I found an old wallet while cleaning up my office and did a little wallet archeology. This is the admission ticket to the 1967 Yucaipa High School (Calif.) Homecoming Dance. I took my then-sweetheart, Barbara Lane, and we had a pretty interesting time sporting my borrowed suit and her borrowed formal gown . . . and our illegal smiles, of course. A good memory. I did not know I had this artifact of my personal history. But there were other things going on in October 1967, just a few months into my Senior Year . . . .
June 14, 1968 . . . an evening I remember like it was last night . . . but not because of the commencement ceremony . . . only Barbara Lane and I know why . . .
There were rumblings of war on the horizon. These Selective Service System (a.k.a., Draft Board) cards tell my personal story for the next five years: From classified as II-S (student deferment) to I-A (draftable, awaiting the call) and finally to my medical deferment status as I-H (draftable only if war is declared by the Congress, which never happened during the Viet Nam war). That high school football knee injury had a silver lining after all!
Dr. Jeff Harper
