During a post-graduate law school year at NYU studying Civil Law under a scholarship funded by the Ford Foundation, I contracted hepatitis from eating polluted oysters and experienced several months of hospitalization, weakness, recovery and lots of time lolling around Washington Square. I got through the year and was able to complete the courses with reasonable grades. During that time, I applied for and received a Fulbright Scholarship to go to Spain to continue studies, focusing on the concept of horizontal property (their version of what was to become condominiums in the U.S.). My approach was to analyze all the aspects of this form of property ownership and then make the case that the U.S. did not need to have condominiums since most understood the nature of a cooperative ownership. My Spanish was good enough (based on three years in high school and three years studying in college, plus that summer session in Mexico) to get me through that part of the exam/application.
Roger Milgrim and I were still following along the same path. Roger also having received the Ford Fellowship for Civil Law studies and then having been approved for a Fulbright to France. Talk about hand holding and qualifications for these rather special programs! It needs to be chronicled that neither Roger or I wanted to take the path followed by many of our fellow Root-Tilden scholars (and probably by most of the male graduates of NYU Law School) as to how to handle the draft that was in effect at that time. What most did was to enroll in the National Guard program that involved a six month basic training and then an extended period of weekends and some summer time to fulfill their military commitment. If one stayed in school past the age of 26 there was a permanent deferment that was cemented if you were married. I had both of those requirements. It was only many years later when I was ‘working’ at the Dunes West Golf Club in the Charleston, S.C. area with a bunch of retired military people and got an exposure to some of the submariners who were on the atomic submarine named after L. Mendel Rivers, that I got a twinge that being in the military would have been something I would have liked to experience. . . Only then.
A Few Words About the Draft
Following the 1953 Korean War Armistice, Congress passed the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 with the aim of improving National Guard and Federal Reserve Component readiness while also constraining its use by the President. Towards this end, it mandated a six-year service commitment, in a combination of reserve and active duty time, for every line military member regardless of their means of entry. Meanwhile, the SSS kept itself alive by devising and managing a complex system of deferments for a swelling pool of candidates during a period of shrinking requirements. The greatest challenge to the draft came not from protesters but rather lobbyists seeking additional deferments for their constituency groups such as scientists and farmers.
Government leaders felt the potential for a draft was a critical element in maintaining a constant flow of volunteers. On numerous occasions Gen. Hershey told Congress for every man drafted, three or four more were scared into volunteering. Assuming his assessment was accurate; this would mean over 11 million men volunteered for service because of the draft between January 1954 and April 1975. The policy of using the draft as a club to force "voluntary" enlistment was unique in U.S. history. Previous drafts had not aimed at encouraging individuals to sign up in order to gain preferential placement or less dangerous postings. However, the incremental buildup of Vietnam without a clear threat to the country bolstered this. The military relied upon this draft-induced volunteerism to make its quotas, especially the Army, which accounted for nearly 95 percent of all inductees during Vietnam.
In addition, deferments provided an incentive for men to follow pursuits considered useful to the state. This process, known as channeling, helped push men into educational, occupational, and family choices they might not otherwise have pursued. Undergraduate degrees were valued. Graduate work had varying value over time, though technical and religious training received near constant support. War industry support in the form of teaching, research, or skilled labor also received deferred or exempt status. Finally, marriage and family were exempted because of its positive societal consequences. This included using presidential orders to extend exemptions again to fathers and others.] Channeling was also seen as a means of preempting the early loss of the country's "best and brightest" who had historically joined and died early in war. In the only extended period of military conscription of U.S. males during a major peacetime period, the draft continued on a more limited basis during the late 1950s and early 1960s. While a far smaller percentage of eligible males were conscripted compared to war periods, draftees by law served in the Army for two years. Elvis Presley and Willie Mays were two of the most famous people drafted during this period.
President Kennedy's decision to send military troops to Vietnam as "advisors" was a signal that Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey needed to visit the Oval Office. From that visit emerged two wishes of JFK with regard to conscription. The first was that the names of married men with children should occupy the very bottom of the callup list. Just above them should be the names of men who are married. This Presidential policy, however, was not to be formally encoded into Selective Service Status. Men who fit into these categories became known as Kennedy Husbands. When President Lyndon Johnson decided to rescind this Kennedy policy, there was a last-minute rush to the altar by thousands of American couples.
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In perusing my time as a Fulbright Scholar in Spain (1962-63), the premier name that comes up is that of a bullfighter. For those enamored of this spectacle (or who were enamored) one of the top names is Luis Miguel Dominguin. He qualifies to appear in this work as I had the opportunity to spend several days at his “finca” in Central Spain and did spend a number of hours on many days with his uncle who frequented the gatherings that happened several days a week at the studio of an artist friend in Madrid: Pepe Cousino.
The gatherings at Pepe’s were like many others at the time in Madrid and perhaps in other places in Spain. In part, they were a result of people wanting to get together to share ideas, meet new folk, and (perhaps most of all) to have some wine, bread, cheese and chorizo. These gatherings also were the result of wanting to have something to do later in the day after the workday and before “suppertime” that usually was around 10 or 11 PM. These gatherings took place around 7-8 PM and lasted a couple of hours. I had made my deep interest in bullfighting quite clear at Pepe’s and through whatever mechanism that obtained there, I was introduced to Dominguin’s uncle who invited me and my then wife Joyce to spend a couple of days at Luis’ “finca, go hunting, perhaps try a few bulls, etc. Needless to say I jumped at the chance – Dominguin was THE matador who was in retirement, later to try a “comeback.”
Arriving at Dominguin’s “finca” (estate), I learned that it was more like a feudal fiefdom. There was the main house (castle), many outbuildings, and a community with its own church, medical facilities, complete food production (vegetables, livestock, etc), and a plethora of peons/serfs/retainers or whatever. Of course there were bulls and a bull-ring. What I learned was that most of those who lived on the estate had never . . . NEVER . . . left it to visit anywhere else. And, I didn’t see or feel any discontent, abject poverty, or rebellious nature – au contraire – all seemed to be happy and content with their lives.
The manor house was another trip. I had understood (erroneously) that Luis had been brought up as a poor boy who had no inside plumbing in his home. Wrong. Anyhow, there were more bathrooms than bedrooms and one was never a few steps away if relief was desired. What was interesting was that Luis was not in residence while we visited, so the manor house heating system had been either feathered back or turned off. Anyway, it was COLD! Going to bed meant piling on a number of quilts and snuggling way under.
We did get to go hunting, although what we could hunt was limited. The partridges were reserved for “el senor” and his immediate guests. Anyway, we did bag a number of rabbits that ended up in a fabulous stew. The image that remains with me is standing around a big wooden table in the kitchen, lit by candles. The faces around the table were partially lite with dark eyes and glowing white tooth smiles seemingly suspended in mid-air. Wineskins were making very rapid trips around the table with frequent stops at each person’s mouth. One was handed a big spoon and big round breads were being ripped up all around the table. Bowls were filled from the big iron pot that occupied the center of the table. The stew was most delicious, particularly after a day of walking through the remnants of corn stalks\ -- a day that had begun with a visit to the village square where oil drums had been converted into enormous fryers, and where circles of dough were being fried, scooped out, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and eagerly consumed by us and others on the hunt as well as some other “higher ups.” To wash down these chorizos, the ubiquitous wine skin was passed around, this time holding either sherry or a local cognac. A nice way to break fast.
A highlight of this “visit” was the opportunity I got to face some bulls. These were not the full-grown beasts that were raised and tested to be worthy of appearing on a special Sunday at a corrida where a matador like Luis Miguel would work his magic. Rather they were small (with what seemed like outsized horns), but very quick. I was given one of Luis Miguel’s capes to “play” with or “test” the bulls – a cape that I carried back to the U.S. (with the traces of blood from bulls Luis had killed) and had with me until a couple of moves ago when it seems to have disappeared. I survived my day in the ring; and I got through this effort an even greater appreciation of the bravery and artistic nature of what the matadors do. I also reinforced my passion for this spectacle. After leaving Spain, I have not attended another corrida, although I have seen some movies. Like many spectacles, one’s involvement does depend on time, place, and which of one’s persona is present.
And, O.K., bullfighting might not be everyone’s “cup of tea.” Yes, there is apparent cruelty to a magnificent animal and there is a death (actually 6 to 8 deaths) in each corrida and there is, from time to time, injury – sometimes severe – to the human who challenges the beast. All this being said, there is a grace, a spectacle, a uniting of thousands of eyes and throats and – yes – perhaps some inner sense of ONENESS, of being at ONE with each and all there, with the DNA and generations of breeding infused into the magnificent animal. It is hard not to get caught up in this, this ‘belonging,’ this comradie, this being both spectator and participant in a game – truly a game of life.
One quite “aside” about my time as a Fulbright Scholar in Spain where Francisco Franco reigned. The monthly stipend I got (which was supplemented by the Ford Foundation Fellowship I had received) was pretty small by today’s standards. My recollection is foggy, but a total of around $200 a month seems to ring a bell. I also received transportation costs (the S.S. Niew Amsterdam on the trip across, and the S.S. United States on the way back). A pittance really . . . but when one considers that for under $2 you could get your car serviced (oil change, grease job, steam cleaned engine, and wash) and that for that same amount two people could go to one of the government inns, called Paradors, that were opened in old monasteries, castles, and the like, and get a room, breakfast, and a delicious four course meal. Those days are gone . . . forever? So, Dominguin had his own way to live and define The Grand Manner. Perhaps his way could be seen in the lives and lifestyles of many of our sports heroes in the West today.
Luis Miguel González Lucas (November 9, 1926, Madrid - May 8, 1996) was a famous bullfighter from Spain, better known as Luis Miguel Dominguín. His father was the legendary Domingo Dominguín; he adopted his father's name to gain popularity. Dominguín enjoyed wide popularity during the 1940s and 1950s as he conquered bulls all over Spain, Portugal, Colombia and other places. He debuted at the age of eleven and was active in the card when another legend, Manolete, lost his life.
During his career that lasted for some 30 years, Dominguin killed roughly 2,300 bulls. He is remembered as one of the two protagonists of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously-published "The Dangerous Summer". Trained in his art from the time he was a toddler, he made his debut in the ring at 11, killed his first bull at 14, and developed a flamboyant style that involved kneeling before bulls, turning his back to them, and sometimes kissing them on the head right before the coup de grace. A somewhat arrogant man who once described a bullfight as "...ten minutes for play and ten for business. In 20 minutes he is dead. I, Dominguin, guarantee it", he gained both reputation and wealth fighting bulls throughout Spain and Portugal as well as in South America. Dominguin "retired" multiple times. In the mid 1950s, perhaps encouraged by either his Italian actress wife Lucia Bose or by some of his multiple girlfriends (including Ava Gardner when she was still married to Frank Sinatra) Luis even considered a career in Hollywood.
Dominguin's friendship with Ava Gardner was widely reported. He considered her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but liked her more, he said, for her humor and understanding. Luis confessed himself unsure what he looked for in women. "Men fall in love with a woman`s faults rather than her qualities," he was quoted as saying. Ava, had been previously associated with other bullfighters. Even though she was still married to Frank Sinatra, she didn't spare having any affairs during her vacations in Spain. The relationship between Eva and Luis was passionate and stormy. But also they had their tender moments. It is said that in their first night of lovemaking, he got out of bed and she asked: "Where are you going?". "To go tell!" replied the bullfighter. Years later, he admitted to a friend he made up that anecdote. After Ava divorced Sinatra, Luis Miguel saw his chance to establish their relationship. He wanted to get married and have children, but this wasn't in the Hollywood actress's plans. The idyll ended in September 1954. Years later, he was recalling with affection: "She was the prettiest and the most fierce. I had a very fierce wolf in a cage."
In 1959, Ernest Hemingway, contracted with "Life" magazine to write a series of articles on bullfighting, possibly as a sequel to his 1932 classic "Death in the Afternoon". The pieces were to center around a press manufactured rivalry between Domingun and his young brother-in-law Antonio Ordonez (1932-1998), son of bullfighter Cayetano Ordonez, a situation used to bolster attendance and partially analagous to the "feuds" of American television wrestling. Hemingway openly favored Ordonez, though he was to maintain friendship with and respect for Dominguin despite his opinion that the older matador may have occasionally been using "doctored" bulls, animals that were either overweight, too young, or had had their horns shaved to make them tender, and that he engaged in "tricks", moves that look more dangerous to the crowd than they actually are. (Dominguin for his part liked Hemingway, but considered his knowledge of bulls deficient, and stated that any antipathy between himself and Ordonez was media fiction). The 'dangerous summer' began in May of 1959 and was indeed dangerous, often seeing both matadors on the same card, each trying to outdo the other in crowd pleasing moves. Ordonez, in fact, sometimes killed his bull recibiendo, a rare and most hazardous technique that calls for the fighter to let the bull charge him then use the animal's own force to drive in the sword.
As tension and publicity mounted, both men earned multiple ears, tails, and even hooves; Ordonez suffered multiple minor cornadas (horn wounds) and Dominguin two major ones, the last, at Bilabo, ending the campaign and resulting in yet another retirement. In 1961 he authored the preface for a collection of bullfighting paintings by his friend Pablo Picasso and over the years raised bulls on his ranch in Andalucia, where I got to spend a few days. Dominguin's personal life was turbulent; his marriage to Bose began to fall apart as soon as the pair learned each other's languages and could understand the mutual insults. In addition to Ava, his name was linked with those of Brigette Bardot, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, and others, while Czech actress Miroslava Sternova was holding a photo of him when she committed suicide in 1955.
In 1971 he again returned to the bull ring wearing costumes designed by Picasso. Although Luis was still effective against less than ideal bulls, he received mixed reviews and quit for good following a final corrida in Barcelona on September 12, 1973. In later years he remained a rancher while frequently entertaining visitors with tales of his years in the public eye; he died of heart failureDominguin once tried to describe the fascination of his sport: "It is like being with the woman who pleases you most in the world when her husband comes in with a pistol. The bull is the woman, the husband, and the pistol, all in one. No other life I know can give you all that.”
Law School in Madrid Spain
Attending law classes at the University of Madrid was, at first a puzzlement and, in the end, not what I had signed up for. On the first day of class in a very large amphitheater classroom, there were some 300 ‘students’ present. In front of the classroom on a high podium behind a lectern the professor stood in a black gown. Just below the podium there was an assistant, also in a black gown. The introduction and plan for the semester was presented and an outline like a syllabus was handed out. Class was dismissed and most existed to the rather elegant ‘pub’ in the next building serving wine, beer, soft drinks, coffee and tea, and a variety of rather good snacks.
The next class session dealing with the background of the decision-making process and the role of the courts, judges and legislature (remember this class and the rest of the law school was taking place in a country ruled by the dictator Francisco Franco). There were about 125 students present and I got rather bewildered, but paid attention, working on my understanding of Spanish in this context. Fast forward: attendance at the next classes diminished each time until there were about 30 students left. At each of the classes given, the same scenario prevailed. Students spent a lot of time in the pub. I finally found out the process. The assistant worked with students to find the best note-takers. They then would get together and create a summary of what went on in class. Reading materials were set forth in the syllabus.
As my year studying civil law at NYU Law School was pretty comprehensive, and as law school at the U of Madrid was not at a graduate level, I only occasionally attended class to get the gist of what was going on. I was auditing the classes and not taking them for credit, so my occasional attendance did not leave me with any guilt or violate the work I signed on to do.
I did a lot of research, primarily at the Central Library that had more of the books and materials that I wanted to consult and review. There was one major problem, however. One could only get 3 books at one time, and it generally took more than an hour to get the books. For multiple requests by the same person, delays were the order of business. For one looking to scan many books and materials and to compile an extensive bibliography, this could create a major road block. What to do? Well, there were a number of students who needed study time and who were willing to do that at the Central Library. If they could make some pesos while they were studying, that seemed like a good deal for them. So, now I had a number of students to submit requests for books and other materials and could get my research done reasonably easily.
My thesis, after reviewing the way the different countries in Europe under their civil law approach treated ownership of property and homes that occupied spaces that did not follow the traditional from the center of the earth to the heavens above concept. Ownership could involve horizontal spaces in a vertical milieu. The concept was called, in fact, horizontal property. My argument was that in the United States, where the nature of corporate structure was better understood, this type of ‘ownership’ was not needed. We had cooperatives where as a ‘shareholder’ in the overall owning entity and with a ‘lease’ on the space to be occupied, the ownership of a space 100’ to 110’ above the ground would be understood and already legal. In any event, what I was writing was giving a comparison of how different cultures and different legal systems create ways to enable people to occupy legally space and have varying degrees of ‘ownership.’
What happened to my doctoral thesis was that the winds of change virtually blew it away. While I was in Spain, several jurisdictions in the U.S. (One of the reasons for the growth of the condominium is that most people view it as homeownership. In a cooperative, the individual owns indirectly through ownership in the cooperative stock and a long-term proprietary lease on the apartment. The corporation owns the building and common elements, and the members are stockholders who lease their units from the corporation. In a condominium, the individual owns outright through a fee title to the unit and an undivided interest in the common elements. The condominium owner is an owner of real property, while the cooperative owner is viewed as a stockholder and lessee.34 For many people, “[d]eeds hold tremendous symbolic value,” and this is a major advantage of the condominium over the cooperative.35 ¶17
Following the passage of the Puerto Rico Horizontal Property Act in 1958 and the recognition of the condominium form of property ownership in the 1961 National Housing Act, “Arkansas and Hawaii were the first states to take up the Puerto Rican challenge, and Arizona, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Virginia . . . joined the parade.”
For a good summary of the background of thedevelopment of condominiums in the U.S. see: http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Publications/llj/LLJ-Archives/Vol-103/Spring-2011/2011-16.pdf
The final dénouement of my effort to produce a doctoral thesis (J.S.D.) was to meet with my advisory panel at NYU Law School on my return to the U.S. I told them I had a significant amount of the thesis done and explained that the thrust of my work: to recommend against the adoption of condominium regimes by the states in the U.S. was becoming less and less relevant with the passage of so many state laws. I offered to give my work to another student who might be able to use it for a background paper. I also needed to quickly move on with my life. I had returned to New York with my Volvo, a seven-month pregnant wife, about $48 in cash assets, and a job.
Aside About My Path Regarding Work Decisions
In retrospect, one interesting view stands out as I look at the many work decisions I made: after my initial involvements in jobs that already existed and had a defined role and parameters, I pretty much engaged in job after job, work after work, involvement after involvement, in roles that were new, that didn’t exist before, that asked for creativity and innovation. I hope to send up a signal about this as well go down Grand Manner Way.