THE '60'S
Mr. & Mrs. Sarge Enterprises is the amazing result of one Vietnam combat veteran's attempt at self-theapy that got completely out of control. Sarge found early on that he could write things down that he couldn't talk about, not even to his wife, Leslie. Sarge and Leslie survived Vietnam and the sixties but the hard times had only begun. Leslie encouraged and supported him through these very rough times that included being homeless with their two oldest children.
After an extreamly long running yard sale they packed their two children and whatever belongings that they didn't sell into their 1950's International panel truck, and headed off for Mexico. Sarge was suffering from cronic Post Tramatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As he was only rated, at that time, at fifty percent by the Veterans Admenistration, (VA) they found they couldn't survive on that amount of money in this country. It took nine years for Leslie to battle the VA for Sarge's one hundred percent disability rating.
On the way to Mexico they had stopped in Patagonia, Arizona to visit friends, when they found out that Leslie was pregnant. So instead of going on to Mexico they found the most difficult place to get to in that area, and made their camp there. Sarge and Leslie didn't approach homelessness like most people. Thanks to Sarge's survival skills they were able to move out into the wilderness and make themselves at home. Here is a poem that Sarge wrote about that adventure.
Then something happened that changed their lives from a downward spiral to a steady uphill climb. Sarge asked a friend to teach him the twelve bar blues progression and began to put his Vietnam poetry to blues music. That was the birth of the "Vietnam Blues". Sarge likes to say, "It could have been the Vietnam Rock, or even the Vietnam polka, but when I thought of the Vietnam Blues, well, it was so obviose that I was embarassed."
Sarge is one hundred percent disabled and suffered a high fever, with one of his three cases of malaria, of one hundred and six and eight tenths degrees which left him with very little memory ability. So when Sarge wants to memorize, even the words to his own songs, he has to put a tremendous amount of work into it. However, when Sarge wants to learn something it is hard to get him to stop until he has
it mastered.
