Roger Zee Memoirs

"Life and Times of a Pandemic Musician"

Israel 1969 09/13/20

Back in 1969, right after I turned sixteen, my parents caught me incoherent, under the influence of LSD, sitting on the front stoop of our house late at night staring into the sky. I must say they handled the situation pretty well. Though I knew the other foot would drop soon enough... Welcome to another excerpt from my memoirs, "Life and Times of a Pandemic Musician."

And then it happened. My parents decided to send me on a Reform Jewish youth group tour of Israel for the summer with a stop-off in Rome, Italy at the beginning and end of the trip. After my many years of Hebrew school, my folks didn't think I exhibited the proper respect for religion. Frankly, neither me or my ADD had any patience or use for it. And that didn't go over very well. Hence the trip. I didn't get too concerned about it until I met up with the group before we left. A rabbi would lead the tour and we would pray before and after every site we visited. Ugh oh!

It started off well enough. I managed to stash a nice supply of weed in my bags and met the group at the airport. We would share the chartered flight with another Jewish group who just flew in from CA. And lo and behold, I found myself seated on the plane next to a drop-dead, gorgeous, brunette, Hippie chick from San Francisco. We hit it off like gangbusters! After landing in Rome, her group and mine spent the night partying in the same hotel and toured the city together next day. "Love Struck Baby!" Unfortunately, the following day the groups split up and each left on a different flight.

As much fun as I enjoyed the first few days, that's how little I experienced most of the rest of the trip. I couldn't make a simpatico connection with anyone in the group. I found myself isolated as the only non-observant Jew. So boring and annoying to say a prayer on arrival at every place we visited. As to romance, the four girls in the group hooked up almost immediately with guys and left the preponderance of us men on our own.

We did visit some pretty cool places including Old Jerusalem, the beach in Ashkelon, the Sinai desert, the Dead Sea, Tel Aviv, and even worked on a kibbutz for a week on ladders picking pears and peaches. Funnily enough, we didn't meet any kids on the kibbutz because they they all spent the week on vacation in Europe, LOL! Pissed me off.

I enjoyed the old city of Jerusalem and getting fleeced in the Arab markets. I ended up buying a sheepskin coat, sheepskin vest, and a giant hookah to take home as well as a few trinkets for Mom and Dad. But the most surreal event occurred while strolling through a park in Tel Aviv where I happened upon a public TV showing live the US astronauts walking on the moon for the first time. A big "Wow" moment for me although later in life I've come to believe the US staged a fake "Hollywood" event.

I did pick up a few bad habits that summer. After I ran through my weed stash, I could only procure hash. We mostly smoked it through pipes but on occasion we'd roll up a cigarette with tobacco and hashish. Before I knew it, I started smoking cigars and then later cigarettes. Fortunately, I dropped the cigarette habit before I left Israel.

Two of the guys on the trip brought along their Martin guitars and would occasionally and begrudgingly allow me to play them. But most of the time I just sat around the campfire and listened to Peter Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel songs. No Rockers other than me in that group!

I remember my band teacher at Great Neck North Jr. High telling us we needed to begin and end each music piece strong. That's all that people really listened for. Didn't matter if we fluffed the middle, LOL! And that's how my Israel trip went. I ended up Rocking Rome at the start and the finish...

Leaving Israel for Italy, we hooked up at the airport with the same group we came with. And of course I sat next to my beautiful Hippie as we exchanged our exaggerated stories and smooched. We spent that evening and the next day together enjoying Rome to the max -- the King and the Queen! The next day we sat together once again on a plane headed for Kennedy Airport and held each other close. She fell gently asleep with her head on my shoulder. I woke her with a tender kiss. Oh how I hated to say goodbye!

And so on another Covid-19 "Masked Marauder" lockdown tinged with the hope that a vaccine might descend upon us before Christmas, I pull out my bass, learn the lines to Peter Paul and Mary's "Greatest Hits," and dream of my lovely15-year-old San Francisco Hippie Ray of Sunshine. One <3

YouTube - Leaving On A Jet Plane - Peter Paul and Mary