Carl Stilwell AKA CaLokie

All Hail Rock and Roll!

We didn’t rock around the clock at Bob Jones University

or any hour of the day for that matter 

It was more than the beat...the beat...the beat...

It was the music of rebellion against God

Every time Teen Adam and Eve did all those suggestive dance moves, 

it was eating the apple again...and again...and again...

Thus I couldn’t believe when I heard, as I entered my dormitory,  

roommate, Bear, singing from our second floor, shower, another Elvis 

hit “Don’t be cruel to a heart that’s true...”

Bear was fearless

He also didn’t care much for BJU’s rigid piety

Pray because you want to, not because you have to

One night while I was kneeling during a prayer meeting 

each cluster of three dormitory rooms were required to have 

before light’s out, he grabbed hold of my right toe and twisted it 

like he was going to yank it off

It was all I could do to keep from both screaming and laughing

Bear was the best college and seminary roommate I ever had

Yeah, Bob Jones didn’t take to youth’s inclination to rebel very well

They let us know that while they welcomed constructive suggestions, no 

griping was tolerated 

We had this joke about two students who were expelled from BJU--

one for griping and the other for lying

The one for griping said he didn’t like the grits students 

had to stomach every morning 

The one for lying said he liked them

They also didn’t tolerate kissing and holding hands on campus

Next to questioning the infallibility of Bible Belt’s paper pope, the biggest 

no-no at this institute of higher learning was the usual sex stuff

So if you didn’t want to be expelled from this fundamentalist

paradise, you kept your hands to yourself

I was one of the waiters serving said grits for breakfasts 

in addition to other grub for lunch and dinner

It was one of my co-workers who introduced me to Carol who 

was from from Eureka, California and a junior at the university’s 

adjacent high school

Oh, man, did she ever in the words of Sam Cook’s classic

send me! 

She couldn’t wear “tight dresses” of Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen 

at BJU but still looked good “sportin' high heel shoes”

We had a few things in common

Like Bear and me she rebelled against Bob Jones’s religious rigidity

and agreed that fundy’s weren’t much fun

But I was over my head as far as class differences go

Her father was a P.G.& E. executive who gave her an allowance

which was twice what I earned working 40 hours a week

at a department store in Midwest City, Oklahoma 

I was flattered that someone so wealthy and attractive had shown 

interest in me and enjoyed my company

One night we went to an opera at the university auditorium

As the lights went out while stage crew changed scenery, I reached

for her hand and she mine and our fingers intertwined

Later, Carol, was to dump me for another waiter and like

the Everly Brothers put it--”Bye Bye happiness

Hello emptiness”

But at that very instance when eternity intersects 

with the time-space continuum, a jolt surges through my body 

like the one Adam must have felt in Michelangelo’s painting as 

the creator with his finger touches his hand and I become 

a born again fornicator

Tutti Frutti 

A 

A wop 

A wop BOP 

A wop BOP a loo 

A wop BOP a loo BOP 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP bam 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP bam bom 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP bam bom BOOM 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP bam bom 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP bam 

A wop BOP a loo BOP a LOP

A wop BOP a loo BOP 

A wop BOP a loo 

A wop BOP

A wop 

A

Rooty Tooty