The year is 1963 and tensions are mounting in the United States.
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald, Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested while protesting and writes his infamous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, and the United States is on the brink of entering the Vietnam War.
The American counterculture is being conceived within the madness, and life in the ‘land of the free’ is about to come with a heavy cost.
Driving a jet-black Studebaker through the desert on Interstate 15, with a jacked-up suspension and rebuilt engine, is the college bound Tom Forcade and future founder of High Times Magazine. He’s driving from his home in Phoenix, Arizona and knows, even before crossing the state line, that the car he crafted by hand can out-run any police car in Utah.
He learned everything he knew about cars and life from his father, Kenneth, and loved nothing more than driving madly through the Arizona desert as a teenager. He brought that fueled up energy with him when he decided to attend the University of Utah that year.
Born September 11, 1945 in Hayward, California, Tom was known for having the toughest father around. After serving in World War II as a civil engineer on the Alaskan Highway, Kenneth traveled the globe, as he planned and built massive construction projects, from airports, power plants, to factories.
He brought his small family along for the ride, and Kenneth would make sure to cement his reputation as being the toughest around everywhere they went.
To prove it, Tom’s father was known for visiting the roughest saloon he could find, and announce in a loud voice that he could whip anybody who dared tried. Those who challenged the eager veteran would get knocked silly one by one.
His wife hated his fighting and would stand at the front door pleading with her husband not to go out and challenge the locals. Kenneth would stand before her, arms crossed, and begin to laugh before leaving the house without saying a word. His family had no explanation for his love to fight, except they remember he was damn good at it.
Although a short man and only weighing 170 pounds, Kenneth was tough as nails. His force of will and attitude that you can do anything was his motto and he made sure to pass this mentality on to his only son Tom.
In 1957, when Tom was only 11 years-old, his father tragically died in a car crash while away on work at a nuclear facility in southern Arizona. The news came to the family through a telephone call and young Tom overheard in the next room. When learning this, his mother felt horribly for Tom and was surprised by the compassion the young boy showed in return. He managed to walk blocks away from the home, unknowingly to his family, only to return with his mother’s favorite magazine and candy bar he bought with his own money to console her.
Tom’s mother remembers her son as a model child who was extremely sensitive, shy, and patriotic. He was a good boy scout and hated controversy of any kind.
After a lifetime of moving from town to town, Tom’s mother found a job and relocated the family (Tom and his sister) to Phoenix, Arizona where he would spend the rest of his youth.
West High School was his stomping ground during 1959 and 1963, and where he graduated with high honors. Classmates remember Tom as a shy, smart, and friendly kid who eased through school, allowing him to find time to do what he loved best – racing cars.
On the weekends and at night, Tom could be found in his mother’s garage, building, and working on cars he would race at the local track. She would remember waking on occasion to him coming home late from the track and making sure she had the covers pulled tight around her. He cared for his mother deeply.
As a teenager, he gained the reputation of being an accomplished racer and was considered a threat on the track. His father would have been proud knowing his son was no push over, even by the older racers he was stealing checkered flags from.
A rebellious side that was fueled by fast cars, whisky, and Coca-Cola, Tom decided to head north to attend the University of Utah after graduation. The surrounding Bonneville Salt Flats lured he and his souped-up Studebaker, and was soon terrorizing the streets of downtown Salt Lake City.
Although a rebel behind the wheel, college friends remember a softer side of Tom, and recall that he always carried a kit of tools and paint to fix any damage he caused while tearing through town. Although he was a troublemaker, at the same time he didn’t want to cause problems for anybody else and had a strong sense of ethics.
A lot like the cars he raced down State Street, Tom blazed through school and in two and half years earned a degree with honors in Business Administration. Roommates recall Tom would enroll in the higher-level courses first and, after receiving an A, and argue his way out of taking the lower level courses with his advisers.
While in college his rebellion and focus on fast cars shifted to cannabis, psychedelics, and other drugs. According to classmates, smoking pot was normal for most students on campus and Tom was just like everybody else.
In the years Tom was in Utah, the country was starting to turn over on itself, and the radical movement had begun. Marines started their thunderous march into Da Nang, South Vietnam, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City, and the anti-war movement begins when the Pentagon requests the President Johnson to increase troops in Vietnam from 120,000 to 400,000.
Riots and protesting began to sweep the country and Utah was a hot spot. The more Tom became aware of the counterculture, the more he started to question what the United States was doing in Vietnam.
Leading the anti-war movement in Salt Lake City was Ammon Hennsey and Mary Lathrop. They opened the ‘Joe Hill House’, a Catholic Worker Movement house of hospitality located at 1462 South 400 West, two blocks away from the Vitro smokestack. This site was designed to provide social services and housing for the abundance of transients jumping off freights Hennsey felt the Salvation Army was ignoring. It was also the center for all anti-war activity in Utah.
Hennsey was known nationally for his autobiography, “The One-Man Revolution,” which consists of seventeen chapters, each one devoted to an American radical. Known for his anti-government beliefs and refusing to pay taxes, Hennsey would also show up during Utah state executions to protest and refuse to eat. He was a free-thinker and stood tall for what he believed in and served prison time to prove it – and Tom idolized him.
After the Joe Hill house was shut down in 1968, it was reopened by Hal Noakes and John Chanonat, editors of the Utah Free Press. Through this, Tom was introduced to the world of journalism and the power of the Underground Press Syndicate – and his life would never be the same again. . .
– Stay tuned for ‘Part Two of the Tom Forcade Saga’ and his entrance into the world of the underground coming next week.
