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Chuck Berry 1963
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From: Chuck Berry - The Autobiography
Harmony Books (1987)
by Chuck Berry
"When I finishes
the credits and extra courses in business management and accounting
I was ready for graduation. My wife, Toddy, came to hear me deliver
the valedictory speech and witness me receiving my diploma and extra
certificates. One of the more pleasant memories, yet a bit sad, was
that she wept as I was nearing the close of the valedictory address,
causing me to stumble over some lines. Later she told me her sorrow
was caused by the location of the occasion within the confines of
a prison.
I came to the close
of my stay (in prison) when I was successful at my first chance up
for parole. With my diploma and credits, Toddy, my father, and my
brother Hank picked my up on my birtday, October 18, 1963, and we
traveled back home. I was free again but did not feel much different
that the week after I was registred in the place other than I kneew
I had many more obligations and responsibilities. It may be odd to
some but I've allways belived that no place or condition can really
hinder a person from being free if he has an active, imaginative mind.
There is one thing for sure, I did cheat the government of my imprisonment
by way of the achivements I accomplished while there. Sorry, great
white father, You can't indict me for that.
It was a real thrill
to get into my own Cadillac, after not even seeing one for sixteen
mounths, and drive myself sixty miles per hour up I-55 for 255 miles
to my own home. Hank and dad were fatigued after driving down and
Toddy and I had the journey back all to ourselves after the first
20 minutes of the four of us reminiscing about things occuring during
my absence.
After October 18, 1963,
I started all over again and quickly got into the swing of rebuilding
the business. As soon as I was released I began phoning all my business
associates to inform them that the prodigal soon had come back home.
How glad they were to know this appeared in their immediate readness
to get me back to work as soon as engagement or sessions could be
arranged.
I had spent 22 mounths
away from business. The parole officer I was assigned to was at the
threshold of retirement and went by the book, which requared me to
request permission to travel out of the St. Louis City district. This
was crippling in negotiating with producers and booking agencies.
Many concerts were lost because of the time it took to clear the paperwork
required to process the travel. I was denied permission to travel
to chicago to record. Leonard Chess, seeing still a value in the product,
suggested I have my parole transferred to Illinois, where he knew
people who knew others who had the authority to allow leniencies to
be given in "hardschip" cases, as they called it."
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