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Nineteenth Olympic games open at Mexico City, Mexico. Norma Enriqueta Basilio Satelo is the first woman to light Olympic flame.
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Caged.
I was caged.
Then, I was driven.
Driven to Cherokee.
A hazy memory of riding caged in the back of a police car.
Two shadows in the front seat, the county sheriff and a female escort.
Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” buzzing from a tinny transistor radio.
Cloudy and cold, condensation and frost riming the windows, piles of dirty snow dotting the countryside.
I, cargo.
Destination: Cherokee’s other place, the outline on the hill.
Shifting, crossing my legs…
Please, can we stop?
Hot and steamy inside.
Shivering, my teeth rattling.
Please…I have to go!
Hear something, George?
Naw, nothin’ important.
Laughter.
Cargo has no voice.
Madness has no voice.
Listen, crazy girl…
Two voices: We have come to take you away, ha, ha…
“I’m crazy, crazy…”
Fragments, crazy-quilt impressions, acid flashbacks…
I, crazy?
Additional excerpts, out takes, and new essays
___________________________________________________________________
Most Recent Post
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"A memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."--Gore Vidal
Present
Artist: Jennifer Semple (March 1969)
Memoir Madness: driven to involuntary commitment
Prologue: Caged
(February 19, 1969)
-Caged.
I was caged.
Then, I was driven.
Driven to Cherokee.
A hazy memory of riding caged in the back of a police car.
Two shadows in the front seat, the county sheriff and a female escort.
Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” buzzing from a tinny transistor radio.
Cloudy and cold, condensation and frost riming the windows, piles of dirty snow dotting the countryside.
I, cargo.
Destination: Cherokee’s other place, the outline on the hill.
Shifting, crossing my legs…
Please, can we stop?
Hot and steamy inside.
Shivering, my teeth rattling.
Please…I have to go!
Hear something, George?
Naw, nothin’ important.
Laughter.
Cargo has no voice.
Madness has no voice.
Listen, crazy girl…
Two voices: We have come to take you away, ha, ha…
“I’m crazy, crazy…”
Fragments, crazy-quilt impressions, acid flashbacks…
I, crazy?
* * * * *
From I, Driven: a memoir of involuntary commitment ("Prologue")
© 2008-2010, by Jennifer Semple Siegel
Excerpt may not be used or copied without author’s permission.
© 2008-2010, by Jennifer Semple Siegel
Excerpt may not be used or copied without author’s permission.
___________________________________________________________________
Additional excerpts, out takes, and new essays
*Jennifer, 1970
"A memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."--Gore Vidal
Memoir Details
Related Links
Posts
Contact
Jennifer
Present
What's on this website...
*
Index/Table of Contents
1. Excerpts
Selected pieces from the most recent version of the memoir.
2. Illustrations and Relevant Embedded Videos
I have very few photographs from that time in my life, so the illustrations are symbolic and artistic representations, which should not be interpreted literally. In 2005, when I wrote the first draft, embedding video clips was in its infancy, and so was my ability to embed them. But this is 2008, and I'm catching up with the YouTube revolution!
3. Out Takes
Text that appeared in various drafts but (for various reasons) was cut. The most important out take appears here--proof positive that I have been living on borrowed time for 39+ years.
4. News Clips
In the first draft, I had added "news clips" to the text. During revision, I deleted most of them, but, now, have decided that they belong on this site.
5. New Text
I added this category--just in case something important is not covered in 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Index/Table of Contents
*
Index/Table of Contents
1. Excerpts
Selected pieces from the most recent version of the memoir.
2. Illustrations and Relevant Embedded Videos
I have very few photographs from that time in my life, so the illustrations are symbolic and artistic representations, which should not be interpreted literally. In 2005, when I wrote the first draft, embedding video clips was in its infancy, and so was my ability to embed them. But this is 2008, and I'm catching up with the YouTube revolution!
3. Out Takes
Text that appeared in various drafts but (for various reasons) was cut. The most important out take appears here--proof positive that I have been living on borrowed time for 39+ years.
4. News Clips
In the first draft, I had added "news clips" to the text. During revision, I deleted most of them, but, now, have decided that they belong on this site.
5. New Text
I added this category--just in case something important is not covered in 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Index/Table of Contents
*
"Melanie"
Artist: Jennifer Semple (March 1969)
Favorite Quotes
If the doors of perception were cleansed then everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.--William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
...The world as it appears to me is my creation, and for it I must assume responsibility. Given, as the bricks out of which I can build a universe, is a chaotic kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, sounds, moods, hopes, fears, joys, pains, ideas, movements...Out of this anarchy, I organize a world for myself. I subdue the disordered shapelessness into a world by choosing one out of an infinity of possible structures.--Peter Koestenbaum, Existentialism: Philosophical Anthropology
To die before you’ve reached the sky is tragedy--the sky is always an inch away from our fingertips--no matter how high we may reach.
--Jeff A. Brown
*
Blog Archive
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2008
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August
(23)
- Memoir Madness: driven to involuntary commitment (...
- Memoir Madness: driven to involuntary commitment (...
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- Open Letter to Literary Agents
- Excerpt--January 15, 1969: "Sioux City Blues"
- Excerpt–October 1968: “Rev. Arthur Blessitt and Hi...
- Excerpt--A Short History of The Cherokee Mental He...
- Off Topic: For the Record, I Support Barack Obama
- News Clip--October 19, 1968: Nixon Presidential Ca...
- New Text: 1968--The Year That Shaped a Generation
- News Clip--October 18, 1968: Gold Medalist Tommie ...
- News Clip--October 17, 1968: Barbra Streisand Sing...
- News Clip--October 17, 1968: First Anniversary of ...
- News Clip--October 16, 1968: Olympians Tommie Smit...
- News Clip--October 15, 1968: Cheap Thrills Album G...
- News Clip--October 14, 1968: Beatles Wrap Up Recor...
- News Clip--October 14, 1968: Apollo 7 Astronauts B...
- News Clip--October 12, 1968: Mexico City Olympics ...
- Excerpt: The Luckiest Hand
- News Clip--October 11, 1968: Revolution in Panama
- News Clip--October 11, 1968: Apollo 7 Launch
- Out-Take: Letter from Hollywood to Cynthia*
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▼
August
(23)
Memoir Madness Cloud
1960's
1968
1968 (A Mother's Warning)
1968 in Review
1968 Olympics
1969
1969 (A Possible Scenario at the Police Station)
A Cautionary Tale--Did I Really Say That
Acid
airplane crash
All You Need is Love
and Fractal Patterning)
Apollo 7
Apollo 8
April 1969
Arthur Blessitt
Articles
Astronauts
August 2004
autobiography
Barack Obama
Barbra Streisand
Big Brother and the Holding Company
birthday
Black Power
Blaze Starr
Blue Moon
Blue Moons
Blurb
Carrie the Cutter
cartwheel
Catcher in the Rye
Charles Manson
Cherokee
Cherokee Iowa
Cherokee Mental Health Institute
Classics IV
Crashing
D.J.
dancer
Daniel Berrigan
December 1968
Definition of Memoir
Delta Flight 5883
Denise
Desktop computer
diner
Donn Eisele
Doo Wop
Dr John Breeding
Dr Mariano Favis
Dr. Favis
draft records
dramatization
Drug Dealers
Drug Dealing
drugs
Essays
ex-husband
Excerpt--A Short History of The Cherokee Mental Health Institute
Excerpt--After Release From the Institution (Denise's Tips)
Excerpt--April 2002 (Driven 2)
Excerpt--August 2004 (The Miracle of Google)
Excerpt--February 18
Excerpt--February 18 1969 (Let's See What the Police Have to Say)
Excerpt--February 18 1969 (Nabbed at the Bus Station)
Excerpt--February 19 1969 (The Institution)
Excerpt--February 1969--My Country 'Tis of Thee Sweet Land of Tyranny
Excerpt--February-April 1969 (Driven)
Excerpt--January 15 1969 (Sioux City Blues)
Excerpt--January 16 1969 (While I Kiss the Sky)
Excerpt--January 17 1969 (There Must be Some Way Outta Here)
Excerpt--January 1969 (What to Do With My Life)
Excerpt--Leaving Sioux City (Dee Dee)
Excerpt--New Year's Eve 1968 (Fire)
Excerpt--October 1968 (Rev. Arthur Blessitt and His Place)
Excerpt--October 5 1968 (Wallich's Music City and Eleanor's Radio)
Excerpt--Other Patients in the Institution (Carrie the Cutter)
Excerpt--Other Patients in the Institution (Joyce)
Excerpt--Other Patients in the Institution (Perky Penny)
Excerpt--The Institution (Proving My Sanity)
Excerpt--The Institution (The First Five Days--February 19-23 1969)
Excerpt--The Luckiest Hand
excerpts
excerpts from the institution
family
Faux Memoir
February 1969
February-April 1969
first drafts
flash forwards
Flashback--October 12
Flashback--October 12 1968 (The Birthday Party)
Flashback--October 1968 (Wild Man Fischer's Merry-go-round)
flashbacks
Flawed Memory
Flight 266
Flight 5883 Delta Flight 5883
flying
Fractals
Franco Zeffirelli
Frank Borman
freewriting
geometric
George Romero
Greyhound Bus
guns
Harley Semple
Hatikvah
heroin
Hewlett-Packard 9100A
Hey Jude
hippies
His Place
history
hitchhiking
Hollywood
Horror
Hospital Records
I Driven
Inaccurate Text
Index
Iowa
Jack Valenti
James Lovell
Jan Durrell
Janis Joplin
January 1969
Jimi Hendrix
John Carlos
John Lennon
Joyce
June 1968
Late 1960s
letters
Literary Agents
literary genre
Little Eva
Locomotion
Louis Armstrong
LSD
LSD Trip
Macedonia
Mania--Joyce
Marijuana
May 1969
memoir
memoir issues
Memoir Madness
Memoir Research note
memoir summary
Memoir Synopsis
Memoirs
Mescaline
Mexico
Mexico City
Mick Jagger
Movies
Narrative Threads
Nevada
New Memoir
New Text
New Text--1968 (The Year That Shaped a Generation)
New Text--LSD (Effects
News Clip--October 10 1968 (The Catonsville Nine Found Guilty...)
News Clip--October 11 1968 (Apollo 7 Launch)
News Clip--October 11 1968 (Revolution in Panama)
News Clip--October 12 1968 (Mexico City Olympics Opening Ceremony)
News Clip--October 14 1968 (Apollo 7 Astronauts Broadcast From Space)
News Clip--October 14 1968 (Beatles Wrap Up Recording the White Album
News Clip--October 15 1968 (Cheap Thrills Album Goes Gold)
News Clip--October 16 1968 (Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos Give Black Power Salute
News Clip--October 17 1968 (Barbra Streisand Sings Hatikvah)
News Clip--October 17 1968 (First Anniversary of The October 17th Movement
News Clip--October 18 1968 (Gold Medalist Tommie Smith and Bronze Medalist John Carlos Suspended)
News Clip--October 19 1968 (Nixon Presidential Campaign)
News Clip--October 3 1968 (U.S. Performs Nuclear Test on Nevada Test Site and The Beatles Record Savoy Truffle)
News Clip--October 6 1968 (First Anniversary of a Mock Funeral Noted and Homosexual Minister Holds First Worship Service)
News Clip--October 7 1968 (New Movie Rating System)
News Clip--October 8 1968 (Paramount Pictures Releases Romeo and Juliet)
News Clip--October 9 1968 (John Lennon's Birthday)
News Clips
News Clips--October 4 1968 (Hewlett-Packard Advertises a Desktop Computer)
Not authentic
Nuclear Test
October
October 1968
Off Topic--For the Record I Support Barack Obama
Olive Semple
Oliver Sacks
Opal Casey
Open Letter
Open Letter to Literary Agents
Other Patients in the Institution (D.J.
Out takes
Out-Take (Letter from Hollywood to Cynthia)
Out-take--Jane and the York YWCA
Out-takes
Panama
panhandling
Patients
patterns
Penny
Perception
Perky Penny
Philip Berrigan
poem
police
Politics
Presidential Campaign
Protests
purpose
radical feminism
radical women
Randy and the Rainbows
Release from Cherokee
research note
Revolution
Richard Nixon
rocks
Romeo and Juliet
San Francisco
San Francisco Municipal Railway
Sioux City
Sioux City Police
Six words
Six-word memoir
Skopje
Speed
Stoney
STP
strip tease
Summary
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Strip
synopsis
Table of Contents
The Beatles
The Beginning
The Catonsville Nine
The Long and Winding Road
The Manson Family
The Manson Girls
The Mighty Sage)
The Moon
The Other Patients in the Institution (Anna on the Lam)
Time
Time Perception
Tommie Smith
Top Ten
Unauthentic
United Flight 266
Voice
Walter Cunningham
Walter Schirra
What a Wonderful World
Wild Man Fischer
William Anders
Women's Lib
writer's block
XIX Olympiad
Year in Review
York Pennsylvania
YWCA
Disclaimer and Copyright Notice
*
Memoir Madness: driven to involuntary commitment is a work of non-fiction.
*
However, some names and/or minor characteristics of real persons have been changed to protect their privacy. Nicknames have been used for some real persons, most notably, Stoney.
*
Some minor locales have been changed. The Crystal Ship was a real rock/head shop, but the name and locale have been changed.
*
For coherence and literary purposes, some passages have been compressed, expanded, or shifted around. Some scenes and dialogue have been recreated.
*
The time lines, late 1968 to May 9, 1969, April 2002, and August 2004 are accurate, and the facts of the case are correct, including the amount of time I spent in the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in Cherokee, Iowa.
*
Events for which I have no documentation and/or memory of exact dates have been presented as flashbacks.
*
Most of the illustrations shown on this website are symbolic and artistic representations of 1968-1969 and should not be interpretated literally. Some video clips have been embedded; copyrights remain with their respective owners.
*
Minor factual errors, albeit unintentional, are mine alone.
*
Website and all text copyright 2008-present, Jennifer Semple Siegel. Text/images may not be republished or reposted without permission.
*
Memoir Madness: driven to involuntary commitment is a work of non-fiction.
*
However, some names and/or minor characteristics of real persons have been changed to protect their privacy. Nicknames have been used for some real persons, most notably, Stoney.
*
Some minor locales have been changed. The Crystal Ship was a real rock/head shop, but the name and locale have been changed.
*
For coherence and literary purposes, some passages have been compressed, expanded, or shifted around. Some scenes and dialogue have been recreated.
*
The time lines, late 1968 to May 9, 1969, April 2002, and August 2004 are accurate, and the facts of the case are correct, including the amount of time I spent in the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in Cherokee, Iowa.
*
Events for which I have no documentation and/or memory of exact dates have been presented as flashbacks.
*
Most of the illustrations shown on this website are symbolic and artistic representations of 1968-1969 and should not be interpretated literally. Some video clips have been embedded; copyrights remain with their respective owners.
*
Minor factual errors, albeit unintentional, are mine alone.
*
Website and all text copyright 2008-present, Jennifer Semple Siegel. Text/images may not be republished or reposted without permission.
*
Special Thanks and Acknowledgments
*
To Dr. Mariano A. Favis, Jr., for being one of the good guys. Your wisdom changed the course of my life. Thanks to Michael Klein, author of Track Conditions and The End of Being Known and my former Goddard advisor, for his careful comments on my draft; he helped me to decide what to add and delete–mostly delete.
*
Thanks, also, to York College of Pennsylvania’s Faculty Development Committee for a much-needed grant so that I could finish this book in a timely manner. Last, but definitely not least, thanks to my husband Jerry Siegel who read several drafts and offered me many valuable comments and insights.
*
Apologies to Jeff Brown, a starring player and still my friend, for his immense understanding. I can only imagine what it might be like to have one’s past life dragged out and exposed to the world by an ex-spouse. Also, thanks to Jeff for reading the drafts and commenting on them.
*
Apologies to one bit player: although my husband Jerry had no role in my life during the late 1960's, he has patiently accompanied me in my various quests for information. It must feel strange to read about that other Jennifer, not quite the Jennifer he met, courted, and married.
*
Additional apologies to three offstage players: Eric, my son by Jeff; Casey, Jeff’s present wife; and Rhia, my granddaughter–Eric’s daughter. They have absolutely no role in this drama, and yet, by association, they are a peripheral part of it.
*
To Dr. Mariano A. Favis, Jr., for being one of the good guys. Your wisdom changed the course of my life. Thanks to Michael Klein, author of Track Conditions and The End of Being Known and my former Goddard advisor, for his careful comments on my draft; he helped me to decide what to add and delete–mostly delete.
*
Thanks, also, to York College of Pennsylvania’s Faculty Development Committee for a much-needed grant so that I could finish this book in a timely manner. Last, but definitely not least, thanks to my husband Jerry Siegel who read several drafts and offered me many valuable comments and insights.
*
Apologies to Jeff Brown, a starring player and still my friend, for his immense understanding. I can only imagine what it might be like to have one’s past life dragged out and exposed to the world by an ex-spouse. Also, thanks to Jeff for reading the drafts and commenting on them.
*
Apologies to one bit player: although my husband Jerry had no role in my life during the late 1960's, he has patiently accompanied me in my various quests for information. It must feel strange to read about that other Jennifer, not quite the Jennifer he met, courted, and married.
*
Additional apologies to three offstage players: Eric, my son by Jeff; Casey, Jeff’s present wife; and Rhia, my granddaughter–Eric’s daughter. They have absolutely no role in this drama, and yet, by association, they are a peripheral part of it.
*
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