Alices Restaurant II

Alices Restaurant is about a song , the writer of this song is Arlo Guthrie, the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along with the song as there listening and understanding what the song is meaning , and also to try to convince people to resist the draft and hopefully end the war . This all took place in1965, during the Vietnam war. Arlo Guthrie did not think the war was a good idea , but the military still was trying to draft him, but they could not join. They wouldn't let him join because of a little bit of trouble he got into.


Arlo and got caught dumping illegally and got arrested, he got fined fifty dollars and was assigned to go pickup the garbage that he dumped, after he picked up the garbage. The police man "Obie" found Arlo Guthrie name on a envelope at the bottom of the cliff where Arlo and his friend dumped there trash. The following morning officer Obie called Arlo and said that they found the garbage that he had dumped and needed him to come down to the station. When Arlo got down to the station Obie put Arlo into a cell, and asked him for his wallet and belt, Arlo ask Obie" i understand you taking my wallet but why my belt"? Obie answer by sawing Arlo we do not need any hangings happening in this jail house, then Arlo smarted off and said something about taking the toilet seat off to, because he could easily drown himself with the seat being on there, so Obie took the toilet seat off to. After all of the garbage was picked up he had to go before a court and see if he was cleared. The judge that was determining Arlo Guthrie conviction was blind. Since his conviction and being proven guilty he was kicked out of the draft and could not join the military.The military wouldn't allow anyone to be drafted that had a criminal recored and Arlo Guthrie did.


Alices restaurant is based on a true story, the reason Arlo Guthrie decided to write this song was because he experienced what the songs about. Some more interesting information about Alices Restaurant is that it has nothing to do with what the songs about, i really do not understand what Arlo is getting at when he chose to name his song Alices Resteraunt . The song lasts eighteen minutes and twenty seconds, its a very long song. Alice M Brock and her husband Ray Brock was a owner of a restaurant, that was originally a church. Alice Brock was a painter and designer and Ray Brock was a wood worker and architect . Alices restaurant was formally known as " The Back Room Rest".


People that did not want to go to the Vietnam war had a couple of choices, they could either skip state and leave and go to Canada , or Mexico. They could also burn there draft cards, but if they did that they were technically criminals. After burning there draft cards, if they were to get stopped or get into trouble for anything, the police would run a check on them and when it checked out that they did not go to fight in the war like they were suppose to, they would go straight to jail. There was alot of people that thought going to jail was worth not going to fight for there country.


I think Mr. Neuburger chose this song because in the song "Alices Restaurant" it tries to convince the listeners that you can accomplish anything that you want as long as you fight for it, and work at it. I believe that you chose this title because you want us to realize that we can do anything that we put our mind to, as long as were willing to work for it and work at it. I just think that you basically chose this to us to give us a assignment and get us back into the work ethic. And you want us to realize that anything is possible. Thank you so much for reading and i hope you enjoyed your self while you were reading the 100 % material.







Sources
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/alice.html
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml