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The Easter uprising in Daytona Beach

I had a by-lined story in the April 7, 1972 edition of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise about a Saranac Lake senior hitchhiking his way to Daytona Beach, Florida for “Spring Break.”

If you want a glimpse of what “Spring Break” is like today in Daytona, do yourself a favor and visit the Google site.

No, it was not aboutour son Keefe, who did make the exodus to Florida with a bunch of his friends when he was in high school. They drove down but Keefe left early and hitchhiked home.

When Keefe was attending Plattsburgh State, playing hockey, he and teammate Tom Jennings went to Holland and tried out for the Holland National team – they didn’t make the cut – but stayed a while and had a great time touring other parts of Europe.

Following are excerpts from my 1972 story:

“Mark Fuller, a handsome, suntanned senior at Saranac Lake Central School, has just returned from a hitchhiking trip to Daytona Beach, Florida.

“Mark is the first to admit that there is nothing unique about a teenager spending his Easter vacation at Daytona Beach, because there were 199,000 other young people there at the same time.

“He was one of about 20 Saranac Lake Central seniors and juniors who have just returned from the southland. Most of the young people there, however, were college students and not high school students. Saranac Lake does seem to be unique in this respect. We have not heard of many high school students in Lake Placid or Tupper Lake traveling to Florida by thumb, and Mark said that most of the young people he ran into were from colleges.

“An Associated Press story which we carried earlier in the week quoted police at Daytona Beach, ‘Arrests have been kept to a minimum.’

“The boys who have returned gave quite a different version of this. Mark said the police lineup paddy-wagons on the beach bumper-to-bumper and haul the kids away as fast as they can load them in.

“The slightest act can land one in the pokey, but the ‘open container’ violation seems to be the favorite with the Daytona police. The fine for this violation is $32. One boy who had a chance to see the inside of the police station said $3,000 in fines had been collected in one-half hour.

“The fine for sleeping on the beach is $600, and the Daytona campsite area was full. So most kids who went down hoping to sleep without getting a motel room were disappointed and ended up spending their recreation money for a room.

“Many of the kids went by car, but Mark, with his friend Brain Baker, made it to Daytona in 18 rides, leaving here on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. and arriving there at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.

“The young people spent most of their time soaking up the atmosphere and sunshine. He said they only had about three good sunshine days out of eight, body surfing, girl watching and window shopping. He said the kids were all really friendly and invitations to visit were shouted from the open doors of motel rooms as they passed by.

“They stayed at the Seaview Motel and paid $140 for one room for five days. There was a kitchenette in the room, and when money started to run low, they started eating beef stew and baked beans in the room.

“Mark said he had made friends with two girls from South Carolina, and then when he and Brian were hitching out of Daytona, by a very rare coincidence, the same girls picked them up and took them as far as their home. Truck drivers were the friendliest for rides, but he had a word of caution to long-hairs hitchhiking…beware of ‘rednecks’, who may give you a ride with the idea of working you over. He ran into this type of harassment but managed to get away when the car stopped.

“Kevin Martin, another senior making the southern migration, found a drug store where you could get breakfast consisting of two eggs, bacon, pancakes and grits for 99 cents.

“Mark found all the people he met on the trip exceptionally friendly. When he arrived there, he said it seemed as if the boys outnumbered the girls 5 to 1, but later in the week the ratio seemed to change to three girls to one boy, which he found much more to his liking.

“Some of the other guys are talking about going to some other beach next year. They want a quite, out-of-the-way place away from the masses of young people.” [Yeah, sure guys].

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