The Music of Leo Bowers
The Music of Leo Bowers contains "original music/remakes" for review for lovers of original music, information about the artist and the song library.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Monday, June 26, 2017
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
11. Leaving the U.S.M.C.
Leaving the U.S.M.C.
There was one
particular evening I remember as if it were just yesterday. It was at the end
of the day around 5:00 P.M. at San Ornofre at camp Pendleton
and most of us had gotten the roll off of new South American marijuana that had
come across the boarder. We were smoking and blowing shotguns through real
shotguns! Then came the acid (LSD) brought in from Berkley and it came in Window pane form.
Everyone was running around tripping on acid and smoking pot while the sound of
mortar fire was blasting from the night training area. It sounded like bombs
going off all over the place! In fact they were bombs of sorts and rapid rifle
and machine gun fire echoed through the mountains into the San Ornofre valley.
The ground would literally shake from the concussion of the blast and we were
all pretty much used to it except for the fact that this particular evening
everyone was under the influence of major psychotropic drugs namely LSD. I
remember sitting on the side of Mount
Smokey with a few partners
and we were hiding in the brush looking down at the grinder (parade deck) and
smoking pot while tripping our brains out on LSD. There were a company of
grunts out playing war games (maneuvers) with other companies all around the
area out on maneuvers, and it looked like a virtual war zone. There was this
kid I was talking to who was saying to me that this is not what he had signed
on for and how disillusioned he was. He went on to tell me how he missed his
home and wished he had listened to his parents and he would not have gotten
himself into this mess.
Mt. Smokey Courtesy of Google
I gave him what I
thought was the best advise for the time and as I did I kind of gave it to
myself as well. I told him that whatever happened we only live the life we love
until it’s done and that he should follow his mind and heart and do what he
thought he needed to do to move in the direction he felt best. I on the other
hand already knew what I was about to do. I was waiting to come down off of the
acid trip so I could pack a few things and get the hell out of dodge! I was
going back to Columbus Ohio where I was better known and get with my friends
and band members to do what it was that made me know who I was and for me that
meant playing music, having a girl, and trying to have a life that fit what I
thought life should be like, or maybe I should say what I was used to!
At around 6:00 P.M.
the next day I did exactly that. I left with what little money I had and caught
a greyhound to San Francisco and made my way to Berkeley for the second
time. I stayed awhile and then met a pimp who lost his money, cars and girls
gambling in Las Vegas .
We kind of teamed up because he spoke the east coast language and he was
alright with the exception of his over inflated ego. We caught a ride with a
group of heads as for as Cheyenne
Wyoming and I met a girl who was
willing to take us in for the night. We stayed with her at her trailer out on a
farm. She fed us and we watched a little T.V. and she left us there while she
went to work. There was a big jug of money and there were guns in the house.
Mind you at this time I was only about 19 years old and far from home stuck
with a guy who fancied himself a pimp/player from New York and truthfully I was a little cocky
myself but the fear factor never left me. I took some of the money, and I did
take a pistol that was in a holster and put them in my sea bag. My plan was to
ditch the pimp because he was starting to talk crazy, then make my way to St. Louis were I had
family members. I would sell the pistol for a bus ticket and vwala, I’d be
home!
We left the trailer
and hitched a ride into downtown Denver
Colorado and walked to a park.
Now this guy was really starting to talk like a maniac and I saw a filling
station so I told him I had to use the restroom. I went into the filling
station restroom and climbed out of the back window and made my way back
downtown out of his sight. Some kids stopped in a blue van and picked me up.
They were college kids around my same age and they were getting ready to party
and asked if I’d like to join them, I said sure! We made our way from Denver all the way to Wichita Kansas
and pulled into the driveway of a house that belonged to a friend of theirs
where the party was to commence.
Downtown Wichita Google
Wouldn’t you know!
More window pane acid! I made the mistake of taking some and I met a girl who’s
name was Mary. She was really nice and we became intimate, then the acid kicked
in and I got super paranoid! All of a sudden she didn’t look so nice anymore
and all the kids there seemed to be part of a conspiracy or something. We went
to a club and watched a live band perform a few songs and I did the restroom
move on them as well. I headed out to the freeway ramp and caught a ride with a
trucker that took me to a rest stop further up north. While I was there I went
into the rest room and there was a young black guy camped out on the restroom
floor when in walks this guy that looked to be early 50’s or so smoking a pipe and he stands in from of me
looking me up and down. He removes his pipe from his mouth and asked me; “Need
a ride”? I said yeah I’m headed to St
Louis , then he says to me; “What kinda pipe you
packin”? Well at that point I told him I didn’t need the ride and I could make
my own way, so he says; “You sure”? Just about then the kid lying on the floor
says, “I’ll go, I’ll go”! He went!
Public Domain Google
I ended up getting a
ride with another trucker all the way into St. Louis
over the bridge from Kansas into KC Missouri
then on up into St. Louis .
I looked in the phone book for my people there and found them on a street
called Penrose off of a main street called Delmar. I made my way to the house
and breathed a big sigh of relief, it was good to be around family and I could
finally take a full shower. We talked and caught up on times past. My cousins
there were the children of my father’s oldest brother Harold who was named
after my grand father. Their mom’s name was Mary, my Aunt Mary, she seemed so
sad just the way I remembered her from 1963 when my uncle died of a heart
attack. It was now the summer of 1973 over 10 years since I’d seen her and she
was still depressed and just lying about the house mostly in her bedroom. I
stayed for a couple of days and one morning I sold the pistol I had stolen in
Cheyenne to a neighbor of theirs for 20.00 to get a bus ticket back to Columbus
Ohio to my home where I was better known!
Delmar Blvd. St. Louis MO "Google"
When I got back to
Columbus I had made up my mind that I was not going back to the U.S.M.C. for
anything other than to be released so I lived as if I was free when in fact I
knew the day was coming I’d have to pay the piper. That day came about 9 months later in March
of 1974. I was Visiting my mom’s house and eating a bowl of cereal when in
walks two FBI agents. They introduce themselves, let me finish breakfast and
then deliver me to the workhouse to await the cross country chasers for my
final return to Camp
Pendleton .
Great Lakes Brig
I Spent about2 weeks
at Great Lakes and 90 days in the Camp
Pendleton brig and was
returned to duty. I went through yet another company and disobeyed a lawful
order purposely to get them to vacate sentence on a Bad Conduct Discharge. I
just wanted out of this mess anyway I could get out and it didn’t matter to me
at the time about what kind of discharge they gave me as long as I did not have
to be there anymore! I just wanted a normal life so I thought! But what’s
really normal?
Camp Pendleton Brig
Anyway, I made it back home on December 20th 1974. I
was now 20 years of age. On the way home as I boarded the plane Aristotelis
“Telly” Savalas, his brother and
friends were sitting up from in first class giggling and laughing about what I
don’t know except they looked like they were tripping on some sort of drug
themselves. When I got home there were two young ladies that had their sights
on me and came to see if I was relationship worthy. One was an old school friend
named Gail and the other was a girl named Angie from the north side who was
getting ready to graduate from Ohio University in Athens .
Needless to say I was not feeling like I was worthy of a serious relationship
with either of these young women, I felt they deserved much better and besides
all the things I had been through, how would I ever explain, how could I
justify my decisions, the choices I made or the things I did?
Home.
Next time: More
growing up
10. Traveling with hippies and soul searching with drugs and sex.
Traveling
with hippies and soul searching with drugs and sex.
As I said, I had
many UA’s and if I count them all up including the ones where I was a few hours
late getting back to the base I’d probably had about ten or so. One particular
AWOL that kept me out for about 6 months started when a Sgt and his crony
chaser decided to make a personal example of me for disobeying a lawful order.
I felt that going in circles over issues was a waste of my time and completely
stupid to say the least. They would have us (the admin platoon), clean an
entire area of rocks, boulders, cigarette butts, paper etc… and later go back
and trash everything showing no respect or appreciation for our efforts and
improvements. So one morning came when I was ordered to repeat the same
grueling routine and I simply said no!
I.T.S. Camp Pendleton "Google"
That “no” landed me
in front of a drunken Staff Sergeant and his pet chaser who’s last name I still
remember to this day and I’ll explain why a little later on. This chasers’ name
was lance corporal “Crooks” I quote Crooks because that’s exactly what was
going on. They where under investigation for drug smuggling across the boarder
and Cocaine was the real issue, they didn’t care so much about the Mexican pot
or even the pot that was making it’s way up from South America, but the Cocaine
was an issue that the big brass felt needed dealing with for one reason or
another. You can probably guess the other!
After I disobeyed
the order to make like an ant and do the repetitive toil thingy, I was called
into the Sergeants office and escorted by Crooks. When they got me in the hut
they handcuffed my wrist to my ankles and began questioning with every nasty
slur imaginable and I felt like this was the last straw. Punishment is one
thing but this was just plain sickness and I made the mistake of letting them
know that. Night sticks inserted through cuffs from wrist to ankle pulled with
just a little effort have a way of putting you head first on a concrete pad!
The stick itself has uses in corporal punishment and brutality yet to be shown
on TV or in movies!
I was given 60 days
restriction and fined ¾ of my monthly income which was nothing new. My pay
grade as an E-1 was 283.00 per month and ¼ of that came to a whopping $70.75
paid out every two weeks for a bi- monthly sum of $35.37. It was just enough to
get a motel room, a hamburger or two and a cheap hooker, and for the most part
they had thousands of guys like me that they kept in legal platoons largely for
the purposes of taking the money to invest in other not so legal enterprises.
This too was under investigation! Sound familiar?
I waited until 4:00
when every one shut down and prepared to make my move. I caught a base shuttle
truck which was just a green tractor pulling a rig with benches in it and made
my way to the front gate, showed my I.D. and made my way into San Clemente . From there I caught a bus to
L.A and made my way into the Bay area and felt my way around. In 1973 there
were still plenty of hippies and heads gallivanting around the Bay area
especially San Francisco and Berkeley . After being propositioned by gays
to the tune of 5 or 6 times in San Francisco I
made my way over to Berkeley
by way of Telegraph Ave. When I got near the heart of the University I
couldn’t believe my eyes, ears, or nose and the excitement was off the scale.
Music on every street corner, guys and girls just playing for change tossed
into hats or cases, the aroma of good weed filled the air with the smell of
jasmine and all sorts of incense. Chocolate mescaline (my favorite), was at
every other corner and in the park, acid was just a basic deal and friendly was
a way of breathing!
Telegraph Ave. Berkeley "Google"
The girls were hot
and loose! Bras in those days were only for squares and panties, well what are
panties? They had crash pads that would feed you a bedtime snack and People’s Park
had spools of clothes the church fed breakfast and lunch and the only thing
missing was maybe a private tent in case it rained during the day which rarely
ever happened so a blanket in the grass was just fine. And if you were going to
do the sex thing you just roll up in the blanket. Although there were a couple
of scenes where the couple got so into it they kicked the blanket off and did
an exhibition for all to see and marvel at! what a rush!
People's Park Berkeley "Google"
I hung out for about 3 weeks and got homesick so I brainstormed a way to make it back to good old
When they let me out
at my front door I had 6 large trash bags of pot to introduce to the hilltop
community. I hid them in my dad’s shed and in the crawl space under the first floor of our house. Nobody ever checked that
or even thought about its existence so I was good to go. The very first of
friends to show up was always Daniel Ragland my friend and bassist buddy. We’d
get together and go out to play our music in coffee houses, recreation centers
and jam sessions, and smoke plenty of grass along the way. We developed another
name for pot, we called it SEEDS! My girlfriend and mother of my first child was
seeing someone else, and living with them so I was free to meet someone if I
wanted to and believe me after 2 cheap hookers over a 6 month period of time at
18 years of age my hormones said, “meet someone”!
Me and my 1 year old son 1973 during a U.A.
I met a new girl on
the block names Iris. She was light skinned and looked Cuban or Puerto Rican
and she was stacked and cute as a button. We had sex like mad dogs every chance
we got which was almost every day for the first two months of my return when I
wasn’t out with Dan and Bobby playing. Her dad really didn’t like me a bit when
he first met me and for quite some time after that. But years later he turned
out to be a very good friend.
One day I was out
with Daniel and we ran out of pot so we drove back to the west side (my house)
to stock up. As I was parking I noticed there were a lot of people hanging
around in the back yard around the fence and a lot of smoke that had that all
too familiar smell, then I spotted my mom dumping a large trash bag onto the
BBQ grill and I knew then I was at a loss-loss! It wasn’t long before my
mom talked me into returning to the Marine Corps. I really tried to live up to
her expectations of me, but I always seemed to make the wrong choices. I wanted
to do what my parents considered to be the right thing, but something inside
took me somewhere else. I finally turned myself into authorities and they
shipped me back to Camp
Pendleton .
Monday, September 19, 2016
9. From Paris Island to MCB Camp Pendelton
The graduation from Paris Island and arrival at Camp Pendleton Infantry
Training School
It all happened when we were on the rifle range. Someone
took a set of my ear plugs and I reported it. Siganik had everyone beside me
holding rifles on fingertips until the culprit surfaced and they were all
suffering pretty badly. A recruit named Battle
told me he had an extra set of ear plugs and to tell Siganik I found them on
the floor. Out of feeling bad for the platoon’s sweat and pain I did just that
and Siganik didn’t take kindly to the fact that I found them on the floor with
no one to blame! He came from behind his desk and hit me with a horizontal butt
stroke that dislocated my mandible. I spit blood and stayed at attention
looking at him to see if another blow was coming!
I waited to see if another blow was coming and felt the
blood filling up in my mouth. Nothing came instead he said, “Come on and swing
and give me a reason to kill your ass”! I responded with the Marine Corps “Sir
no sir” and spit a mouthful of blood from my mouth over my left shoulder and
remained at attention until dismissed. When the Senior drill instructor
returned to his shift he called me into his office and tried to persuade me to
sweep the occurrence under the rug. He hinted that if I kept silent about it
that I had honor man status pretty well in the bag. He further went on to say
that if I brought Siganik up on charges that it would follow me wherever I
went, and that life in the Marine Corps and beyond would be not so good for me.
I was an emotionally charged 17 year old boy in a world that
was dishing out reality checks too fast for my mind to handle. It hadn’t even
been a whole 24 hours since my incident with Siganik that he came into the
squad bay and assaulted two more recruits. The thing that made his assaults
stand out from the norm of the day was his level of brutality and the fact that
all of his targets where black guys. Some of them where pretty big guys too
most everyone was bigger in stature than he was anyway. He not only portrayed a
“Small Man’s Complex” he exhibited racial bias without a second thought.
When the Doctor at sick bay called me back in for treatment
I told the story just as it happened. I didn’t care about being graduated with
honors at this point all I could really think about was revenge and making
Siganik realize that he could also be dealt with by others and held responsible
for his actions.
Graduation day was fast approaching and Siganik was relieved
of duty awaiting a Summary Courts Martial. When MOS (job classifications) came
out I was expecting the Marine Corps to honor their commitment to put me in
aviation as guaranteed in the enlistment contract. Instead the contract was
done away with and I was given an 0300 classification which is basic infantry
(a grunt)! I wasn’t the only one of the recruits who got shafted there were
many others as well.
Graduation came and went and we all got our 10 day leave for
home before returning to duty for infantry training. I was ordered to MCB Camp
Pendleton for I.T.S. (Infantry
Training School ) and
reported two days late. To tell the truth I really didn’t want to go at all,
but I was persuaded by my parents to do the “RIGHT THING”. My time in the
Marine Corps was rattled with UA’s, drugs, and fights. I pretty much lived in
legal platoons with other socially removed cases like myself although there
were degrees of variance in the non-conformist types I nevertheless fit the
mold. I had tried every company in the battalion and left everyone of them
before graduation. There were still evacuation missions going on and two guys
in a graduating company before my 1st one didn’t make it back. It
took all but two weeks for their lives to be ended. I started seeing this USA in a very different
light. Once again reality set in deeper than I could have imagined and even
more than I understood at the time. At this point all I wanted was OUT!
Leonard W. Bowers Jr. USMC 1973
Next time: Traveling with hippies and soul searching with drugs and
sex.
8. U.S.M.C. Honor, Pride, or just plain Stupid
When Uncle Charlie lived with us I developed some pretty bad
habits. I learned that doing all the wrong things made me cool in the eyes of
all the wrong people I thought I needed to impress. I don't put the blame for
my actions on my uncle, after all he had a really rough childhood probably much
worse that his other 8 siblings including my dad.
You see my dad's Mom (Alice Moss/Bowers) died when my dad
was just 13 or so and uncle Charlie being the 3rd youngest could not have been
more that about 4 years old when my dad's whole family was separated and placed
into foster homes after the death of
their mom (my paternal grandmother). So yeah, he had it pretty rough and although
I know allot about things that happened to them I can't and won't speak on it.
Needless to say I looked up to my uncle Charlie and was very
proud of the many gifts he had. It just so happens one of them was being able
to talk the skin off of an orange or anything else for that matter and I had
developed some of those traits at an early age. From around age 12 to 15 I was
always in and out of juvenile corrections and detention centers primarily
because I was car happy and would take a joy ride in someone else's car lickity
split. This resulted in me ending up at
F.S.B. at the age of 13. It was a very disciplinary institution and if you toed
the line you got along pretty well. I used to wash my cottage parent (Mr.
Coverse's) Black Mercury Cougar at least once a week. I had two separate stays
at F.S.B. in Highland Cottage. After my bouts with he juvenile authorities and
spending time away from home at Fairfield
School for Boys (F.S.B.) I
finally returned home to stay, so I thought!
Both times around I eventually was stair-guard monitor and
played with the Bell Choir and sometimes went off campus with the group and Mr.
Hearnst or director to do presentations. Only Highland Cottage had the Bell
Choir.
F.S.B. Bell Choir
Back at home I had a girlfriend that had been in the picture
ever since I was 11 years old. She was a cousin to some of my neighboring
childhood friends the Holiday family. Her name
was Sharon and
all the kids called her grandma because she was a little fussy and bossy. She
was 2 years older than I was and I would see her whenever she came from the North
to the Westside to visit the Holiday ’s. (Her
cousins)
Needless to say when I finally got through with the juvenile
crisis I was nearly 16 and shortly after my 16th birthday we moved into an
apartment on the East side of Columbus
in the heart of all street activity. I lived right on the corner of Linwood and
Main St.
which in the day was an area known for drugs and prostitution. As I mentioned
earlier I had friends named Bobby Shelby and Daniel Ragland who were also band
members, but with these two there was always something brewing. Dan loved to
smoke “pot” and watch the seeds pop! Bobby was a womanizer and loved to chase
the skirts. I was somewhere in the middle I guess, but I had Sharon (Grandma)
looking over my shoulder watching my every move.
She ended up getting pregnant by the time I turned 17 years
old and I would drive and take buses to West High School
on the Westside I was still in high school.
One morning at about 7:30 there was a knock at the door of the apartment
and it was Bobby all full of energy and ready to roll! He said, “Hey man this
guy let me use his car until he gets off work and I thought we might take care
of a little business while we have it”! I asked if the car was stolen and he
said “No” and that he’d even take me to meet this guy on his job. I got my coat and off we went to the Westside
cruising in a metallic blue Barracuda with dual Thrush mufflers sounding off.
When we got to the guys job he came out and said “Yeah it’s
my car”, and that he wanted us to be back by 4:00 P.M. when he got off work. So
off we went to good old West High! Bobby asked me if I wanted to drive and I
said “Yeah, why not”. So I got behind the wheel and we were circling the block
at West High looking parking space when one of the mufflers came loose and was
dragging the ground. A policeman noticed it and pulled us over. He asked for my
license and I gave them to him then he went back to do the routine check. He
came back and told us the car was stolen and placed us under arrest!
We took the police to where the guy worked at J. Ashburn Youth
Center and the old women that he worked with covered for him by saying he did
not work there. So Bobby and I got left with the ticket and the ticket was Auto
Theft. On the way to lockup Bobby and I had a few choice words.
When we finally made it to Court we were given a choice of
either Jail time as adults or enlistment into the U.S.M.C. It was December 1971
and we would be leaving for Paris
Island South Carolina
on April 13, 1972. I thought I had made the right choice, besides the Marines
were respected for being top of the line braves, and now I’d get to rise up
through the ranks and make my mark. Bobby had similar notions, but all he
seemed to talk about was how many different types of women he was going to boink
along the way!
One night not long after our car incident Bobby, Daniel and
I were out on the O.S.U. Campus partying when this guy comes up and asked us
“You guys do acid man”? Being the big men and hipsters we thought we were we
all said stuff like “yeah who doesn’t”, or “All the time”! We knew full well we
had never experienced LSD, but what the heck tonight we were going to give it a
try! The guy shows us these little orange pills no bigger than a BB and Daniel
starts to laugh saying, “You’ve got to be kidding what are these supposed to
do”! So he takes one and pops it in his mouth and now the other guy was doing
the laughing saying, “You’ll see man you’ll see”!
So then we all three took one and went into the BBF to drink
pop and listen to the juke box. So were sitting there listening to Led Zeppelin
“Black Dog” when all of a sudden Daniel rushes back from the restroom pointing
at his tongue saying “Orange spots, Orange spots man”! So I said, “Chill out man
be cool or we’ll all freak out”! Bobby was sitting across from me with the
silliest looking grin on his face I’d ever seen!
Anyway these two girls walk up one was name Jill Edwards and
the other was her cousin or friend or something. I remember Jill and that’s
another story. Anyway we’re all sitting there getting acquainted when all of a
sudden I’m looking at Jill and her face starts moving in weird ways! Daniel is
cracking up laughing and Bobby still has this idiotic grin pasted on his face!
So I’m trying to be serious and calm and I get up and start walking through the
BBF corridors and bopping to the sounds coming off the juke box and look back
and notice that almost everyone in the joint is following me in line bopping to
the groove and tripping hard too! So I get to the door and break for it and
here comes Daniel and Bobby right behind me. Then Jill comes running down the
street and puts her hand in my pocket and kisses me in the mouth, turns around
and runs back into the BBF!
The snow on the ground is showing names written in it of
everyone who’s ever lived and yet to come, Daniel is saying “Da, la, la, la….”
And Bobby is still grinning that sinister grin! Up comes a bus looking like
slow motion and the doors open so we get on. We went all the way to the back of
the bus and each took separate seats near each other when all of a sudden this
chick takes out a comb and rakes it through her hair! Man that hair started
crawling all over the bus and was changing colors, now I knew I was gone!
We all made it home and made weird phone calls throughout
the night because none of us could sleep. It felt like this trip was never
going to end and I remember thinking to myself that this is what hell must be
like. Bobby and Daniel ended up in the hospital together because their parents
didn’t know what was wrong with them. My mom on the other hand chose to pray
over me and quote scripture and that took me somewhere I don’t think anyone
would want to experience!
One day in late March Bobby wanted to go back on the campus
to party but Daniel and I had enough of that and we were still in awe from the
acid experience so we chose not to go. Well Bobby got into some trouble messing
around in the girls dormitory at O.S.U. and got an attempted rape case that
landed him in prison for 3 years. I went into the Marine Corps on April 13,
1972 as scheduled.
I arrived at Paris
Island and was assigned
to 3rd Battalion Platoon 342. Staff sergeant Castle ,
sergeant Siganik, and some other guy were our original drill instructors for the
platoon. The Marine Corps was allot like what I experienced at Fairfield School for Boys back in 1969 and 70 with
the exception of PT and rifle range. Everything else was spit and polish and
the discipline was about the same as well until I had an encounter with Sgt.
Siganik that would result in his Courts Martial.
It all happened when we were on the rifle range. Someone
took a set of my ear plugs and I reported it. Siganik had everyone beside me
holding rifles on fingertips until the culprit surfaced and they were all
suffering pretty badly. A recruit named Pvt. Battle told me he had an extra set
and to tell Siganik I found them on the floor. Out of feeling for the platoon’s
sweat and pain I did just that and Siganik didn’t take kindly to the fact that
I found them on the floor with no one to blame! He came from behind his desk
and hit me with a horizontal butt stroke that dislocated my mandible. I spit
blood and stayed at attention looking at him to see if another blow was coming!
Nothing but embarrassment, but it wasn't over yet..!
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