The Free Spirit

Making Love, Not War, 1966 (Part One)

"Along with the freedom to be a woman came the sexual revolution..."

The year 1966 started out with a very short tour of some of the major cities in southern England. I recall being backstage and going to use the toilet, but being absolutely disgusted by the state of the women's lavatory. Once I had done my business, I rejoined my husband and Phil in their dressing room again and Phil noted the obviously disgusted look on my face. "What's got your nose all scrunched up like that?" he asked me.

"Women in public toilets are absolutely disgusting. I found a used tampon on the floor! Used! And don't even get me started about what was floating in the toilet itself. And there's so few women on this tour so I'm sure it'd be easy figuring out who did it," I said to him.

"Why do ya care so much? We ain't here more than a night," Phil said. All the while, Don was reading a magazine.

"I just don't understand why people need to be so... disgusting!" I exclaimed, still quite grossed out by what had met my poor eyes in the toilet.

"Here's why," Don said, and he let out a rather loud fart.

"Donald!" I exclaimed, taking a step away from him as he laughed at my disgust.

"That's exactly why people gotta be so disgustin'!" Don said with a laugh. "C'mere, baby, come sit with me!"

"Absolutely not! I won't sit in your cloud!" I shouted at him.

"Oh, it ain't that bad!" he said, and he paused for a moment. "On second thought, it is that bad, I gotta get up and move! What the hell did I eat?" He crossed the room to me and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. "I might be disgustin', but you still love me and that's all I care about."

"After that, I'm not so sure," I said to him playfully.

"And for that, you owe me a five second kiss. Come on, now, pay up!" Don told me. I rolled my eyes and gave him what he wanted, all while Phil sat in his chair sort of looking off into the distance. "Phil, you okay?" Don asked him once we'd broken our kiss.

"I still haven't told Jackie... or Mom and Dad, for that matter. About Wyatt," Phil replied. By this point, Wyatt was six months old and Phil was still sending the Wallace family $1,000 a month.

"Phil, you've got to tell her soon. She's coming to visit here so you should tell her then," I told him.

"I don't know what to say to her!" Phil cried. "How do ya tell your wife ya cheated on her and have a kid somewhere in Canada?"

"Well, I wouldn't know from experience, personally-" Don began sarcastically, but I cut him off.

"Don, honey, now isn't the time to be joking," I told him. "Why don't you go off and, I don't know, take a shit or something and solve that gas problem you've got?"

"Gas problem? It was one fart! It ain't the end of the world!" Don exclaimed. "But fine, I get it, Phil wants a private talk. I'll go take a shit, and when I'm done, I'll go out for a smoke. That'll give y'all a good ten minutes."

"More like half an hour with the way you shit," I told him, and Don kissed me to shut me up.

"Keep makin' mean jokes and I'll never kiss ya again," he said, giving me another kiss. "Love ya, baby. You know where to find me if ya need me."

"Love you, too, you barmy git," I told him, making sure to playfully smack his ass as he left, and then I looked at Phil. "I love your brother so damn much... I know sometimes it sounds like we're mean to each other, but he's so sweet to me, and so loving and caring. I've never felt like I've been loved as much as I am by your brother, and I know that he'd never cheat on me. I trust him like that. But if he ever did, and there was a baby as a result of it, I'd be absolutely heartbroken, but if the situation was the same as yours, then perhaps I'd understand."