re: #318 Obdicut

“Homosexual tendencies” was one of the questions on the psych evaluation during a lot of the post-WWII period. During WWII, they had a more comprehensive screening process for homosexuals, including, and I’m not kidding, ‘distended rectum’.

I had a different run-in with an Army psychiatrist in 1963. First, know that NYC was full of naifs, and I was their king. My orders for a draft physical sent me to Whitehall Examining Station, the exact location and era shown in Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant. When we went in, we were made to fill out long health questionaires including “Do you have trouble sleeping?” and “Do you worry a lot?”. I checked both, very truthfully. After a day of poking and prodding, a hundred or two of us were sitting in our gutchies in a large hall, and a Corporal With a Clipboard announced: “The following people report to the shrink”. So I was in front of a huge Civil Service doc with cigarette ashes falling down his extended shirtfront.

“It says here you have trouble sleeping.”

“Yes.”

It also says you worry a lot. What are you worried about?”

“Getting drafted.”

“Get the fuck out of here, kid.”

Draft notice arrived in a couple weeks.