When I was twenty-three and running for the Republican nomination for McHenry County Treasurer the precursor of Facebook was logal gossip.
After being examined by military doctos at Great Lakes and Glenview, I was classified as 1-Y.
In the first exam a doctor who in the worst way did not wnat to be in the military sat me on a metal table and performed an exam.
The last part was a color blindness test.
I was missing the answer in page after page.
He showed me the last page and said, “You better get this one right!”
It was the control page, 23, I think.
“That doesn’t matter. The Marines need men who see through camouflage.”
I jumped off the table and he looked at my feet.
“Do you have flat feet?”
“No.” I replied. “I have a tendency toward flat feet.”
He then sent me to Glenview for another MD to take a look at me.
A recruiting Sergeant me and said, “I’m sorry son, but thr you can’t join the Marine Reserves with a tendancy toward flat feet.
“You can join the Marines though.”
It was 1964 and I didn’t
After taking off my shoes again, the second doc went away.
It was the summer of 1964 and I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
I knew I like politics, having been an active member of the Oberlin Co;llege Young Republicans for four years and the college campaign manager for our local Republicsn Congressman Chrles A. Mosher. (We gave him 2,800 hours of assistance.)
Iwas soured on business after taking both the beginning business and publilc administration courses at Northern Illinois University. The business course was taught by the Department head and was the worst college course I ever took (He asked us to write the final. Pretty much all of the questions I submitted were on the test.)
The publilc administration course, on the other hand, taught by a future President of NIU, had some meat.
I ended up going to grad school at the University of Michigan in public administration, getting a job at the highest entry level at the United States Budget Bureau in tht middle of 1965.
My father almsot defeted the Chairmn of the McHrnry County Board for County Auditor in 1964.
I tried to convince him to run for County Treasurer, but he pointed out he already had a full-time job and, while he figure the Auditor post would have been part-time, Treasurer would not be.
So I went upt the first flight of stairs in the Courthouse Annex (now Woodstock City Hall) to talk to the head of the Draft Board. He worked McHenry County’s zoning officerr.
I assked him the odds of my getting drafted.
He let me know that being drafted with a 1-Y designsation was not likely.
I ran a door knocking campaign lasting until dusk in that June 13th election.
In the last few weeks of the campaign, the gossip mill presented this “hit’ on me:
“You know Cal is classified 1-Y.
“There are only three reasons a guy is classified 1-Y
“The first is not being physically fit and Cal is knocking on doors.
“The second is being mentally unfit. That’s can’t be.
“Third is being a homosexual….”
Kelli Wegener unleashed a similar big lie.
In her comparison piece she write this falsehood:
“Raised his own pay.”
As soon as I read it, I knew it was a lie.
The Chairman of the McHenry Couunty Board is not allowed a vote unless there is a tie vote.
Below you can see the minutes from the September, 2022, County Board meeting:
If this were the Washington Post, Wegener’s lie would be lables four pinocchios.
