24 Bob Dylon It was
1:30pm13:30 when I took a refreshing
shower and ate my last sandwich. My motel room
was on the ground floor, so I could place Coco in front of my motel-room, but instead
I invited her inside. I checked her rear wheel and I was a little proud
that the wheel was still straight. Knowing that San Diego was about seven cycling
days away and with the bicycle tools I got from Eduardo I was absolutely sure that
I could keep Coco’s wheels in good shape till the finish in San Diego. At 2:00pm14:00 I told Coco I wanted to visit downtown Tucson again and
that she was very welcome to come along. As advised by Bill, a few days ago, I bought myself
some sunglasses as protection for the combination white desert sand and sun. I also bought
some apples, oranges, beer, seven-up, bread and chips and some bread spreads and
explored the historical city center. At a magazine
shop I bought postcards for my family and friends. Around 5:00pm17:00 Coco and I
returned to our motel. In front
of my room, I met a guy my age; he introduced himself as Dwayne from Amarillo, Texas.
Dwayne told
me he stayed here in Motel 6 every other week for a few nights. It was for his work at the Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC). He was interested
in my cycling story and invited me to drive with him to his favorite restaurant/bar
‘The Bum Steer’ to join him for dinner and a short drink. “On my cost,”
he added, “I can easily invoice dinner and drinks for the both of us. It is a crazy but popular place. Back in the '70s,
a group of airline pilots got together and bought a bunch of properties across the
states. They just
wanted to open up some cool places to hang out.” “What is a Bum
Steer,” I asked. “It’s a proverb and it means, incorrect and
unhelpful information. Originally it is a term from old times when the
mate had to maneuver a ship
in reverse. He needed to
shout instructions from the wharf to the wheelhouse, via intermediary deckhands.
Such communication was prone to misunderstandings
due to the wide variety of nationalities employed on United States merchant vessels
during the 19th century. In relation
to the restaurant, Bum Steer it is the steering wheel of a vessel hanging on the
wall We took his
lease car and drove to the place which was located near a University. Dwayne parked
in a large parking lot in front of a rather strange and large building that seemed
to be ‘the place to be’ in Tucson. The building was almost without windows and
had red and white vertical colored lines over the whole building. It probably was
two or three levels high, difficult to tell because of the lack of windows. A high, wide chimney on top of the roof showed
the name ‘Bum Steer’. It wasn’t possible
to give a correct description of the insides! When you entered
the door, a huge male statue was looking down at you. It was
an eclectic and quirky mix of rubbish hanging from the ceilings and on the walls;
from an entire airplane, a ceiling-mounted horse carriage, a bike, a giant buffalo,
street signs, license plates, a large artificial tree, a catapult, World War II
decorations and Wild West kitsch. A wide
staircase led to the top floor. Dwayne explained that a lot of the eclectic furnishings
came from a Hollywood movie studio that went out of business in the 70s. Downstairs there was a dining room and two college-style
bar areas, both serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Looking at the crowd,
the place was a hot spot for students from the nearby University. The second floor
of the restaurant had an open area for families with children with a game-room The service
was amazing. Even with so many guests the food came fast and was delicious. The burgers were popular, and the menu card
showed an interesting mix of burgers. We both ended up eating a plate with the famous
half-pound burger. Two beer glasses
accompanied our food. During dinner
I told Dwayne some of my adventures and Dwayne told me a fascinating story about
his idol, Bob Dylan. “By his fans here in the southern states it
is crystal clear that somewhere between a year ago and the beginning of this year,
Dylan underwent a complete ideological change, from rock star to devoting his life
and music to the cause of Jesus Christ.”
Dwayne paused to be sure I understood this
important news, and went on. “God’s
spirit certainly moved Dylan, when he recorded Slow Train Coming. Two weeks ago, I arrived a day earlier, in the
same motel we are in now, to attend a Sunday concert of Dylan at the Music Hall.” Dwayne
became excited about something and he started to lower his voice almost conspiratorially.
“I know Dylan does not like staying in luxury.
He prefers to stay in hotels where he can drive his vehicle in front of his room,
so no one would see him. He also likes swimming pools. By coincidence, I found out he stayed in a hotel
a half mile0.8km north on this road. A friend of mine,
also a Dylan fan, visited a concert of Bob Dylan almost a month ago in the Golden
Hall in San Diego. He told me that Dylan started his concert with a somewhat confusing
talk with the audience. That, by itself,
was not strange, but this time he told the audience about how God’s spirit moved
him after the concert last year in San Diego. Dylan spoke, “When I was on stage here, last year, I was not
feeling too well. One person
from the crowd threw a silver cross on the stage. Usually I don’t pick things up that are thrown on the stage. But, I looked
down and something told me to pick that up and backstage I placed it around my neck.
Two
days later, in a Tucson hotel room, I felt terrible again. All my life I’ve had visions that caused divisions.
That night in my hotel room in Tucson I experienced
a divine intervention of Christ. I came
to believe that, when Jesus revealed himself, he literally rescued me from an
early grave.” I responded
surprised. “In my
country Bob Dylan is also famous and I love the song of the father and the son.
This is
headline news even in the Netherlands. How was
he when you visited his concert in the Music Hall in Tucson two weeks ago? Did Dylan mention something about his vision?” “When he
came on stage somebody from the audience called everybody must get stoned!
Dylan asked the public Who was that,
who said that? Give me that person's name! who said that. Dylan!
Was the reaction of the public. He-he, but before Slow Train, Dylan reacted” I believe in a god who can raise the dead. No
other kind of god will do. Dwayne gave me the folder of Dylan’s concert
in Tucson and told me I could keep it because he had more. The folder gave me all the band members
with on the keyboards Spooner Oldham and Terry Young. Fred Tackett, playing lead
guitar. On drums, Jim Keltner and on the bass guitar Tim Drummond. The singers were, Helena Springs, Regina McCrary
and Mona Lisa Young. The numbers Dylan played that night were: Gotta Serve Somebody; I Believe In You; When You Gonna Wake
Up?; When He Returns; Man Gave Names To All The Animals; Precious Angel; Slow Train;
Covenant Woman; Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking; Do Right
To Me, Baby; Solid Rock; Saving Grace; Saved (Bob Dylan/Tim Drummond); What Can
I Do For You?; In The Garden; Blessed Be The Name; Pressing On. Dwayne was a good storyteller. What a
gossip it was! Nobody in the Netherlands except for me probably
knew about this. After dinner
we were in a very good mood and we did not yet intend to go back to the motel. We moved from
the dining room to one of the two bars. After a
few more beers and a lot of funny stories we found out we were soulmates. Dwayne mentioned the AEC a few times, so I asked
him to tell me a little bit more about his job, not making it too technical. His eyes started to sparkle by this question which
usually meant it would be a long, exhausting story but it was worth it. He started an astounding story. “A company that deals in radioactive substances
must have a license from the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). I work as a controller for this Commission. Did you
hear about the catastrophe that happened a few months ago, here in downtown Tucson?” I told him that I just arrived today and did
not notice any restlessness in town. “It was about a small Tucson watch-dial factory
American Atomics that fell victim to the hysteria over radioactivity. It resulted in an invasion by the National Guard. Let me first tell
you something about this watch-dial factory which was located in midtown Tucson.
The company made a business of buying radioactive tritium from the federal
weapons program and inserting it into digital watches. The tritium made the watches
glow without electricity. In the thirties the radioactive radium
was used for the glow effect in watches, but radium was rare, so those watches
were expensive. In the fifties they started to use radioactive
strontium-90 (Sr-90) which was a waste product of the atom bomb. When the atom bomb became replaced by the H-bombs
they found out that a byproduct of the H-bombs, the radioactive tritium,
was a cheaper and a much safer product. Radioactive
tritium is too weak to go through a single cell in the human body, but inside a
watch the weak beta gas only needs to hit the surface to light up the crystal. In the previous years there were several incidents
reported at this Tucson plant. It regularly
leaked large quantities of tritium gas into the atmosphere and they also dumped
large amounts of water mixed with tritium into the public sewer system. Five months ago, a colleague investigator of the
AEC found a tritium-tainted chocolate cake in a nearby kitchen directly across
the street. It was a kitchen that supplied lunches to 40,000 city schoolchildren.
A little later the Arizona Union announced that
seven cases of cancer, including four deaths, had occurred among kitchen workers
since 1976. Radiation levels higher than normal were also
found in the urine of local residents. A woman, exposed
to tritium, registered herself into the nearby hospital. She was feverish, tired,
and losing her hair. She told the nurse that the family dog was also losing
hair. Headlines wrote : A ‘major catastrophe’ was prevented
when, minutes before the parochial high school swimming team was about to plunge
into their pool, the AEC stopped them and reported the latest test results from
the pool. The amount of tritium in the pool exceeded three times the allowed
level per liter. Newspapers
quoted researchers who were theorizing that tritium can be incorporated
into the DNA of living cells leading to genetic mutations and cancer. Two months ago, the governor of Arizona
declared a state of emergency and ordered the National Guard not only to shut
down the plant but also to board it up. It was rumored
that the governor was considering evacuation of the neighborhood, but nobody could
tell him where the neighborhood ended.
“ “Sorry Dwayne, it all sounds a little scary,
I remember
you told me that the plant is situated in midtown Tucson. How far is that from here?”
I asked him. He smiled and told me, “Only a few miles!” “What is your
role in this whole nasty situation, is it not very dangerous for you to do your
thing over there?” I asked. “Listen Peter, life is not always honest, and
most stories have two sides. This stays between
the two of us, Peter! Tritium is one
of the safest of radioactive substances, unable to penetrate the skin, and even
ingested it never showed any harmful biological effects. Nevertheless, the AEC saw a golden opportunity
to benefit from the Tucson Tritium scandal. AEC was promoting the great hysteria with a worst
possible scenario, and Tritium was the star performer. AEC convinced the Congress that they needed a
substantial increase in their budget so that they would be able to protect the
public effectively.“ “But all those examples you mentioned? I reacted
indignantly! “Peter, I have been working for the AEC for
many years and I am a specialist in this subject. My organization
knew that tritium was harmless, but chose to promote radiation hysteria among the
public. For instance,
the sample of food from the school kitchen was measured and found within limits
but the papers noted alarmingly that the tritium gas from the plant was blowing
over the school kitchen for many years. “ We left the bar at 10:00pm22:00
and in front of our motel room our goodbye
was accompanied by a warm handshake. Before sleeping,
I opened my notebook and…. Dear
Note As you can read it was an interesting day and from the
reception I took some tourist folders about Tucson and Old Tucson. The title of
the folder of Old Tucson was ‘Where the Wild West Lives Again!’ The folder of Tucson
described the origin of the name Tucson.
The now-vanished Indian community at the foot
of Sentinel Mountain was called Ts-iuk-shan, referring to the fact that the foot of the mountains is
darker than its summit. The Spanish pronunciation became Tuqui
Son. But Tucson has also the nickname
"Old Pueblo." When Tucson was
first founded in 1775, it was called the Presidio San Agustin de Tucson. A presidio
is a walled city, not just a fort, but a place where families, craftsman, and
merchants live as well. By 1800, there were enough civilian colonists in Tucson
to begin calling the place the Pueblo de Tucson. A few pages back, I already told
you about Hoss, the guy raised in Sonora and who played a role in High Chaparral.
It was a TV-series I watched already years ago at home in the Netherlands. In
the folder of Old Tucson ‘High Chaparral’ was mentioned. There is a permanent
ranch set of the High Chaparral at Old Tucson. The folder showed me that Old Tucson
was 12mi19km from here, but it also leads me further away
from the interstate we need to take to cycle to our next goal, Casa Grande. Old
Tucson was in the middle of Tucson Mountain Park. It sounded hilly and for a cyclist
too much of a detour, too many extra miles. It would be too risky not to be in Casa
Grande before dark. I also cannot afford to stay a day longer because of my limited
budget. Sorry Note, you have to do it with this short description,
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