Robert Pescatore, Oral History

Recorded: May 4, 2000
Interview by Sandra Perlman Halem
Transcribed by Maggie Castellani

Note: This transcript includes geo-references to locations that are discussed in the oral history. Geographical names linked in the transcript will open in a new window or tab that takes you to that location information and map in the Mapping May 4 project. To request a transcript without geo-reference links included, please contact Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.

[Interviewer]: This is Sandra Perlman Halem. We're at the Alumni Center on May 4th, 2000 continuing with our interviews. Would you tell us your name, where you were in 1970.

[Robert Pescatore]: My name is Robert Pescatore. I was on the campus at Kent here. I was living in Dunbar Hall. I was home for the weekend. I heard about the problems Friday night and Saturday night. We waited till, my friend and I, came back Monday morning. And we got back to campus, we were horrified at what we saw: the windows downtown, the damage, and the armed vehicles on campus. I can't remember all the vehicles, but I remember jeeps and there were some personnel carriers. And I remember so many, it seems like so many Guardsmen around and so many police. We came a roundabout way to Dunbar Hall. Usually we cut across campus through some back streets and we couldn't do that this day. And the first thing I thought about, "Well, I got to go back to my dorm, put my stuff in the dorm, get to Prentice Hall to eat my lunch so I could go to my, I think it's a 1:10 class ... I can't remember, 1:10, 1:15." And I went into the cafeteria and I sat down on the side facing The Commons. And I remember the teargas coming up over the hill and the people running back and forth. Like when the teargas would be shot, you could see it coming up, they'd run away. And then it'd settle down, they'd run back. And this went on probably for, I don't know how long, but it seemed like an eternity at that time. And I remember finish eating and said, "I got to get back to my dorm so I can get to my class." 'Cause it was like quarter to one, or maybe it was 12:30. And I remember walking up the steps and I remember getting hit by the teargas when I come out of Prentice Hall where the cafeteria was at. And I just remember like the tears coming down my face and I said, "Boy, I got to get out of here and get over to my dorm and wash my face off." So I started to go across the street and the street was just filled with all kind of people. And I remember one girl in, for instance, I can't remember her face, but I remember her. She had bandoliers on her, or across her, like the Mexicans did from the movies. And there were some bullets in those bandoliers! Now how many, I don't know. But I remember that. And I remember she was saying, "Let's get those pigs and throw them off campus." Now there may be some swearing in there but that's basically what she said. And she said it like right in front of me, like right directly to me. And I'm thinking, "I don't want to do this! I just want to get to my class! That's what I'm paying for!"

And I remember going back to my dorm room and getting ready for class. And then going out to the ... I lived on the second floor, I remember my room was 240, and I went to the study hall to look to see what was going on. And I'd seen the kids rushing up in the street going towards the parking lot beside Prentice. And I remember seeing the National Guard on the grass in the ... we called it the football field, the practice field, 'cause we used to play there all the time when we weren't, after class or something, we'd going over there and play football. And I'm thinking, "How can this happen to us? We're just innocent kids. You know, twenty, twenty-one years old. You know, we're just, you know, we're innocent in a way, to the worldly ways." But I remember the people rushing the Guards and throwing the rocks. And I was just horrified at this! And I'm thinking, "You know, I don't know what this is all about. I just, you know, I just want to get to my class, try to study and try to, you know, graduate." And then I remember I said, "Well, I better call my mother 'cause she was probably worrying." So I call my mother once and I told her things didn't look too good. Classes may be cancelled. And I went back to the study hall or study room at the end of the hall and then I decided to go downstairs to our main lounge. And I remember walking out the front door and just standing there. And I remember a jeep going by with two officers -- one, I wouldn't say officers -- but two men clothed in military clothing. And I remember one driving and one in like the back seat. There may have been three but I remember the two. And he said, "Go to your place of residence and stay there." And I think that was around quarter to one. And then I remember about fifteen minutes later, it seemed like it was about fifteen ... around 1:00, he said, he came around, I don't know if it was the same people, it looked like the same vehicle and I remember them saying, "Go to the nearest building and get inside!"

And then I went back and called my mother again. And I had a hard time getting through this time. And I finally got through with her and I just hung the phone up and I was just walking out of my room and I remember a guy running down the hall, "They shot them! They shot them! They shot them!" And I hurried up and ran down to the study hall on the second floor of Dunbar. And I remember looking out and I remember seeing them laying there and all these kids standing around. And it still gives me goose bumps and sometimes I get a little teary-eyed. But, and then I remember ... [outburst of crying] ... I remember the, one of the persons that was wounded, sitting on our front steps of Dunbar Hall, bleeding. He was shot around the leg or the knee. I remember the ambulances coming to take care of him and we didn't know what to do. I mean, we were just students. We weren't any kind of medical trainees or anything. So, they were taking care of him. And I remember a guy that I never really talked to that much, we sat down on the steps and talked about this in very sullen ... just what's going on ... why? Why our campus? Why, you know, why now? It was a time that I was really confused. I didn't agree with what we were doing in Vietnam but I thought, "Well maybe our government was doing what doing the thing right: freedom for the people in Vietnam and that." And then, after a while you start, maybe you start questioning, "Why is our government doing this? Why are the men being sent over there to be maimed and killed and hurt? Why are these innocent people in Vietnam being hurt? And then, why are the students here being hurt?" You know, and I'm thinking, at the time, I was very confused and I remember afterwards we were sitting there talking, "I wonder what's going to happen to our classes. I wonder how we're going, you know, get the grades for the quarter." And then, I remember, just getting so tired that I went and laid down for a couple hours. And I remember them coming over the PA system at the dorm and they said, "You will leave the dorm by such and such time." Something like this. [Speaker], "You must leave campus now. You can go across campus but you ... be careful. Don't do any antagonistic actions." And I remember I had to walk across campus to see a friend of mine so we'd get a ride back home. And I'm from Latrobe, Pennsylvania. And the fellow that I rode with four hours before, I was riding back home with him that night. And it was just amazing that this could have happened.

Just as a sidelight, I remember campus, I started in 1967 in March, and I'm thinking ... the sun was so warm that first morning I went into class ... and I'm thinking, "Boy, this campus is nice! The grass and all the chestnut trees and just the young girls and the guys, you know, holding hands. And, you know, everybody seems to be friendly. And it's not a big campus. It's just nice!" And then a couple years later, it's thrown in such turmoil, that the fun was over. The awakening and the innocence is almost gone. And I'm thinking, "Is this the way maturity is? You get hit all of a sudden with it?" And I'm still, I'm still dealing with it throughout my life. Those times from say '69 and '70 were very confusing to me. And I didn't know what I was doing with my life. It seemed like other men and women at that, or boys and girls, at that time, they knew what they were doing. They were driven to graduate. And I was just like going around in a daze. It was tragic at that time. I remember I just broke up with my girlfriend a week before that who I thought I might marry in a year or two. But we broke up and went our different ways. But it was very awakening. And I came back to school for a year, floundered, and then quit for a year. And then I finally came back, went back to school for a year or so, and quit. And then I came back a couple years later at night school and finally finished my education. And I didn't graduate in the major that I wanted to. But I finally graduated and I went on to the world.

But it was a very, very ... I never could see why the students were antagonizing the National Guard so much. Why they ... I mean, you're talking, that I remember, it looked like a crowd of at least 4 to 500 students right near Dunbar. And I know they were throwing rocks and bricks and bottles, whatever they could throw at the Guard and they were shooting the teargas back. And I'm thinking, "Why are they doing that? It's only, you're only going to get in trouble!" And I'm thinking, "I don't know. I guess there's a different way to protest something, rather than being violent." I remember the building being burnt. I saw the building when I walked across campus. And I said, "That's terrible! It's terrible to attack the innocent firemen!" 'Cause my family's all firemen. And I'm thinking, "Why would they attack the firemen? They're only trying to, you know, do their job. They're probably volunteers." And I'm thinking ... and I kind of resented that! I resented the students attacking those firemen! I mean, maybe they had a right to protest but not to destroy property. And so, on one side of the fence I say, "It's not right to shoot the students." But on the other side of the fence, I'm saying, "Hey, you kids, you know, you're doing wrong." You know, it's not, you need to be punished by being shot. But they, some of these people had to be punished for ... but I'm not saying that people that were killed or wounded, that was justification. I'm not saying that at all. But I know maybe the administration maybe or the government wasn't right, but the students weren't right either. The students weren't right. Thank you.

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