a hard "commodity" to come by these days. When I go hiking , rule of thumb is to leave no trace. Make very little impact on your surroundings, leave it like you found it. Better yet, leave it better than you found it. I look at my 2 grand-kids and i wonder when they are 30 years old and I'm dead and gone what sort of legacy will I leave behind. Did I leave this place in better shape than it was when I came into it? If I may invoke the Good Lords name here" LORD I HOPE SO...." heres the song....