Remember the San Marcos Ten? They coulda been big, at least three bigger than the Chicago Seven, but it was not to be. If only that one rally had turned out differently.

Ten years later, I dealt with one of the ten on a regular basis, Herman Himmelfart, (the name has been changed because I always wanted to use the name Herman Himmelfart in a blog entry), reported that his twenty-year-old truck had been stolen. Herman lived out in the sticks and rarely came to town. When he did he would report his truck stolen because he couldn’t remember where he had parked it.

There was nothing wrong with his long term memory. At some point, the message would get through his addled mind that he was dealing with the “Pig Oppressors.” It was almost more than he could stand, but it was a ten-mile walk out to the boonies and he really needed the truck. To make amends, Herman would launch into a tirade describing what might have been. “He coulda been a contender,” (overalls, no wife beater t-shirt). He blamed a Texas Department of Public Safety Narc for crushing his American dream.

I got the same version of the story three times. He would report his truck stolen. I would take the report while looking at his truck. He would complete his tale of woe and I would complete the report at about the same time. I would then announce that I had recovered his truck and point it out to him. Each time he was amazed that the police could be so efficient and grateful that he didn’t have to make the long slog back to the cedar breaks on foot.

Somebody screwed up in the fall of 1969 and allowed the anti-war movement to interfere with the beer drinking and debauchery that Southwest Texas State University was known for, far and wide. The crowning achievement was going to be a rally held in the City Park. There would be speakers and a stage with a podium and a PA system. The campus and surrounding downtown and student ghetto were festooned with flyers, all that remained was for the clock to tick down to the magic hour.

Then he showed up. A DPS Narc, whose name escapes me, arrived at the rally. Course, nobody knew that he was a DPS Narc. To the radical crowd, he was just a good time Charlie that hung around the student haunts. This time he brought presents, in the form of a shopping bag full of Quaaludes.

Quaaludes, Roarer 714, Ludes, or methaqualone have been banned throughout the world since the early eighties. In 1969, Ludes was the breakfast of champions. The outward manifestation of Quaalude ingestion is that the user appeared drunk, slurred speech, loss of motor skills, disordered thinking, and passing out. If one could fight off the effects of sleep then it was a great dance drug.

These nascent revolutionaries found themselves on the horns of the dilemma. Contrary to Gil Scott-Heron’s pronouncement that, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” rumor had it that Channel Seven from Austin would attend the rally. On the other hand FREE QUAALUDES! Soon everybody was gobbling down Quaaludes like they were M&M’s, Herman included.

The big moment arrived. A bar band was warming up the crowd. You can’t have an anti anything rally without a sound track. No band and the revolutionaries on the stage would outnumber the crowd two to one. The band played just long enough for the full effect of the Quaaludes to kick in.

The first speaker got up and headed for the podium. Apparently, he saw two of them and opted for the one on the right. The wrong choice, he lurched on by and fell off the stage. The second speaker was more fortunate and made it to the podium. While plenty of words came out, the crowd was unable to link those words to a coherent thought. It turned out that forming actual words proved beyond the ability of the third speaker. He sat down after a fifteen minute rant, convinced that he could give Winston Churchill a run for his money. Herman, awaiting his big moment, gave a lurch and fell out of his chair, face down on the stage. Opportunity knocked but Herman didn’t hear, he was asleep.

Later the crowd agreed that this was one of the better anti-war events, the band was tight, the speakers tighter, and the Quaaludes were free.

I don’t know that everything happened as Herman described, all I have is his word. As to his credibility, there is the problem of the three stolen trucks. The part about the trucks wasn’t necessarily a lie, it could be an honest mistake.

What I do know is that the basic philosophy and tactics for dealing with mass protests and riots were formed as a result of the riots in 1967 and 1968 and the antiwar demonstrations of the period. The methods are still the same. What has changed is the technology. The cops were never so stylish in my day. Now with matching vests, pads and helmets, they’re looking pretty butch.

Jack Webb’s badge number on Dragnet was 714 and the most popular version of Quaaludes on the market was Rorer, then Lemmon 714. If Herman Himmelfart is to be believed Quaaludes stopped a revolution and stole his place in the revolutionary sun. Tactic or coincidence? One thing for certain, nobody has ever heard of the San Marcos Ten.