MEMORIES OF WOODSTOCK ON ITS 50th ANNIVERSARY

I was running an errand to the grocery store this morning and as I was checking out, I saw a special edition of Life magazine celebrating the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. I thought it would be appropriate at this point in history for me to share my memories of Woodstock:

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When Woodstock was going on, I was blissfully unaware of this milestone in popular culture. I was too busy listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Clear Channel 650, WSM, Nashville, Tennessee. In my mind, wood stock was what you put on a shotgun or rifle. 

For any modern day readers who don't know what I'm talking about when I say wood stock, here's a picture:

A Wood Rifle Stock on a Lathe

The first news I got of Woodstock was an article in the then-weekly Life magazine. What I remember most vividly about that article is a picture of a shapely young girl dancing topless and seemingly enjoying herself immensely. Pretty tame stuff by 21st century standards, but jarring at the time. Looking at the crowd pictures in Life, I remember thinking, "What a bunch of idiots." Maybe I was wrong to think that, but I was young and inexperienced at the time. My opinion hasn't changed. Maybe I'm old and out-of-touch with 21st century pop culture. I wouldn't walk across the street to go to a rock concert, much less go live in a tent in a far distant state. I still listen to the music I love at Willie's Roadhouse on Sirius XM.

The whole "love, peace, tranquility, and weed" movement of the 1960's left me cold. When they have the first war protest riots at the University of Florida my parents frantically called me to make sure I was okay. "What riots?" I asked. The riots were going on down on 13th Street in front of Tigert Hall, where I never went except under duress. I assume that the location of the riots was chosen to make it more convenient for the TV cameras. In the dormitories and classes, it was life as usual.

Despite being so out-of-step with the cultural trends of the last half of the 20th century, I survived. I didn't buy the special edition of Life at the grocery store. I saw enough of Woodstock back in 1969. 

And now I live in a world as fraught with discord as the 1960's. America survived that cataclysmic time and emerged a better place. I hope and pray it does the same in this present tribulation.

GUEST LECTURE

I went back to the law school today and gave a two-hour lecture on Florida Criminal Procedure. I started with the arrest of the defendant and walked the students through a criminal prosecution all the way to the post-conviction. It was, of course a rather superficial overview of the entire field of criminal procedure--just enough to help keep the students from feeling completely lost when confronting the rules.

I enjoyed it. The students were attentive, receptive, and full of questions, and it made me almost wish I was still teaching. Almost, but not quite. I fear that I've gotten too lazy to teach full-time now that I've gotten used to retirement. Teaching full time would get in the way of my many projects: Trying to keep my wife Lane's honeydew list current, building things in my garage workshop, researching and writing books, playing with my grandchildren, volunteering at the church--the days are just packed with things to do.

Still, I love teaching, and I look forward to the next time I get invited to go to Gainesville and give a guest lecture.

VALEDICTION

This is my last day at the Levin College of Law prior to going into full retirement. I have really had a great experience teaching here these last ten years. When I was an assistant state attorney I felt like I was doing something to help better society, and I had the same feeling at the law school. When I was an assistant state attorney I often said that my dream job would be to teach at a college after leaving the State Attorney’s Office. Never in my wildest dreams, however, did I think it would be at my alma mater, the University of Florida. When I took this job I was only going to teach here for six years, but I found the job so rewarding that I stayed four years longer than I had originally intended. It's time now to move on to other things, like enjoying grandkids, writing books, and keeping up with the chore list my wife has for me.

PASSAGES

 A number of endeavors in which I am involved require that I keep an up-to-date brief biography. I just revised mine, and I decided to share it as a blog post:

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George R. "Bob" Dekle, Sr., retired from his position at Levin College of Law, University of Florida, effective June 30, 2016, ending a ten year stint as a legal skills professor. Dekle took his post at UF, where he directed the Prosecution Clinic and taught Florida Criminal Procedure, upon his retirement from the State Attorney's Office of the Third Judicial Circuit of Florida. He served as an Assistant State Attorney from 1975 through 2005, investigating and prosecuting a wide variety of cases, from criminal mischief to capital murder.  In 1986 he received his state association's Gene Barry Memorial Award as the outstanding assistant state attorney in the state.  In 1996 and again in 2003 he received distinguished faculty awards from his state association's education committee, and upon his retirement in 2005, he was given a lifetime achievement award for his efforts in continuing education for prosecutors.  Dekle has served as faculty at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina, and has lectured to prosecutors' associations across the nation. Before becoming a prosecutor, Dekle served from 1973 to 1975 as an Assistant Public Defender in the Third Judicial Circuit. Before going to law school at UF, he taught history and coached JV football at Columbia High School in Lake City, Florida.

Dekle is the author of:

Prosecution Principles:  A Clinical Handbook, published by the West Group;

The Last Murder: The Investigation, Prosecution, and Execution of Ted Bundy, published by Praeger;

The Case Against Christ: A Critique of the Prosecution of Jesus, published by Cambridge Scholars;

Abraham Lincoln's Most Famous Case: The Almanac Trial, published by Praeger.

He is also a co-author of Cross-Examination Handbook: Persuasion, Strategies, and Techniques, published by Wolters-Kluwer, now in its second edition; and a contributor to Successful Trial Strategies for Prosecutors (now out of print), published by the National District Attorneys Association.

Dekle has two books in pre-publication:

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case: A Forensic Analysis, Talbot Publishing, which he co-authored with James M. Dedman. The book is scheduled for publication sometime toward the end of 2016 or beginning of 2017.

Lincoln for the Defense: The Criminal Law Practice of Our Sixteenth President (working title), Southern Illinois University Press, scheduled for publication in 2017.

In his retirement Dekle intends to continue writing on legal history and trial advocacy. He is in the preliminary stages of a new book on the Carlyle Harris murder case, the case which made Francis L. Wellman (author of The Art of Cross-Examination) famous.